Part 29 (1/2)
that make me wish I had never been born into a world where such things are possible! In my heart I have registered a vow. I have vowed that if ever the time should come when I might save one wretched victim from my savage uncle's power -- even at the risk of mine own life -- I would do it. I have warned men away from here. I have done a little, times and again, to save them from a snare laid for them. But never once have I had power to rescue from his relentless clutch the victim he had once enclosed in his net, for never have I had help from without. But when I heard them speak of Raymond de Brocas -- when I knew that it was he, thy brother, of whom some such things were spoken -- then I felt that I should indeed go mad could I not save him from such fate.”
”What fate?” asked Gaston breathlessly; but she went on as though she had not heard.
”I thought of thee as I had seen thee in the wood. I said in my heart, 'He is n.o.ble, he is brave. He will rest not night nor day whilst his brother lies a captive in these cruel hands. I have but to watch and to wait. He will surely come. And when he comes, I will show him the black hole in the wall -- the dark pa.s.sage to the moat -- and he will dare to enter where never man has entered before. He will save his brother, and my vow will be fulfilled!'”
Gaston drew his breath hard, and a light leaped into his eyes.
”Thou knowest a secret way by which the Tower of Saut may be entered -- is that so, Lady?”
”I know a way by which many a wretched victim has left it,” answered the girl, whose dark violet eyes were dilated by the depth of her emotion.
”I know not if any man ever entered by that way. But my heart told me that there was one who would not shrink from the task, be the peril never so great. I will see that the men-at-arms have drink enough to turn their heads. I have a concoction of herbs which if mingled with strong drink will cause such sleep to fall upon men that a thunderbolt falling at their feet would scarce awaken them. I will see that thou hast the chance thou needest. The rest wilt thou do without a thought of fear.”
”Fear to go where Raymond is -- to share his fate if I may not rescue him!” cried Gaston. ”Nay, sweet lady, that would be indeed a craven fear, unworthy of any true knight. But tell me more. I have many times wandered round the Tower of Saut in my boyhood, when its lord and master was away. Methinks I know every loophole and gate by heart. But the gates are so closely guarded, and the windows are so narrow and high up in the walls, that I know not how they may be entered from without.”
”True: yet there is one way of which doubtless thou knowest naught, for, as I have said, men go forth that way, but enter not by it; and the trick is known only to a few chosen souls, for the victims who pa.s.s out seek not to come again. They drop with sullen plash into the black waters of the moat, and the river, which mingles its clearer water with the sluggish stream encircling the Tower, bears thence towards the hungry sea the burden thus entrusted to its care.”
Gaston s.h.i.+vered slightly.
”Thou speakest of the victims done to death within yon gloomy walls. I have heard dark tales of such ere now.”
”Thou hast heard nothing darker than the truth,” said the girl, her slight frame quivering with repressed emotion and a deep and terrible sense of helpless indignation and pity. ”I have heard stories that have made my blood run cold in my veins. Men have been done to death in a fas.h.i.+on I dare not speak of. There is a terrible room scarce raised above the level of the moat, into which I was once taken, and the memory of which has haunted me ever since. It is within the great mound upon which the Tower is built; and above it is the dungeon in which the victim is confined. There is some strange and wondrous device by which he may be carried down and raised again to his own prison house when his captor has worked his hideous will upon him. And if he dies, as many do, upon the fearful engines men have made to inflict torture upon each other, then there is this narrow stairway, and this still narrower pa.s.sage down to the sullen waters of the moat.
”The opening is just at the level of the water. It looks so small from the opposite side, that one would think it but the size to admit the pa.s.sage of a dog; you would think it was caused by the loosening of some stone in the wall -- no more. But yet it is large enough to admit the pa.s.sage of a human body; and where a body has pa.s.sed out, sure a body may pa.s.s in. There is no lock upon the door from the underground pa.s.sage to the moat; for what man would be so bold as find his way into the Castle by the grim dungeons which hold such terrible secrets? If thou hast the courage to enter thus, none will bar thy pa.s.sage --”
”If!” echoed Gaston, whose hand was clenched and his whole face quivering with emotion as he realized the fearful peril which menaced his brother. ”There is no such thing as a doubt. Raymond is there. I come to save him.”
The girl's eyes flashed with answering fire. She clasped her hands together, and cried, with something like a sob in her voice:
”I knew it! I knew it! I knew that thou wert a true knight that thou wouldst brave all to save him.”
”I am his brother,” said Gaston simply, ”his twin brother. Who should save him but I? Tell me, have I come in time? Have they dared to lay a finger upon him yet?”
”Dared!” repeated the girl, with a curious inflection in her voice. ”Of what should they be afraid here in this tower, which has ever withstood the attacks of foes, which no man may enter without first storming the walls and forcing the gates? Thinkest thou that they fear G.o.d or man?
Nay, they know not what such fear is; and therein lies our best hope.”
”How so?” asked Gaston quickly.
”Marry, for two reasons: one being that they keep but small guard over the place, knowing its strength and remoteness; the other, that being thus secure, they are in no haste to carry out their devil's work. They will first let their prisoner recover of his hurts, that he slip not too soon from their power, as weaklier victims ofttimes do.”
”Then they have done naught to him as yet?” asked Gaston, in feverish haste. ”What hurts speakest thou of? Was he wounded in the fight, or when they surrounded him and carried him off captive?”
”Not wounded, as I have heard, but sorely battered and bruised; and he was brought hither unconscious, and lay long as one dead. When he refused to do the bidding of Peter Sanghurst, they took him down to yon fearsome chamber; but, as I heard when I sat at the h.o.a.rd with mine uncle and that wicked man, they had scarce laid hands upon him, to bend his spirit to their will through their h.e.l.lish devices, before he fell into a deep swoon from which they could not rouse him; and afraid that he would escape their malice by a merciful death, and that they would lose the very vengeance they had taken such pains to win, they took him back to his cell; and there he lies, tended not unskilfully by my old nurse, who is ever brought to the side of the sick in this place. Once I made s.h.i.+ft to slip in behind her when the warder was off his guard, and to whisper in his ear a word of hope. But we are too close watched to do aught but by stealth, and Annette is never suffered to approach the prison alone. She is conducted thither by a grim warder, who waits beside her till she has done her office, and then takes her away. They do not know how we loathe and hate their wicked, cruel deeds; but they know that women have ere this been known to pity helpless victims, and they have an eye to us ever.”
Gaston drew his breath more freely. Raymond, then, was for the moment safe. No grievous bodily hurt had been done him as yet; and here outside his prison was his brother, and one as devoted as though the tie of blood bound them together, ready to dare all to save him from the hands of his cruel foes.
”They are in no great haste,” said the maiden; ”they feel themselves so strong. They say that no man can so much as discover where thy brother has been spirited, still less s.n.a.t.c.h him from their clasp. They know the French King will not stir to help a subject of the Roy Outremer, They know that Edward of England is far away, and that he still avoids an open breach of the truce. They are secure in the undisturbed possession of their captive. I have heard them say that had he a hundred brothers all working without to obtain his release, the walls of the Tower of Saut would defy their utmost efforts.”
”That we shall see,” answered Gaston, with a fierce gleam in his eye; and then his face softened as he said, ”Now that we have for our ally the enchanted princess of the Castle, many things may be done that else would be hard of achievement.”
His ardent look sent a flush of colour through the girl's transparent skin, but her eyes did not waver as she looked frankly back at him.