Noémi

by S. Baring-Gould

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  THE FOURTH TIME.

  THE rock of Gageac somewhat overhung, so that as Le Gros Guillemascended he swung clear in space. Only occasionally was there aprojection against which he could apply his foot, but he avoided doingthis lest he should set the cord in oscillation.

  The rope was so stout and the piece of wood on which he was seated sostrong, that the momentary qualm that had come over his heart left it,and he felt naught save impatience to reach the castle and creep in atthe window. Then his comrades would be drawn up and all four would fallon the sleeping garrison, kill every man, ring the tocsin, and the placewould be in his possession, the houses given up to pillage and theinhabitants to outrage and murder. To win La Roque--a place that throughthe Hundred Years' War had not been taken, that for three centuries haddefied the English--would indeed be an achievement, and one for which hecould obtain any terms he liked to ask from the Earl of Shrewsbury onhis arrival in Guyenne.

  The clouds were dispersing, Guillem looked up, the floor of Heaven wasas it were spilt over with curds; he looked down, every platform, roof,garden, was white with hail. On the horizon lightning was stillfluttering. He had heard no thunder when below--he heard none now.

  The Dordogne flowed black through a white world. It did not reflect thesky to one rising so high in the air above it; it was black as Acheronand seemed to have lost all flow--to be stilled in its course.

  The moon was still shining on the wall of rock, Guillem's shadow passedwith him, as substantial apparently as himself, undergoing strange,monkey-like contortions against the rocky inequalities. A curse on thatcat! It was wailing in his ear. He turned his chin to endeavour to forcethe brute from his shoulder. The cat clung with its thorn-like clawsthat pierced his jerkin. He disengaged a hand, and laid hold of the cat,but it bit and tore at his hand, it drove its claws into his neck, andhe could not shake it off without tearing away ribbons of his flesh aswell.

  His efforts to rid himself of the cat set the cord spinning, and thestick revolved, with him on it, and then spun back again; it began toswing, and in swinging jammed him against the rock.

  He must make up his mind to endure the cat. It was but for a minute ortwo longer, and then he would be free, and would grasp the accursedbrute and fling it down on to the houses beneath. A cat has nine lives.A cat will always fall on his feet. This puss must have more than ninelives if it escaped being dashed to pieces by such a fall.

  All was hushed below.

  Guillem, looking down, could see the black spots that he knewrepresented his three men who were to follow him.

  Something brushed his face--it was a sprig of juniper--he knew it by thescent; and now he saw that he had reached that point where rock and wallwere blended, the rock running up into ragged points, the gaps filled inwith masonry, and finally courses of ashlar lying evenly above the rock.

  He was nearing the window. In another minute he would be inside. Hecould hear the creak of the windlass. His progress upwards seemed to himto be extraordinarily slow. One line of wallstone, then another, then athird, then a halt.

  He expected to be able to grasp the threshold of the window and toassist those within in drawing him through. But the window sill was somefeet above his head; it was beyond his reach.

  Why had those working the capstan ceased to turn the levers? Were theyexhausted? Had they galled their hands? Half a dozen turns and he wouldbe aloft.

  At that moment, one of those inexplicable, unreasonable sensations thatdo occasionally seize the imagination swept over the mind of Guillem.Looking at the limestone before him, he all at once thought it resembledthe flesh of old Ogier del' Peyra's face as he was lowered into theoubliette, with the light from the dungeon door sitting on it. There wasabsolutely no similarity save that the rock was grey, and that it wasillumined by the new moon with some such a colourless cadaverous lightas that which had lighted the face of the man sentenced to a livingtomb.

  Le Gros Guillem shook his head and closed his eyes to free himself fromthe impression.

  Immediately the cat, driving its claws into his neck under the rightear, sprang on his head, ran up the rope and leaped in at the windowabove.

  It was perhaps due to the fact that those working the capstan werefrightened by the apparition of the beast; but suddenly the rope was runout and Guillem dropped through space, to be brought up by a jerk asthose above mastered the spokes and arrested the flight of the rope.

  As the falling man was stopped in his descent, the strands of the cordwere strained and some snapped. The jerk would have thrown him from hisseat had he not grappled the rope with desperation. He had not, however,dropped very far, and now to his great satisfaction he felt that the menabove were again turning the levers, and that he was again beingsteadily hauled upwards. When aloft he would chastise them sharply fortheir scare about a cat, risking thereby his valuable life.

  Again the juniper bush brushed his face, it was as an elfin hand whichwas thrust forth out of the rock to lay hold of him, or at least to warnhim against further progress. Not a plant had been passed springing outof the sheer cliff. This juniper grew at the summit of the rock, and atits junction with the masonry of the castle.

  Much time had elapsed, surely more than an hour, since he had passedthrough the postern gate. His men, concealed in the vineyards, must beimpatient for the signal to enter the town and plunder it.

  Then he heard a harsh, jarring sound like an angry growl, followed bythe strokes of a bell. One--two--three--he reckoned till twelve. It wasmidnight.

  Again he was ascending past the courses of ashlar, and again he wasbrought to a halt at some distance below the window.

  Then, from above, through the window a face protruded that looked downon him. The moon was on the face; it was the colour of the grey rock; itwas blotched like the rock, it was furrowed with age like the rock.Unlike the rock, two eyes gleamed out of it, with the moon glinting inthem.

  "Gros Guillem!" said the man who peered on the freebooter from above.

  "Draw me up!" gasped the Captain, "or by----"

  "Do you threaten--you--situated as you are?"

  "I pray you give the windlass another turn."

  "Ah, you pray now, Gros Guillem!"

  The Captain looked above his head at the face that overhung him. Therewas in it something that sent the blood back to his heart. There was init that likeness to a someone, uncertain, recalled but unidentified,that came out now with terrible distinctness, and insisted on hisstraining his powers for recognition.

  "Gros Guillem! do you remember me? This is our final meeting--the fourthand the last!"

  At that moment the tocsin pealed forth its summons from the tower. Thistower, planted under a concave opening in the rock, sent out the ring ofthe alarm-bell multiplied thirtyfold below; it flung it forth involumes, it sent it up and down the Dordogne valley--across it--over thelevel land, far, far away, wave on wave of sound through the stillnight.

  At the first note it was as though a magic wand had touched every housein La Roque. Each window was illumined. Every door was opened, and forthburst men with torches, all fully armed.

  In a moment the three companions of the Captain on the platform and thetwo by the postern were surrounded, disarmed, bound or cut down. In amoment, also, from orchards, vineyards, from out of barns, from behindhedgerows, rose a multitude of men, peasants, fishermen, soldiers of theBishop, serving-men, all with what weapons they could most readilyhandle, and closed in on the men of Guillem who had come forward at thenote of the bell with purpose to enter by the postern. Then ensued onall sides a wild hubbub of cries, shrieks, shouts of triumph, curses,prayers for mercy.

  Le Gros Guillem, hanging in mid-air, heard the uproar, saw the upwardglow of light, and knew that he and his had been drawn into a cleverlycontrived trap, and that he was lost irretrievably. He writhed, heturned, he looked above--there he saw but the face of Ogier remorselessas fate. He looked below--there he saw his me
n, making desperate battlefor life, and falling one by one. He could not distinguish eachindividual, but he saw knots of men forming whence issued cries and theclash of steel, then the knot broke up and its members dispersed seekingother clusters which they swelled, and whence issued the same cries anddin of strife.

  Presently a great flare of fire rose from below and illumined the wholerock of Gageac. A torch had been applied to a bonfire of faggots readystacked on the platform. By that glare those below saw the suspendedCaptain, and uttered a roar of hate and savage delight. In Guillem'sears was a singing, and the growl of voices came in throbs like wavesbeating on his brain.

  From those below rose cries of, "Cut the rope! Cast him down! We willreceive him on our pikes. He shall fall into the fire!"

  Slowly the cable was let out, and Guillem felt himself descending. Hewas glad that it was so. He desired to be in the midst of men, thoughthese were his enemies; for he had his sword at his side and he woulddie fighting, wounding others, killing those who sought his life. So toperish were a death befitting a soldier--this such a death as he wouldhail. He put his hand to his sword and grasped the hilt. His blood thathad curdled in his arteries began to pulsate, the film that had formedover his eyes was dissipated, and a flash of eager anticipation cameinto them.

  But again the rope ceased to be let out. He was suspended just half-waybetween the castle and the platform below, in full view of the townsmenwho had gathered there, standing at a sufficient distance not to bestruck by his falling body; he was in view also of the little garrisonof the castle who had clambered to the battlements and were looking overat him.

  Then he heard a hammering, and saw below men employed driving the pegsinto the sockets in the rock, and fastening the wedges that held themfirm. No sooner was the full connection made than up the stair ran menand even women, and boys who had scrambled out of bed, and these stoodin a line against the rock up the lengthy ladder-stair gazing at thesuspended man. Then also from above the draw-bridge was lowered, and themen-at-arms who had been in the castle ran out of the gate and ran downthe stair to have a better sight thence of the swinging, helpless manthan they could from the battlements.

  A terrible spectacle it was that they witnessed--such a one as could notbe looked on by Christian people unmoved save in such an evil age asthat, when men were rendered ferocious as wild Indians and callous tothe sufferings of their brethren; a spectacle such as could not belooked on without pity save in such a place as that where all hadsuffered in some degree from the exactions or the barbarities of thiswretched man. The flames danced and curled as if they also frolicked atthe sight of the agony of the man who had so often fed them withhard-won harvests of the peasantry, and the humble goods of the cottagertoo worthless to be carried away.

  In the glare of the leaping bonfire Le Gros Guillem was distinctlyvisible, looking like a monstrous yellow spider at the end of his line.He thrust out now one long leg, then another, next he extended hislengthy arms each armed with lean and bony fingers. He endeavoured toscramble into a standing position upon his bar, but failed--one sidewould descend before the other, and he nearly fell in attempting thisimpossible feat. He gripped the rope with hands and knees andendeavoured to swarm up it, but the cable was rendered slippery by itspassage over a roller in the window.

  Rage was in his heart, rage at being there a sight to men, women, andchildren, without power of spreading destruction about him before hedied.

  Then he swung himself laterally, hoping to be able to reach a projectionof rock whence possibly he might creep up or down, or even laterallyfrom jutting point to point, holding by his fingers till he attained thestair. As he came swinging like a pendulum he was carried close to thestairway, and those upon it held their breath and drew back against therock, thinking he would make a leap in attempt to light on the steps.Were he to do this, then to arrest himself from falling backwards, withhis long fingers he would inevitably clutch at them, and so precipitatethem along with himself below.

  Those persons standing on that portion of the steps within range sidledupwards or else downwards, to be out of the risk of such a danger. Theycould see in the upward flash of the firelight the sparkle in his greateyes as he glared at the steps, calculating his distance, making resolveto leap, and his heart failing him or his judgment assuring him that todo so were certainly fatal.

  A tinkle of a little bell. The priest of S. Donat had hastily donned hissurplice, and run and taken the Holy Sacrament, and was coming--he alonewith a thought of mercy for the agonised, to obtain for him release, orto administer consolation in death. Before him went a boy with alantern, ringing the bell.

  Then a loud voice from below cried: "Cut the cable!" And then: "It isI--Francis Bonaldi--I, the governor, say it. Enough! Cut the cable!"

  A gasp from all that multitude.

  The cord had been chopped through before the priest arrived.