The Count of the Saxon Shore; or The Villa in Vectis.

by Alfred John Church

  CHAPTER XXI.

  THE ESCAPE.

  The prisoner seemed to submit to his fate with patience. He thanked theattendant who brought him his rations with a nod and smile, and disposedof the food with an appetite which seemed to indicate a cheerful temper. Avisit which the peddler paid him the second day of his imprisonment wasapparently received as a welcome relief. The two had a long and friendlyconversation, nor did Cedric utter a word of complaint against histreatment.

  In reality the young chief was keeping under his rage with an effortalmost unbearably painful. That he should be chained like a dog to thewall was an intolerable grievance; he, a free man, and the son of a longline of chiefs which boasted the blood of the great Odin himself! The irondid indeed enter into his soul, and the seeming calm of his outwardpatience concealed a whole volcano of inward fury. It was only the hope offreedom that kept him calm. It was that he might not diminish this hope,this almost desperate chance, by the very smallest fraction that he ateand drank with such seeming cheerfulness. He would want, he knew, all hisstrength for an escape. He would support it and husband it to the utmost.

  And for an escape, unknown to his keepers, he was steadily preparing. Thechain which bound him to the wall was fastened round his right arm andleg, and the fastening would have seemed secure to any ordinary observer.But such an observer would not have made the necessary allowance for theyoung man's ordinary vigour and endurance. His hand was large andmuscular; far too much so, one would have thought, to pass through thering which had been welded round the arms. But he possessed an unusualpower of contracting it. To exercise this power was indeed a painfuleffort, causing something like an agonizing cramp; still it was an effortthat could be made, and made without disabling the limb. It could not,however, be done twice, because the hand, recovering its shape from theextraordinary pressure to which it had been subjected, would infalliblyswell. Cedric, accordingly, after satisfying himself that it could bedone, postponed actually doing it till the moment of escape had arrived.The fastening of the leg was less manageable. He would not have scrupledto do as the Spartan prisoner is said to have done, and cut off the footwhich impeded his escape, but he had positively nothing with which thiscould be done. The only alternative was to drag the staple from the wall,and to carry it and the chain along with him. Fortunately, strong as itwas, it was light. The staple at first seemed obstinate. It had indeedbeen subjected to tests which satisfied the villa blacksmith of itscapacity of resistance. But repeated efforts, made with all the enormousstrength which the young giant could bring to bear, weakened its hold, andat last it gave. The prisoner was prudent enough not to complete theseparation of the iron from the walls. It would have been difficult toreplace it so as to escape the notice of the attendant. Accordingly thedrag was relaxed as soon as the first indications of yielding were felt.The time for attempting the escape was a subject of much anxiousdeliberation. The obvious course would have been to choose some hourbetween midnight and dawn; but Cedric had heard from time to time the stepof some one walking up and down before his prison, and he guessed that itmight be guarded at night, but left during the day-time, on thepresumption that the captive would scarcely make an effort to escape whileit was light. It was this accordingly that he resolved to do. Shortlyafter sunrise the attendant paid him his customary visit, bringing withhim the morning meal. Cedric pretended to be but half awake, and,returning his salutation in a mumbling, sleepy tone, turned again on hisside, as if to continue his slumbers. But the moment after the man hadleft the room he was at work. He dragged his hand through the ring, at thecost of a pang which taxed his endurance to the utmost; pulled the staplefrom the wall, wound the chain round his leg, and wrenching away one ofthe iron bars of the window, dropped through the opening thus made on tothe ground. His calculation was correct. The ground was clear. Thenanother question presented itself to him. Should he attempt to escape ashe was? He knew where a boat was commonly kept, and it had been his planto take this and row out to sea in the hope of meeting some one of hiscountrymen's galleys. If he once got off from the shore he was free, forif the worst came to the worst, he could at least die as a free manshould. But should he go unarmed, and with the hampering chain about hisleg? A moment's consideration--no more was possible--decided him. He wouldmake one more bold effort. The forge was close at hand, and he knew fromhaving worked there that at that hour in the morning it was commonlyempty, the workmen leaving it for their morning meal. There he could findwhat he wanted, a file to release himself from the chain, and a weapon.

  The forge was empty, as he had expected. The question was, How long wouldit remain so? The workmen, he could see, had but just left it. The firehad not died down to the lowest, showing that the bellows had beenrecently at work, and a piece of iron that had been left, half-wrought, onthe anvil, was still hot, as he could feel from putting his hand near it.It might be safest to take a file and escape with it at once. On the otherhand, it would be far better to release himself at once from hisencumbrance, in the event of having to run or fight for his life. He mightcount, he thought, upon half an hour, and he resolved to file away thechain then and there. With admirable coolness he sat down and applied allthe strength and skill which he possessed to the work, and had finished itin little more than half the time which he had reckoned to haveundisturbed. He then caught up a sword which hung on one of the walls. Itwas an old-fashioned weapon, but Cedric, who knew good iron when it camein his way, had tried its temper, and knew it to be capable of doing goodservice.

  So far everything had favoured him, nor did his good fortune desert himnow. He found the boat, which was one commonly used for fishing by theinmates of the villa, ready furnished with oars and a small mast and sail.There were even, by good luck, a small jar of water, some broken food in ahamper, left by a party which had been using it the day before, with somefishing lines. These, Cedric thought to himself, might be useful if hefailed to fall in with any of his countrymen.

  Jumping on board, he plied his sculls rapidly, going in the direction ofthe sea, and keeping as close under the shore as possible, so as to be outof sight of the villa. As it happened, this precaution was unnecessary.His absence was not discovered till shortly afternoon, when the attendant,bringing the midday meal, was astonished beyond measure to find the roomempty. But another danger threatened him, a danger which he had not indeedforgotten, but against which he had known it to be impossible to take anyprecautions. This was the chance of meeting with the Count's squadron asit was returning to the island; and it was this that he actuallyencountered.

  Just as he had reached the mouth of the Haven and was turning his boateastward, he saw within a hundred yards of him one of the Roman galleys.It was not the Count's own vessel, for this had been delayed by anaccident to the rigging, and was now many miles behind, but was in chargeof the second-in-command. The recognition was mutual. Cedric's tall figurewas not one that could be easily mistaken, nor could it be doubted that hewas attempting an escape. Had the Count been there he would probably haveparleyed with the fugitive. The officer in command was not so considerate.

  "Shoot," he cried, "he is trying to escape," and as he spoke he seized abow which lay on deck, and took aim at the Saxon. His order wasimmediately observed, and a shower of missiles was directed at the boat.They all fell short, for Cedric had by this time increased his distance.In a minute or two, however, the ship was put about, and then began togain rapidly on the solitary rower.

  Another volley was discharged, and this time one of the arrows tookeffect, wounding the fugitive slightly in the left arm. The situation wasdesperate. To remain in the boat was to await certain death. A thirdvolley would unquestionably be fatal. Cedric jumped overboard, but stillclung to the side of the boat. It was only just in time. The third volleywas discharged, and rattled on the upturned keel of the boat so thick asto show plainly what the fate of the occupant would have been. Still,though he had escaped for the moment, Cedric's fate seemed sealed. Th
eboat had given him shelter for the time, but to go on clinging to it wouldbe to ensure his capture. He left it, and after making a few vigorousstrokes, threw up his arms from the surface of the water, and uttering aloud cry, disappeared.

  His quick eye had discerned a great mass of sea-weed floating on the waterabout fifty yards away, and his ready intelligence had seen a chance,small indeed and almost desperate, but still a chance of escape. Swimmingunder water to the sea-weed, he was able to come to the surface and totake breath under its shelter.

  Cedric's Escape.]

  On board the galley every one of course supposed him to have sunk. Hisaction of the lifted arms and the loud cry had been natural enough todeceive the most wary observer. The boat was righted and secured by arope, and the galley pursued its way to the villa, while Cedric was leftto make the best of his way to the land.