Part 22 (1/2)
”The insurrection is over--at least _this_ one is over,” said Jacob Mordecai sadly, ”though it may well be that another insurrection shall follow close on its heels; but it is probable that there will be some degree of peace now for a time, and the guarded condition of the town will favour your escape.”
”How so, Signor Mordecai?” asked Francisco; ”it has. .h.i.therto been my belief as well as experience that a town in a state of siege was the reverse of favourable to anything implying freedom of action.”
”Thou art right, friend,” returned Jacob, with a smile, ”and that absence of freedom will keep the streets clear of all who might otherwise interrupt thee, while, as to the guarded corners, my brother Bacri knows a variety of pa.s.sages above and under ground, through which he will guide you past them to the city wall.”
”Then let us be gone without delay,” urged Francisco, ”for, good sirs, my neck has for some time past felt sundry twinges, as though the bow-string were already around it.”
”Half an hour must elapse ere we can venture forth with safety,” said Bacri. ”'Tis well that you have brought the knotted rope with you.
Mariano knows how to use it. He will explain the mode of escape which you must follow, while I hold private converse with my brother.”
So saying the kindly Jew bowed his tall form to his friends with the air of a king, and accompanied Jacob Mordecai into an inner room.
At the end of the time specified--which had appeared an age to the impatient trio--Bacri returned to the skiffa with two coa.r.s.e burnouses similar to the one worn by Mariano. He directed Francisco and Lucien to put these on, after exchanging their varied habiliments for the jacket, short drawers, and red fez or cap, worn by Moors of the middle cla.s.s.
He then produced some brown ochre, with which he stained their hands and their legs below the knee--these latter parts being usually uncovered in Moors who did not belong to the wealthy cla.s.ses.
”Why not paint our faces too?” asked Mariano, amused at the figure they cut, despite the dangers which rendered the disguise necessary.
”Because neither the painting of your faces,” replied Bacri, ”nor the shaving of your heads--which latter would be essential to the converting of you into genuine Moors--would const.i.tute any disguise were your voices to be heard or your features to be scrutinised. You must be careful to pull the hoods of your burnouses well forward on your faces.
All that you can hope to gain by your costume is to avoid attracting the attention of any whom you should chance to meet, or whom you may have to pa.s.s at a distance. If any one speaks to you after you reach the open country, refuse to answer. If he should insist on it, you must either run or fight, for which latter purpose I provide you with these short swords, which you will find better suited to your hands than the curved weapons of the Turks.”
”Signor Bacri,” said Francisco, examining the straight short weapon handed to him, ”I thank thee for all thy kindness to me and my boys-- especially for these swords, for a.s.suredly unless thou canst also furnish me with a pair of young and active legs, I am like to have more of fighting than running hereafter. However, let us not waste more time in speech, for, as I have said, my neck already itches most uncomfortably.”
In deference to Francisco's anxiety to be out of the city, which he was wont to style with great emphasis the Pirates' Nest, Bacri hastened his preparations, and soon led them to the roof of the house of Jacob Mordecai, from which they scrambled to that of a friendly neighbour, and crossed over, with the care of burglars and the quiet steps of cats, to the other side. Here a difficulty met them, in the shape of a leap which was too long for Francisco's heavy person to venture.
He might, indeed, have taken it with ease on level ground and in daylight; but, like his son Mariano on a somewhat similar occasion, he felt it difficult to screw up his courage to the point of springing across a black chasm, which he was aware descended some forty or fifty feet to the causeway of the street, and the opposite parapet, on which he was expected to alight like, a bird, appeared dim and ghostly in the uncertain light.
Twice did the courageous man bend himself to the leap, while the blood rushed with apoplectic violence to his bald head; and twice did his spirit fail him at the moment of need!
”Oh, Bacri!” he said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, wiping the perspiration from his brow, as he stood on the giddy height, ”if there were only a damsel in distress on the opposite side, or a legion of Turks defying me to come on, I could go over, methinks, like a rocket, but to be required to leap in cold blood upon next to nothing over an unfathomable abyss, really--. Hast never a morsel of plank about thee, Jacob?”
Fortunately for all parties, Jacob had a flower stand on his roof, to which he returned with Mariano, who wrenched a plank therefrom, and brought it to the point of difficulty.
After this they met with no serious obstruction. Sometimes descending below the streets and pa.s.sing through cellars, at others crossing roofs or gliding along the darkest sides of dark walls and pa.s.sages, they traversed the town without being challenged, and gained the southern wall near the point at which Mariano had crossed it on a former occasion.
Here the Jew bade them G.o.d-speed, and left them.
”I hope thou art sure of the road, Mariano?” said Francisco anxiously.
”Trust me, father; I know it well. Only have a care that you tread lightly and make no noise.--Come.”
Leading them to the point on the ramparts where poor Castello's head still stood withering in the night-wind, Mariano bade them remain in shadow while he attached the rope to the spike.
The sentinel could be dimly seen, for there was no moon, pacing to and fro within two hundred yards of them. They watched and lay still while he sauntered towards them, and glided noiselessly and quickly to the rope while his back was turned.
Thus one by one they descended the wall, crossed the ditch, ascended the slope on the other side, without having been observed, and, ere long, were safe among the rocks and fastnesses of the Sahel hills.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.