Books: The Reign Of Terror
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G. A. Henty >> The Reign Of Terror
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Jeanne hurried on into the hut.
"Why, Pierre," Harry said to the fisherman, who was waiting outside
for him, "I thought you were going on with your boat."
"So I was, monsieur, but Henriette told me I should be in the way."
"In the way, Pierre!" Harry repeated in surprise.
"Ah, monsieur," Pierre said with a twinkle in his eye, "you have
been deceiving us. My wife saw it in a moment when the young lady
came to breakfast.
"'Brother!' she said to me when you went out; 'don't tell me!
Monsieur is the young lady's lover. Brother and sister don't look
at each other like that. Why, one could see it with half an eye.'
"Your wife is right, Pierre; mademoiselle is my fiance. I am really
an Englishman. She and her sister had their old nurse with them,
till the latter died some three weeks since; but I have always been
called their brother, because it made it easier for her."
"Quite right, monsieur; but my wife and I are glad to see that it
is otherwise, and that, after all you have risked for that pretty
creature, you are going to be happy together. My wife was not
surprised. Women are sharper than men in these matters, and she
said to me, when she heard what you were going to do to save them,
'I would wager, Pierre, that one of these mesdemoiselles is not
monsieur's sister. Men will do a great deal for their sister, but
I never heard of a man throwing away his life as he is going to do
on the mere chance of saving one.'"
"I should have done just the same had it been one of my sisters,"
Harry said a little indignantly.
"Perhaps you would, monsieur, I do not say no," the fisherman said,
shaking his head; "but brothers do not often do so."
A stop was put to the conversation by Henriette putting her head
outside the door and demanding angrily what they were stopping
talking there for when the fish was getting cold.
In the evening Adolphe and his wife came in.
"Ah, mademoiselle," the woman said as she embraced Jeanne with tears
in her eyes, "how thankful I am to see you again! I never thought
I should do so. My heart almost stopped beating yesterday when
I heard the guns. I and my little one were on our knees praying
to the good God for the dear lady who had saved her life. Adolphe
had spoken hopefully, but it hardly seemed to me that it could be,
and when he brought back the news that he had left you all safely
here, I could hardly believe it was true."
"And I must thank you also, mademoiselle," Adolphe said, "for saving
the life of my little one. I never expected to see her alive again,
and when the lugger made fast to the wharf I was afraid to go home,
and I hung about till Marthe had heard we were in and came down
to me with Julie in her arms, looking almost herself again. Ah,
mademoiselle, you cannot tell how glad I was when she told me that
there was a way of paying some part of my debt to you."
"You have been able to pay more than your debt," Jeanne said gently;
"if I saved one life you have helped to save three."
"No, we shall be only quits, mademoiselle, for what would Marthe's
life and mine be worth if the child had died?
"There are fresh notices stuck up," he went on, "warning all
masters of ships, fishermen, and others, against taking passengers
on board, and saying that the penalty of assisting the enemies of
France to escape from justice is death."
"That is rather serious," Harry said.
"It is nothing," Adolphe replied confidently. "After yesterday's
work there is not a sailor or fisherman in the port but would do all
he could to help people to escape from the hands of the butchers,
and once on board, it will help you. You may be sure the sailors
will do their best to run away if they can, or to hide any on
board, should they be overhauled, now they know that they will be
guillotined if anyone is found. However, our captain has made the
agreement, and he is a man of his word; besides, he hates the Reds.
I have been helping ship the casks to-day, and we have stowed them
so as to leave space into which your sisters can crawl and the
entrance be stopped up with casks, if we should be overhauled. As
for you, monsieur, you will pass anywhere as one of the crew, and
we have arranged that one of the men shall at the last moment stay
behind, so that the number will be right, and you will answer to
his name. We have thought matters over, you see, and I can tell
you that the captain does it more because he hates the Reds than
for the money. The day before, he would give me no answer. He said
he thought the risk was too great; but when I saw him last night he
was a different man altogether. His face was as white as a sheet,
and his eyes seemed on fire, and he said, 'I will take your friends,
Adolphe. I would take them without a penny. I should never sleep
again if, owing to me, they fell into the hands of these monsters.'
So you see he is in it heart and soul."
After half an hour's talk Adolphe and Marthe took their leave. Both
refused the reward which Harry had promised, but Harry insisted,
and at last Jeanne said:
"You can refuse for yourselves, but you will make me unhappy if
you do not take it. Put it by for Julie; it will help swell her dot
when she marries, and will set her husband up in a good fishing-boat
if she takes to a sailor."
So it was arranged, and Adolphe and his wife went off invoking
blessings on the heads of the fugitives. At daybreak the party took
their places in the boat with the fishermen. Virginie was still
weak, but was able to walk with Harry's help. Half an hour later
a lugger was seen coming down with the wind and tide. She carried
a small white flag flying on the mizzen.
"That is her," the fisherman said; "that is the signal."
He rowed out into the middle of the river. In a few minutes the
lugger came dashing along, her course took her within a few feet
of the boat, a rope was thrown, and in an instant the boat was
tearing through the water alongside her. Half a dozen hands were
stretched out, the girls and Harry sprang on board, the rope was
cast off, and the fisherman, with a cheery "God speed you," put
out his oars again and rowed to shore.
CHAPTER XV England
"Go below, mesdemoiselles," the captain of the lugger said as soon
as they had put foot on the deck. "If anyone on the shore were to
see us as we ran down, and notice women on deck, he would think it
strange. At anyrate it's best to be on the safe side."
So saying he led the way to his cabin below.
"It is a rough place, mesdemoiselles," he said, removing his cap,
"but it is better than the prisons at Nantes. I am sorry to say
that when we get down near the forts I shall have to ask you to
hide down below the casks. I heard last night that in future every
boat going out of the river, even if it is only a fishing-boat,
is to be searched. But you needn't be afraid; we have constructed
a hiding-place, where they will never find you unless they unloaded
the whole lugger, and that there is no chance of their doing."
"We do not mind where we hide, captain," Jeanne said. "We have been
hiding for the last six months, and we are indeed grateful to you
for having consented to take us with you."
"I hope that you will not be the last that the Trois Freres will
carry across," the captain said. "Whatever be the risk, in future
I will take any fugitives who wish to escape to England. At first
I was against the government, for I thought the people were taxed
too heavily, and that if we did away with the nobles things would
be better for those who work for their living, but I never bargained
for bloodshed and murder, and that affair I saw yesterday has
sickened me altogether; and fond as I am of the Trois Freres, I
would myself bore holes in her and sink her if I had Carrier and
the whole of his murderous gang securely fastened below hatches.
This cabin is at your disposal, mesdemoiselles, during the voyage,
and I trust you will make yourselves as comfortable as you can.
Ah, here is the boy with coffee. Now, if you will permit me, I will
go on deck and look after her course."
In the meantime Harry was chatting with Adolphe, who introduced
him to the crew, whom he had already told of the services Jeanne
had rendered, and as several of them lived in the same street they
too had heard from their wives of the young woman who lodged with
Mere Leflo, and had done so much for those who were suffering. He
was therefore cordially received by the sailors, to each of whom
the captain had already promised double pay for the voyage if they
got through safely.
"You will remember," Adolphe said, "that you are Andre Leboeuf.
Andre had to make a cold swim of it this morning, for there was the
commissary on the wharf when we started, and he had the captain's
list of the crew, and saw that each man was on board and searched
high and low to see that there was no one else. So Andre, instead
of slipping off home again, had to go with us. When we were out of
sight of the town the captain steered as near the bank as he could
and Andre jumped over and swam ashore. It is all the better as it
has turned out, because the commissary signed the list of the crew
and put a seal to it."
In four hours the Trois Freres was approaching the forts at the
mouth of the river, and the captain came down to the cabin, in
which Harry was chatting with the two girls.
"Now, mesdemoiselles," he said, "it is time for you to go to your
hiding-place, for it will take us nearly half an hour to close it
up again. As soon as the Reds have left us we will let you out."
The hatch was lifted and they descended into the hold of the
vessel, which was full of kegs to within three feet of the deck.
The captain carried a lantern.
"Please follow me, mesdemoiselles, you must crawl along here."
The girls followed him until they were close to the bulkhead dividing
the hold from the forecastle. Two feet from this there was a vacant
space.
"Now, mesdemoiselles, if you will give me your hands I will lower
you down here. Do not be afraid - your feet will touch the bottom;
and I have had some hay put there for you to sit upon. Adolphe,
you had better go down first with that lantern of yours to receive
them."
The girls were lowered down and found themselves in a space of five
feet long and two feet wide. One side was formed by the bulkhead,
on the other there were kegs. Four feet from the bottom a beam of
wood had been nailed against the bulkhead. The captain now handed
down to Adolphe some short beams; these he fixed with one end
resting on the beam, the other in a space between the kegs.
"This is to form the roof, mesdemoiselles," he said. "I am going
up now, and then we shall place three tiers of kegs on these beams,
which will fill it up level with the rest above. I think you will
have plenty of air, for it can get down between the casks, and the
captain will leave the hatchway open. Are you comfortable?"
"Quite," Jeanne said firmly, but Virginie did not answer; the
thought of being shut up down there in the dark was terrible to
her. However, the warm, steady pressure of Jeanne's hand reassured
her, and she kept her fears to herself. The kegs were lowered into
their places, and all was made smooth just as one of the men called
down the hatchway to the captain:
"There is a gunboat coming out from the port, captain."
After a last look round the captain sprang on to the deck and
ordered the sails to be lowered, and in a few minutes the gunboat
ran alongside.
"Show me your papers," an officer said as he leaped on board followed
by half a dozen sailors. The captain went down into his cabin and
brought up the papers.
"That is all right," the officer said glancing at them; "now, where
is the list of your crew?"
"This is it," the captain said taking it from his pocket; "a
commissary at Nantes went through them on starting and placed his
seal to it, as you see."
"Form the men up, and let them answer to their names," the officer
said. The men formed in line and the officer read out the names;
Harry answering for Andre Leboeuf. "That is all right, so far,"
the officer said. "Now, sir, I must, according to my orders, search
your vessel to see that no one is concealed there."
"By all means," the captain said, "you will find the Trois Freres
carries nothing contraband except her cargo. I have already taken
off the hatch, as you see, in order to save time."
The forecastles and cabin were first searched closely. Several of
the sailors then descended into the hold. Two lanterns were handed
down to them.
"It looks all clear, sir," one of the sailors said to their officer.
The latter leaped down on to the kegs and looked round.
"Yes, it looks all right, but you had better shift some of the kegs
and see that all is solid."
Some of the kegs were moved from their position, and in a few places
some of the second tier were also lifted. The officer himself
superintended the search.
"I think I can let you go on now, Captain Grignaud," he said.
"Your men can stow the cargo again. A good voyage to you, and may
you meet with no English cruisers by the way."
The captain at once gave orders for the sails to be run up again,
and by the time the officer and his men had climbed over the bulwarks
into the gunboat the Trois Freres had already way upon her. The
captain then gave the order for the men to go below and stow the
casks again. Adolphe and Harry were the first to leap down, and
before the vessels were two hundred yards apart they had removed
the two uppermost tiers of kegs next to the bulkhead, and were able
to speak to the girls.
"Are you all right down there, Jeanne?" Harry asked.
"Yes, quite right, Harry, though the air is rather close. Virginie
has fainted; she was frightened when she heard them moving the
kegs just over our heads; but she will come round as soon as you
get her on deck."
The last tier was removed, and Harry lowered himself into the hold;
he and Jeanne raised Virginie until Adolphe and one of the other
sailors could reach her. Jeanne was lifted on to the cross beams,
and was soon beside her sister, and Harry quickly clambered up.
"They must not come on deck yet," the captain said, speaking down
the hatchway. "We are too close to the gunboat, and from the forts
with their glasses they can see what is passing on our deck. Don't
replace the kegs over the hole again, Adolphe; we may be overhauled
again, and had better leave it open in case of emergencies."
Virginie was carried under the open hatchway; some water was handed
down to Jeanne, who sprinkled it on her face, and this with the
fresh air speedily brought her round. When the lugger was a mile
below the forts, the captain said that they could now safely come
up, and they were soon in possession of the cabin again. Before
evening the lugger was out of sight of land. The wind was blowing
freshly, and she raced along leaving a broad track of foam behind
her. The captain and crew were in high spirits at having succeeded
in carrying off the fugitives from under the noses of their enemies,
and at the progress the lugger was making.
"We shall not be far from the coast of England by to-morrow night,"
the captain said to Harry, "that is if we have the luck to avoid
meeting any of the English cruisers. We don't care much for the
revenue cutters, for there is not one of them that can overhaul
the Trois Freres in a wind like this. They have all had more than
one try, but we can laugh at them; but it would be a different
thing if we fell in with one of the Channel cruisers; in a light
wind we could keep away from them too, but with a brisk wind like
this we should have no chance with them; they carry too much sail
for us. There is the boy carrying in the supper to your sisters;
with their permission, you and I will sup with them."
The captain sent in a polite message to the girls, and on the
receipt of the answer that they would be very pleased to have the
captain's company, he and Harry went down. The meal was an excellent
one, but the girls ate but little, for they were both beginning to
feel the effects of the motion of the vessel, for they had, when
once fairly at sea, kept on deck. The captain perceiving that they
ate but little proposed to Harry that coffee should be served on
deck, so that the ladies might at once lie down for the night.
"Now, captain," Harry said as the skipper lit his pipe, "I daresay
you would like to hear how we came to be fugitives on board your
ship."
"If you have no obligation to tell me, I should indeed," the captain
replied; "I have been wondering all day how you young people escaped
the search for suspects so long, and how you came to be at Nantes,
where, as Adolphe tells me, your sister was an angel among the poor,
and that you yourself were a member of the Revolutionary Committee;
that seemed to me the most extraordinary of all, but I wouldn't
ask any questions until you yourself volunteered to enlighten me."
Harry thereupon related the whole story of their adventures,
concealing only the fact that the girls were not his sisters; as
it was less awkward for Jeanne that this relationship should be
supposed to exist.
"Sapriste, your adventures have been marvellous, monsieur, and I
congratulate you heartily. You have a rare head and courage, and
yet you cannot be above twenty."
"I am just nineteen," Harry replied.
"Just nineteen, and you succeeded in getting your friend safely
out of that mob of scoundrels in the Abbaye, got your elder sister
out of La Force, you fooled Robespierre and the Revolutionists
in Nantes, and you carried those two girls safely through France,
rescued them from the white lugger, and got them on board the Trois
Freres! It sounds like a miracle."
"The getting them on board the Trois Freres was, you must remember,
my sister's work. I had failed and was in despair. Suspicions were
already aroused, and we should assuredly have been arrested if it
had not been that she had won the heart of Adolphe's wife by nursing
her child in its illness."
"That is so," the captain agreed; "and they must have good courage
too that they didn't betray themselves all that time. And now I
tell you what I will do, monsieur. If you will write a letter to
your sister in Paris, saying that you and the other two have reached
England in safety, I will when I return send it by sure hand to
Paris. To make all safe you had better send it to the people she
is staying with, and word it so that no one will understand it if
they were to read it. Say, for example:
"'My dear Sister, You will be glad to hear that the consignment of
lace has been safely landed in England,' Then you can go on saying
that 'your mother is better, and that you expect to be married
soon, as you have made a good profit out of the lace,' and so on;
and just sign your name - 'Your brother Henri.'
"I can trust the man who will deliver it in Paris, but it is just
as well always to be on the safe side. If your letter is opened and
read, anyone will suppose that it is written by a sailor belonging
to one of the Nantes luggers."
Harry thanked the captain warmly for the offer, and said that the
letter would indeed be an immense comfort to his sister and friend.
"I will tell the man that he is to ask if there is any answer," the
captain said. "And if your sister is as sharp as you are she will
write the same sort of letter, and I will bring it across with me
to England the first voyage I make after I get it."
Harry slept down in the forecastle with the crew, the captain
keeping on deck all night. He was awoke by an order shouted down
the forecastle for all hands to come on deck; and hurrying up with
the rest found that the sun had just risen. The day was beautifully
fine, and to Harry's surprise he found that those on deck had
already lowered the great lugsails.
"What is it, captain?" he asked.
"There is a sail there I don't like," the captain said. "If I am
not mistaken that is an English frigate."
There were several sails in sight, but the one to which the captain
pointed was crossing ahead of the lugger. Her hull could not be
seen, and indeed from the deck only her topsails and royals were
visible above the water.
"I hope she will not see us," the captain said. "We are low in the
water, and these stump masts could not be seen at that distance
even by a look-out at the mast-head.
"We are already somewhat astern of her, and every minute will take
her further away. If she does not see us in a quarter of an hour,
we shall be safe. If she does, there is nothing for it but to run
back towards the French coast. We should have such a long start
that with this wind she would never catch us. But she may fire her
guns and bring another cruiser down upon us and cut us off. There
are a dozen of them watching on different parts of the coast."
Harry kept his eye anxiously upon the ship, but she sailed steadily
on; and in half an hour the sails were again hoisted and the Trois
Freres proceeded on her way. She passed comparatively near several
merchantmen, but these paid no attention to her. She was too small
for a privateer, and her object and destination were easily guessed
at. The girls soon came on deck, and the captain had some cushions
placed for them under shelter of the bulwark; for although the sun
was shining brightly the wind was keen and piercing.
"Are we beyond danger?" was Virginie's first question as Harry took
his seat by her.
"Beyond all danger of being overtaken - that is to say, beyond all
danger of meeting a French vessel-of-war. They very seldom venture
to show themselves many miles from port, except, of course, as a
fleet; for single vessels would soon get picked up by our cruisers.
Yes, I think we are quite out of danger. There is only one chance
against us."
"And what is that, Harry?" Jeanne asked.
"It is not a serious one," Harry replied; "it is only that we may
be chased by English revenue cutters and forced to run off from the
English coast again. But even then we should soon return. Besides,
I have no doubt the captain would let us have a boat, so that we
could be picked up by the cutter in pursuit of us."
"I don't think that would be a good plan," Jeanne said; "because
they might not stop to pick us up, and then we might have a long
way to reach the shore. No, I think it will be better to stay on
board, Harry; for, as you say, if she does have to run away for a
time, she is sure to come back again to unload her cargo. But of
course do whatever you think best."
"I think your view is the best, Jeanne. However, I hope the
opportunity will not occur, and that the Trois Freres will run her
cargo without interference. The captain tells me he is making for
a point on the Dorsetshire coast, and that he is expected. Of course
he could not say the exact day he would be here. But he told them
the day on which, if he could get his cargo on board, he should
sail, and they will be looking out for him."
Before sunset the English coast was visible.
"We could not have timed it better," the captain said. "It will be
getting dark before they can make us out even from the cliffs."
Every sail was now scrutinized by the captain through his glass,
but he saw nothing that looked suspicious. At nine o'clock in the
evening the lugger was within three miles of the coast.
"Get ready the signal lanterns," the captain ordered. And a few
minutes later three lanterns were hoisted, one above the other.
Almost immediately two lights were shown in a line on top of the
cliff.
"There is our answer," the captain said. "There is nothing to be
done to-night. That means 'The revenue men are on the look-out;
come back to-morrow night."'
"But they are always on the look-out, are they not?" Harry asked.
"Yes," the captain said; "but when our friends on shore know we are
coming they try to throw them off the scent. It will be whispered
about to-morrow that a run is likely to be made ten miles along
the coast, and they will take care that this comes to the ears of
the revenue officer. Then to-morrow evening after dusk a fishing-boat
will go out and show some lights two miles off shore at the point
named, and a rocket will be sent up from the cliff. That will
convince them that the news is true, and the revenue officers will
hurry away in that direction with every man they can get together.
Then we shall run here and land our cargo. There will be plenty of
carts waiting for us, and before the revenue men are back the kegs
will be stowed safely away miles inland. Of course things go wrong
sometimes and the revenue officers are not to be fooled, but in
nine cases out of ten we manage to run our cargoes without a shot
being fired. Now I must get off shore again."
The orders were given, and the Trois Freres was soon running out
to sea. They stood far out and then lowered the sails and drifted
until late in the afternoon, when they again made sail for the
land. At ten o'clock the signal lights were again exhibited, and
this time the answer was made by one light low down by the water's
edge.
"The coast is clear," the captain said, rubbing his hands. "We'll
take her in as close as she will go, the less distance there is to
row the better."
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