Chauvelin and his picked escort had in the meanwhile detached themselves from the main body of the squad. Soon the dull thud of their horses' hoofs treading the soft ground came more softly--then more softly still as they turned into the wood, and the purple shadows seemed to enfold every sound and finally to swallow them completely.
Armand and Marguerite from the depth of the carriage heard Heron's voice ordering his own driver now to take the lead. They sat quite still and watched, and presently the other coach passed them slowly on the road, its silhouette standing out ghostly and grim for a moment against the indigo tones of the distant country.
Heron's head, with its battered sugar-loaf hat, and the soiled bandage round the brow, was as usual out of the carriage window.
He leered across at Marguerite when he saw the outline of her face framed by the window of the carriage.
"Say all the prayers you have ever known, citizeness," he said with a loud laugh, "that my friend Chauvelin may find Capet at the chateau, or else you may take a last look at the open country, for you will not see the sun rise on it to-morrow. It is one or the other, you know."
She tried not to look at him; the very sight of him filled her with horror--that blotched, gaunt face of his, the fleshy lips, that hideous bandage across his face that hid one of his eyes!
She tried not to see him and not to hear him laugh.
Obviously he too laboured under the stress of great excitement.
So far everything had gone well; the prisoner had made no attempt at escape, and apparently did not mean to play a double game. But the crucial hour had come, and with it darkness and the mysterious depths of the forest with their weird sounds and sudden flashes of ghostly lights. They naturally wrought on the nerves of men like Heron, whose conscience might have been dormant, but whose ears were nevertheless filled with the cries of innocent victims sacrificed to their own lustful ambitions and their blind, unreasoning hates.
He gave sharp orders to the men to close tip round the carriages, and then gave the curt word of command:
"En avant!"
Marguerite could but strain her ears to listen. All her senses, all her faculties had merged into that of hearing, rendering it doubly keen. It seemed to her that she could distinguish the faint sound--that even as she listened grew fainter and fainter yet--of Chauvelin and his squad moving away rapidly into the thickness of the wood some distance already ahead.
Close to her there was the snorting of horses, the clanging and noise of moving mounted men. Heron's coach had taken the lead; she could hear the creaking of its wheels, the calls of the driver urging his beasts.
The diminished party was moving at foot-pace in the darkness that seemed to grow denser at every step, and through that silence which was so full of mysterious sounds.
The carriage rolled and rocked on its springs; Marguerite, giddy and overtired, lay back with closed eyes, her hand resting in that of Armand. Time, space and distance had ceased to be; only Death, the great Lord of all, had remained; he walked on ahead, scythe on skeleton shoulder, and beckoned patiently, but with a sure, grim hand.
There was another halt, the coach-wheels groaned and creaked on their axles, one or two horses reared with the sudden drawing up of the curb.
"What is it now?" came Heron's hoarse voice through the darkness.
"It is pitch-dark, citizen," was the response from ahead. The drivers cannot see their horses' ears. They wait to know if they may light their lanthorns and then lead their horses."
"They can lead their horses," replied Heron roughly, "but I'll have no lanthorns lighted. We don't know what fools may be lurking behind trees, hoping to put a bullet through my head--or yours, sergeant--we don't want to make a lighted target of ourselves--what? But let the drivers lead their horses, and one or two of you who are riding greys might dismount too and lead the way--the greys would show up perhaps in this cursed blackness."
While his orders were being carried out, he called out once more:
"Are we far now from that confounded chapel?"
"We can't be far, citizen; the whole forest is not more than six leagues wide at any point, and we have gone two since we turned into it."
"Hush!" Heron's voice suddenly broke in hoarsely. What was that?
Silence, I say. Damn you--can't you hear?"
There was a hush--every ear straining to listen; but the horses were not still--they continued to champ their bits, to paw the ground, and to toss their heads, impatient to get on. Only now and again there would come a lull even through these sounds--a second or two, mayhap, of perfect, unbroken silence--and then it seemed as if right through the darkness a mysterious echo sent back those same sounds--the champing of bits, the pawing of soft ground, the tossing and snorting of animals, human life that breathed far out there among the trees.
"It is citizen Chauvelin and his men," said the sergeant after a while, and speaking in a whisper.
"Silence--I want to hear," came the curt, hoarsely-whispered command.
Once more every one listened, the men hardly daring to breathe, clinging to their bridles and pulling on their horses' mouths, trying to keep them still, and again through the night there came like a faint echo which seemed to throw back those sounds that indicated the presence of men and of horses not very far away.
"Yes, it must be citizen Chauvelin," said Heron at last; but the tone of his voice sounded as if he were anxious and only half convinced; "but I thought he would be at the chateau by now."
"He may have had to go at foot-pace; it is very dark, citizen Heron," remarked the sergeant.
"En avant, then," quoth the other; "the sooner we come tip with him the better."