CHAPTER XIX IN WHICH WE HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY
THE wind, which had heretofore come in fierce blasts, was now steadyingto a gale. What with the flying of the heaped clouds, the slanting,groaning pines, and the rushing of the river, the whole earth seemed afugitive, fleeing breathless to the sea. From across the neck of landcame the long-drawn howl of wolves, and in the wood beyond the church acatamount screamed and screamed. The town before us lay as dark and asstill as the grave; from the garden where we were we could not see theGovernor's house.
"I will carry madam's bundle," said a voice behind us.
It was the minister who had spoken, and he now stood beside us. Therewas a moment's silence, then I said, with a laugh: "We are not goingupon a summer jaunt, friend Sparrow. There is a warm fire in the greatroom, to which your reverence had best betake yourself out of this windynight."
As he made no movement to depart, but instead possessed himself ofMistress Percy's bundle, I spoke again, with some impatience: "We are nolonger of your fold, reverend sir, but are bound for another parish. Wegive you hearty thanks for your hospitality, and wish you a very goodnight."
As I spoke I would have taken the bundle from him, but he tucked itunder his arm, and, passing us, opened the garden gate. "Did I forget totell you," he said, "that worthy Master Bucke is well of the fever, andreturns to his own to-morrow? His house and church are no longer mine. Ihave no charge anywhere. I am free and footloose. May I not go withyou, madam? There may be dragons to slay, and two can guard a distressedprincess better than one. Will you take me for your squire, CaptainPercy?"
He held out his great hand, and after a moment I put my own in it.
We left the garden and struck into a lane. "The river, then, instead ofthe forest?" he asked in a low voice.
"Ay," I answered. "Of the two evils it seems the lesser."
"How about a boat?"
"My own is fastened to the piles of the old deserted wharf."
"You have with you neither food nor water."
"Both are in the boat. I have kept her victualed for a week or more."
He laughed in the darkness, and I heard my wife beside me utter astifled exclamation.
The lane that we were now in ran parallel to the street to within fiftyyards of the guest house, when it bent sharply down to the river. Wemoved silently and with caution, for some night bird might accost usor the watch come upon us. In the guest house all was darkness save oneroom,--the upper room,--from which came a very pale light. When we hadturned with the lane there were no houses to pass; only gaunt pinesand copses of sumach. I took my wife by the hand and hurried her on. Ahundred yards before us ran the river, dark and turbulent, and betweenus and it rose an old, unsafe, and abandoned landing. Sparrow laid hishand upon my arm. "Footsteps behind us," he whispered.
Without slackening pace I turned my head and looked. The clouds, higharound the horizon, were thinning overhead, and the moon, herselfinvisible, yet lightened the darkness below. The sandy lane stretchedbehind us like a ribbon of twilight,--nothing to be seen but it and theebony mass of bush and tree lining it on either side. We hastened on. Aminute later and we heard behind us a sound like the winding of a smallhorn, clear, shrill, and sweet. Sparrow and I wheeled--and saw nothing.The trees ran down to the very edge of the wharf, upon whose rotten,loosened, and noisy boards we now trod. Suddenly the clouds above usbroke, and the moon shone forth, whitening the mountainous clouds,the ridged and angry river, and the low, tree-fringed shore. Below us,fastened to the piles and rocking with the waves, was the open boat inwhich we were to embark. A few broken steps led from the boards above tothe water below. Descending these I sprang into the boat and held out myarms for Mistress Percy. Sparrow gave her to me, and I lifted her downbeside me; then turned to give what aid I might to the minister, who washalfway down the steps--and faced my Lord Carnal.
What devil had led him forth on such a night; why he, whom with my owneyes, three hours agone, I had seen drunken, should have chosen, afterhis carouse, cold air and his own company rather than sleep; when andwhere he first spied us, how long he had followed us, I have neverknown. Perhaps he could not sleep for triumph, had heard of my impendingarrest, had come forth to add to the bitterness of my cup by hispresence, and so had happened upon us. He could only have guessed atthose he followed, until he reached the edge of the wharf and lookeddown upon us in the moonlight. For a moment he stood without moving;then he raised his hand to his lips, and the shrill call that had beforestartled us rang out again. At the far end of the lane lights appeared.Men were coming down the lane at a run; whether they were the watch,or my lord's own rogues, we tarried not to see. There was not time toloosen the rope from the piles, so I drew my knife to cut it. My lordsaw the movement, and sprang down the steps, at the same time shoutingto the men behind to hasten. Sparrow, grappling with him, locked him ina giant's embrace, lifted him bodily from the steps, and flung him intothe boat. His head struck against a thwart, and he lay, huddled beneathit, quiet enough. The minister sprang after him, and I cut the rope. Bynow the wharf shook with running feet, and the backward-streaming flameof the torches reddened its boards and the black water beneath; but eachinstant the water widened between us and our pursuers. Wind and currentswept us out, and at that wharf there were no boats to follow us.
Those whom my lord's whistle had brought were now upon the very edge ofthe wharf. The marshal's voice called upon us in the name of the King toreturn. Finding that we vouchsafed no answer, he pulled out a pistol andfired, the ball going through my hat; then whipped out its fellow andfired again. Mistress Percy, whose behavior had been that of an angel,stirred in her seat. I did not know until the day broke that the ballhad grazed her arm, drenching her sleeve with blood.
"It is time we were away," I said, with a laugh. "If your reverence willkeep your hand upon the tiller and your eye upon the gentleman whom youhave made our traveling companion, I'll put up the sail."
I was on my way to the foremast, when the boom lying prone beforeme rose. Slowly and majestically the sail ascended, tapering upward,silvered by the moon,--the great white pinion which should bear us weknew not whither. I stopped short in my tracks, Mistress Percy drew asobbing breath, and the minister gasped with admiration. We all threestared as though the white cloth had veritably been a monster wingendowed with life.
"Sails don't rise of themselves!" I exclaimed, and was at the mastbefore the words were out of my lips. Crouched behind it was a man. Ishould have known him even without the aid of the moon. Often enough,God knows, I had seen him crouched like this beside me, ourselves inambush awaiting some unwary foe, brute or human; or ourselves in hiding,holding our breath lest it should betray us. The minister who had been aplayer, the rival who would have poisoned me, the servant who wouldhave stabbed me, the wife who was wife in name only,--mine were strangeshipmates.
He rose to his feet and stood there against the mast, in the oldhalf-submissive, half-defiant attitude, with his head thrown back in theold way.
"If you order me, sir, I will swim ashore," he said, half sullenly,half--I know not how.
"You would never reach the shore," I replied. "And you know that Iwill never order you again. Stay here if you please, or come aft if youplease."
I went back and took the tiller from Sparrow. We were now in mid-river,and the swollen stream and the strong wind bore us on with them like aleaf before the gale. We left behind the lights and the clamor, the darktown and the silent fort, the weary Due Return and the shipping aboutthe lower wharf. Before us loomed the Santa Teresa; we passed so closebeneath her huge black sides that we heard the wind whistling throughher rigging. When she, too, was gone, the river lay bare before us;silver when the moon shone, of an inky blackness when it was obscured byone of the many flying clouds.
My wife wrapped her mantle closer about her, and, leaning back in herseat in the stern beside me, raised her face to the wild and solemnheavens. Diccon sat apart in the bow and held his tongue. The ministerbent over, and, lifting t
he man that lay in the bottom of the boat, laidhim at full length upon the thwart before us. The moonlight streameddown upon the prostrate figure. I think it could never have shone upona more handsome or a more wicked man. He lay there in his splendid dressand dark beauty, Endymion-like, beneath the moon. The King's ward turnedher eyes upon him, kept them there a moment, then glanced away, andlooked at him no more.
"There's a parlous lump upon his forehead where it struck the thwart,"said the minister, "but the life's yet in him. He'll shame honest menfor many a day to come. Your Platonists, who from a goodly outside argueas fair a soul, could never have been acquainted with this gentleman."
The subject of his discourse moaned and stirred. The minister raised oneof the hanging hands and felt for the pulse. "Faint enough," he went on."A little more and the King might have waited for his minion foreverand a day. It would have been the better for us, who have now, indeed, astrange fish upon our hands, but I am glad I killed him not."
I tossed him a flask. "It's good aqua vitae, and the flask is honest.Give him to drink of it."
He forced the liquor between my lord's teeth, then dashed water in hisface. Another minute and the King's favorite sat up and looked aroundhim. Dazed as yet, he stared, with no comprehension in his eyes, atthe clouds, the sail, the rushing water, the dark figures about him."Nicolo!" he cried sharply.
"He's not here, my lord," I said.
At the sound of my voice he sprang to his feet.
"I should advise your lordship to sit still," I said. "The wind is veryboisterous, and we are not under bare poles. If you exert yourself, youmay capsize the boat."
He sat down mechanically, and put his hand to his forehead. I watchedhim curiously. It was the strangest trick that fortune had played him.
His hand dropped at last, and he straightened himself, with a longbreath. "Who threw me into the boat?" he demanded.
"The honor was mine," declared the minister.
The King's minion lacked not the courage of the body, nor, whenpassionate action had brought him naught, a certain reserve force ofphilosophy. He now did the best thing he could have done,--burst intoa roar of laughter. "Zooks!" he cried. "It's as good a comedy as everI saw! How's the play to end, captain? Are we to go off laughing, oris the end to be bloody after all? For instance, is there murder to bedone?" He looked at me boldly, one hand on his hip, the other twirlinghis mustaches.
"We are not all murderers, my lord," I told him. "For the present youare in no danger other than that which is common to us all."
He looked at the clouds piling behind us, thicker and thicker, higherand higher, at the bending mast, at the black water swirling now andagain over the gunwales. "It's enough," he muttered.
I beckoned to Diccon, and putting the tiller into his hands went forwardto reef the sail. When it was done and I was back in my place, my lordspoke again.
"Where are we going, captain?"
"I don't know."
"If you leave that sail up much longer, you will land us at the bottomof the river."
"There are worse places," I replied.
He left his seat, and moved, though with caution, to one nearer MistressPercy. "Are cold and storm and peril sweeter to you, lady, than warmthand safety, and a love that would guard you from, not run you into,danger?" he said in a whisper. "Do you not wish this boat the SantaTeresa, these rude boards the velvet cushions of her state cabin, thisdarkness her many lights, this cold her warmth, with the night shut outand love shut in?"
His audacity, if it angered me, yet made me laugh. Not so with theKing's ward. She shrank from him until she pressed against the tiller.Our flight, the pursuing feet, the struggle at the wharf, her woundedarm of which she had not told, the terror of the white sail rising as ifby magic, the vision of the man she hated lying as one dead before herin the moonlight, the cold, the hurry of the night,--small wonder ifher spirit failed her for some time. I felt her hand touch mine whereit rested upon the tiller. "Captain Percy," she murmured, with a littlesobbing breath.
I leaned across the tiller and addressed the favorite. "My lord," Isaid, "courtesy to prisoners is one thing, and freedom from restraintand license of tongue is another. Here at the stern the boat is somewhatheavily freighted. Your lordship will oblige me if you will go forwardwhere there is room enough and to spare."
His black brows drew together. "And what if I refuse, sir?" he demandedhaughtily.
"I have rope here," I answered, "and to aid me the gentleman who oncebefore to-night, and in despite of your struggles, lifted you in hisarms like an infant. We will tie you hand and foot, and lay you in thebottom of the boat. If you make too much trouble, there is always theriver. My lord, you are not now at Whitehall. You are with desperatemen, outlaws who have no king, and so fear no king's minions. Will yougo free, or will you go bound? Go you shall, one way or the other."
He looked at me with rage and hatred in his face. Then, with a laughthat was not good to hear and a shrug of the shoulders, he went forwardto bear Diccon company in the bow.