The Little Ball O' Fire; or, the Life and Adventures of John Marston Hall

by G. P. R. James

  CHAPTER XXVI.

  In a few minutes Suzette returned, and gave me a billet, signed withher name, in the course of which she prayed Monsieur de Villardin tobelieve all that I should tell him in regard to his unhappy wife. Sheseemed anxious now to leave me, and to drop the conversation; but Idetained her for a short time, to explain to me how and where she hadfound me on the night that I had received my wound; and she was in theact of telling me, hurriedly, that it was by mere accident, when stepssounded in the saloon which opened into my apartment, and she startedup with evident marks of alarm.

  Her apprehensions were not without cause, for she had not time to quitthe room, ere Gaspard de Belleville entered, booted and spurred as hehad dismounted, and after giving a glance towards my bed, whichevidently showed him who it was that had been the object of his wife'scare, he struck the unhappy woman a blow with his open hand that madeher reel, asking her how she dared to bring one of the enemy withinhis doors.

  I was in no condition to offer her any protection, but a person whohad followed Gaspard into the apartment, though he did not verydecidedly resent the blow, interposed to prevent another, and, takingher by the hand, he led her weeping to the door, saying, at the sametime, "Come, come, Monsieur de Belleville, you must not strike awoman, and that woman my sister!"

  As soon as he had led Suzette out of the room, her brother returned,and approaching her husband--who stood gazing upon me in sullensilence, from which I augured no very hospitable treatment--he turnedhis face full upon me also, when, not a little to my surprise, Irecognised in Suzette's brother my old acquaintance, Captain Hubert,of whose achievements in the forest I had been a witness, and nearly avictim.

  He was, evidently, not much slower in his recognition than myself, andalthough I had given him sufficient proofs of my discretion in regardto one of his professions, yet the exclamation of "Diable!" whichbroke from him before he was aware, showed me that he did not yet feelsafe, and would willingly have avoided any fresh rencontre with suchan inconvenient acquaintance.

  The prospects which my situation afforded were certainly not veryconsolatory at that moment. There I lay, incapable of offeringresistance or of attempting escape, in the presence of two men, one ofwhom hated me with a good old inveterate enmity, which was quitesufficiently mature to bear fruits of as bitter a--kind as heart coulddesire; while the other knew his life and reputation to be in my powerthe moment that I issued forth from those walls. I had also enjoyedthe means of learning by experience that neither of these worthypersonages were very scrupulous as to their actions; and, certainly,if ever I calculated fully and seriously upon having my throat cut incold blood, it was at that moment.

  I took good care, however, not to make the matter quite certain byclaiming any acquaintance with Captain Hubert, while at the same timeI resolved to treat Gaspard de Belleville, whom I looked upon, afterall, as the worst of the two, in the same manner that I would havetreated any other officer in the service of the Prince de Cond?.

  "Monsieur de Belleville," I said, after having given him plenty oftime to speak, without his uttering one word, "I claim your protectionand hospitality, as an officer and a gentleman; and I beg, also, thatyou will have the goodness, if the armies are in this vicinity, tosend a trumpet to Monsieur de Villardin, or to Monsieur de Turenne,informing either of them that I am a prisoner in your hands, andrequesting them to negotiate my liberation."

  The impudence of the request seemed to strike him dumb; and, afterstaring at me for a minute longer, with a curling lip and contractedbrow, he turned upon his heel, and taking his brother-in-law by thearm, walked out of the room without saying one word, shutting andlocking the door behind him.

  That I was not numbered with my fathers that very night was probablyowing to two or three circumstances, which, affecting thebrothers-in-law differently, prevented them from doing together whateach separately might have been very desirous of executing. In thefirst place, my residence in his house was known to too many people forGaspard to put me out of the way without a great chance of discovery;and it is also probable that he did not at that time know how easyand unceremonious Suzette's brother was in the disposal of obnoxiouspersonages. On his part, Captain Hubert had some touch of humanity inhis nature, and though the dislike which every man must feel to livingin a state of apprehension might have made him forget his betternature, yet, as Gaspard was not aware of all his worthy relative'sformer occupations, and it would have been necessary to communicatethem to him, in order to arrange my destruction as a joint enterprise,there can he no doubt that the Captain was wise in refraining. Indeed,it is more than probable that he looked upon me at that period as asafer depositary of his secret than his brother-in-law would havebeen; and I think he was right; for no man that I know was more likelyto use an advantage ungenerously than Gaspard de Belleville.

  These motives I have only, of course, assigned upon guess; but theywere the fruits of my reflections after I was left alone, and verymuch they certainly did console me, as I lay helpless enough in thehouse of my bitter enemy, with the door locked upon me, and no meansof making my situation known to any friend in the world. Many a time,however, did I wish that Suzette had left me where she found me, totake my chance of death or recovery; but all such wishes were in vain,and, as the best thing I could do, I banished thought as soon as Icould, and fell asleep, feeling, at the same time, very doubtful as towhat world I should wake in when I next opened my eyes.

  No one, however, disturbed my slumber, and I was roused only by thedaylight streaming into my room. I felt myself better and stronger formy long sleep, and much need, indeed, had I to be so, for after lyingfor two or three hours without any one bringing me meat or drink, atrooper entered my room, and told me that I must get up and dressmyself. It was vain to resist, and therefore I made the attempt; but Iwas far too weak to accomplish the task myself; and it was onlywith the continual assistance of the soldier, who acted as avalet-de-chambre, that I was enabled to put on the same torn andbloody habiliments in which I had been brought thither.

  When this unpleasant sort of toilet was completed, the progress ofwhich had perfectly satisfied my attendant that I was not capable ofwalking even across the room, one of the servants was called in, andbetween him and the trooper I was carried out through the saloon intothe court-yard, in which a light carriage, with two horses, wasstanding ready prepared. Although I was certainly not in the very bestcondition for travelling, yet, well knowing that opposition would bein vain, of course I offered none to the proceedings of those intowhose hands I had fallen; and was speedily lifted into the chaise,without much ceremony or consideration. Gaspard de Belleville,however, seemed to think that my companions were showing me too muchlenity, and I heard his voice from an upper window, ordering them, inno very measured terms, to put me in any how, and, above all things,to make haste.

  As soon as I was finally thrust into the machine, the trooper got inbeside me, the man who had aided to carry me took his seat on thecoach-box, and away we went, at a pace more fitted for a cavalryregiment at the charge than for the carriage of a wounded man. Whileundergoing the operation of being dressed, I had discovered that thepurse which was on my person when I was wounded had, by some fortunateaccident, been suffered to remain in my pocket; but this had beenperceived by my new attendant also, and, though he did not absolutelytransfer the purse at once from my hands to his own, he soon gave menotice that he intended to make a gradual appropriation of itscontents. Beyond all doubt, Gaspard de Belleville, who could not tellwhether I had any money about me or not, had given the man asufficient sum to defray his expenses on the road, and, equally beyonddoubt, as the fellow was evidently a trooper in some regiment ofhorse, he was paid for his services as usual. Nevertheless, scarcelyhad we proceeded three miles, when he informed me that Monsieur leCapitaine de Belleville expected me to discharge the score at all thecabarets where we stopped on the road, and likewise to give him, myguard and attendant, the reasonable sum of four crowns per diem forhi
s good company and assistance.

  Weak and uncomfortable as I was, this method of proceeding amused me.An English blackguard would have committed robbery, and taken thepurse without more ado; the Frenchman, however, was more moderate, andcontented himself with cheating me out of the greater part of itscontents. Though the result appeared likely to be much the same, yetthere were conveniences attending the Frenchman's mode of proceedingof which I did not fail to take advantage; and representing to himcivilly my weak state, and the pain and discomfort which I sufferedfrom the furious jolting of the carriage, at that quick rate ofprogression, I pointed out to him that the more days we were upon thejourney the greater would be the amount of crowns to be given to him;and, having discovered that his orders were to carry me to Stenay, atown on the Meuse, belonging to the Prince de Cond?, I did not scrupleto assure him that, if he would turn the horses' heads the other way,and drive to the quarters of Monsieur de Turenne, wherever they mightbe, a thousand crowns and a Serjeant's post in my troop should be hisimmediate reward.

  The man expressed himself highly obliged by my polite offer, as hetermed it, but informed me at the same time that he had three strongreasons for acting honestly in the present instance, and obeying theorders he had received. These were, that, in the first place, he wouldin all probability be hanged if he went near the quarters of Monsieurde Turenne, as he had lately come over from his army to that of thePrince de Cond?; in the next place, that the other party, to which henow belonged, might sooner or later hang him if he again changedsides; and lastly, that even if he could make up his mind to run allthese risks, the man who was driving had his orders also, and wouldnot suffer him to deviate from the prescribed route.

  I could not help acknowledging that these were all potent reasons,and, as I saw that it would be in vain to combat their influence onhis mind, I suffered myself to be rolled on towards Stenay, with nofarther discussion than merely what was necessary to induce myconductors to give me as much repose as possible. My briefcommunication with the trooper had, however, established a sort offriendly intercourse between us, which rendered him extremely civilduring the rest of the journey; and from him I learned that, althoughCond? had completely defeated the Mar?chal d'Hocquincourt at Blenau,Turenne had, by the most splendid man[oe]uvres that it is possible toconceive, arrested the progress of the victorious army with a force ofnot one third its number. The Prince had himself turned his stepstowards Paris, and Gaspard de Belleville, as well as several superiorofficers, had been left to bring up a number of scattered partieswhich had spread over a part of Champagne and the Orleanois, duringthe unsteady command of the Dukes of Beaufort and Nemours. He couldtell me nothing, however, in regard to Monsieur de Villardin, hisdaughter, or Father Ferdinand, though he had been at no greatdistance, he said, from the ch?teau of Virmont at the time that it wasfired, which was done, he declared by the command of the Duke ofNemours, in order to give notice to another division of the army thatthe Prince was on his march. Notwithstanding this assurance of mycompanion, I could not help thinking, that Gaspard de Belleville hadfully as much to do with the conflagration as the Duke of Nemours.

  Five days' journey brought us to Stenay, and in spite of my wounds andmy weakness, thanks to a constitution of iron, and an early hardeningin the fiery furnace of the English civil wars, I was far better atthe end of the time than on the day when we first set out. After beingadmitted within the walls of the town, which was not permitted withoutmanifold challenges and investigations, the carriage drove direct tothe prison, where I was delivered into the hands of a man whosecountenance was certainly as rugged as the stone walls amidst which hedwelt. Nor can I boast of having found his heart much softer; for,though the trooper who had accompanied me had recommended me to hisnotice, in my hearing, as a _bon gar?on_, no sooner were the doorsclosed upon me, than a course of ill usage began, which was notdestined to terminate for some time. My purse, rendered meagre by thefrequent demands of the road, was the first thing attacked, and fromthat moment vanished entirely. I was then thrust into one of thedungeons, with a pile of straw for a bed, and a little grated windowof about nine inches square, looking out upon the ramparts, as my onlysource of light and air. Bread and water became my diet, and, as thefloor of the dungeon was not particularly dry, it was with no smalldifficulty that I kept myself from the effects of the damp.

  In reply to all my questions in regard to the authority by which I wasthere detained, the gaoler merely told me that I was considered as adeserter from the army of the Prince de Cond?, found fighting againsthim, and that I might think myself very well off that I had not beenshot immediately. Although this was evidently a pretext, and I verywell understood that both Gaspard de Belleville and good CaptainHubert might greatly approve of my detention, yet I could not bringmyself to believe that this state of things could continue long; andfor the first two or three days of my imprisonment I consoled myselfwith the expectation of its speedy termination. My health, also, Imust confess, improved greatly under the severe regimen to which I wassubjected, and the healing of my wounds proceeded more rapidly than Icould have at all anticipated. Nevertheless, as day went by after day,and no relief came, my spirits fell, and my heart, hitherto so buoyantunder all the adversities and changes which I had met with, sunkoppressed beneath that most horrible of all inflictions, solitaryconfinement.

  No language can describe in the slightest degree the state of myfeelings in that prison, by the time that ten days had passed over myhead within its walls. The lingering weariness of the moments, thefaint chillness of apprehension, the utter vacuity of each heavy day,the changeless, unceasing poring of thought upon one subject, the wantof every event, however small, the burning thirst for freedom, andactivity, and change, and the fresh air, and the fair face ofnature--all combined to make a state of existence which was the veryessence of "hope delayed that maketh the heart sick."

  Often--often I asked myself, when was this to end, or would it everend? Put in there by two men, to one of whom my freedom might bedangerous, and to the other of whom anything which afflicted me wouldbe delightful, how could I tell that I might not be kept there foryears. In the state of the country, at that time, no investigation wasever likely to take place, no one would, in all probability, hear ofmy imprisonment, nobody would strive to obtain my release. Monsieur deVillardin, doubtless, by this time, thought me dead, and I might feelperfectly sure that neither Gaspard de Belleville nor any of hishousehold would suffer my situation to be known, so long as they couldby any means conceal it. Such thoughts formed the only occupation formy mind, while I could neither find nor devise any other exercise formy limbs than that which could be obtained by traversing in everydifferent direction a chamber of ten feet square. It is true I couldoccasionally hear the steps and voices of people without, passingalong the ramparts; but the little 'window was so high that I couldnot amuse myself by the view which it might otherwise have afforded,and the merry tones of people at large, as the wind brought them to myear, seemed but a mockery of my solitude and captivity.

  At length, a slight change was afforded me. After I had lingered on inthis manner for some months, the gaoler fell sick, and his wifebrought me the daily loaf and pitcher of water in his place. She wasnot the most prepossessing person I ever beheld, it is true, but it isscarcely possible to describe the pleasure I felt at even seeing a newface. The joy that I expressed, it seems, melted her heart, and on thesecond day of her coming she brought me a meat meal, the first that Ihad tasted since I had entered the prison. Anything that was in theleast degree new was, of course, delightful; but this mark of herkindness induced me to ask for more, and, showing her that it wasperfectly impossible, from the size of the aperture, that I couldescape by the window if I were permitted to reach it, I begged hardthat she would let me have a chair, or a stool, or a table, in orderto amuse myself by looking out. To this she consented, telling me,however, that she was sure her husband would take it away again, assoon as ever he was well enough to resume his official duties.Nevertheless, every day
's amusement I looked upon as something gained;and in a few minutes after, she brought me a large settle, by means ofwhich I instantly climbed up to the window, and gazed out.

  No words can express the delight which the first sight of the worldwithout afforded me; and yet, strange and absurd as it may seem, thisdelight was occasioned by a prospect which did not extend to the spaceof two hundred yards in any direction. Underneath me were theramparts, and beyond them again, in a straight line, were some otherparts of the fortifications, which bounded my view in that direction:to the left was a square tower, projecting, I believe, from the bodyof the prison; and to the right, at the distance of about a hundredand fifty yards, were some sheds and houses which had encroached uponthe defences of the place. But it was all something new,--somethingdifferent from the black solitude of the dungeon,--something that Ihad not seen for months; and, consequently, it was all delightful.There was nobody to be seen upon the ramparts at the time I firstlooked out; but there was a man washing his face at a window of thehouse I have mentioned, and a cat creeping along with stealthy pacefrom tile to tile of the roof, in order to catch a sparrow that wasperched upon the ridge; and it would seem childish and frivolous thusto dwell upon the pleasure with which I watched both of these veryordinary occurrences, did it not give some idea, though a very faintone, of the dull horror of that situation, compared to which suchsights were the most enchanting visions.

  Standing on my settle, I remained there for hours, and could almosthave wept when the sun went down. With the first ray of morning I wasagain at my post, and remained there the greater part of that day,which, from what the gaoler's wife told me in regard to hisconvalescence, was the last that I could count upon for thatindulgence. Few people, indeed, passed along the ramparts; but still,every one that did so afforded me new pleasure. At length, towardsevening, when I had got down for a few moments in order to restmyself, I caught the sound of several cheerful voices speaking; and,starting up again to my loop-hole, I soon saw four or five gentlemencoming round the angle of the projecting tower. They seemed officersbelonging to the garrison; and, as soon as I set eyes upon them, Idetermined to endeavour to make my situation known to a party, amongstwhom, as officers and men of honour, I doubted not that I should findsome one to compassionate my situation, and, perhaps, to afford merelief. Such being my resolution, it will be easy to conceive my joy,when, as they approached, I perceived, in the person nearest to theprison, no other than Gourville, whom I had known and acted with inParis.

  "Monsieur de Gourville," I cried, "Monsieur de Gourville; stay amoment,--stay a moment, and listen to me, for God's sake!"

  I had forgot that he could not see me as well as I could see him; but,nevertheless, he paused and looked round, exclaiming, "Who called me?"

  "It was I; it was Monsieur de Juvigny," I replied, giving myself thename by which he had known me in Paris; "stay, and speak to me for onemoment."

  "But where are you?" cried Gourville, looking up towards the aperturethrough which I spoke.

  "Here in the prison," replied I; but ere I could add another word, Ifound myself suddenly grasped by the arm, and thrown down upon thefloor of the dungeon, with a degree of violence which hurt me much inthe fall, though my head luckily lighted on the straw which composedmy bed. The first object on which my eyes lighted after my compelleddescent, was the grim and unshaved face of the gaoler, which, however,showed me, without further explanation, that my voice had beenoverheard by his jealous and watchful ear. He deigned no observation,but a few curses pretty equally divided between myself and his wife;and, snatching up the settle, he turned away from the dungeon andlocked the door.