第20章 THE ESCAPE(2)

Any little hesitation I may have felt passed entirely unnoticed, from the lucky incident of a round happening at that moment to go by.And during the interval of silence there occurred something that sent my blood to the boil.There was a private in our shed called Clausel, a man of a very ugly disposition.He had made one of the followers of Goguelat; but, whereas Goguelat had always a kind of monstrous gaiety about him, Clausel was no less morose than he was evil-minded.He was sometimes called THE GENERAL, and sometimes by a name too ill-mannered for repetition.As we all sat listening, this man's hand was laid on my shoulder, and his voice whispered in my ear: 'If you don't go, I'll have you hanged, Marquis!'

As soon as the round was past - 'Certainly, gentlemen!' said I.'I will give you a lead, with all the pleasure in the world.But, first of all, there is a hound here to be punished.M.Clausel has just insulted me, and dishonoured the French army; and I demand that he run the gauntlet of this shed.'

There was but one voice asking what he had done, and, as soon as I had told them, but one voice agreeing to the punishment.The General was, in consequence, extremely roughly handled, and the next day was congratulated by all who saw him on his NEW

DECORATIONS.It was lucky for us that he was one of the prime movers and believers in our project of escape, or he had certainly revenged himself by a denunciation.As for his feelings towards myself, they appeared, by his looks, to surpass humanity; and I made up my mind to give him a wide berth in the future.

Had I been to go down that instant, I believe I could have carried it well.But it was already too late - the day was at hand.The rest had still to be summoned.Nor was this the extent of my misfortune; for the next night, and the night after, were adorned with a perfect galaxy of stars, and showed every cat that stirred in a quarter of a mile.During this interval, I have to direct your sympathies on the Vicomte de Saint-Yves! All addressed me softly, like folk round a sickbed.Our Italian corporal, who had got a dozen of oysters from a fishwife, laid them at my feet, as though I were a Pagan idol; and I have never since been wholly at my ease in the society of shellfish.He who was the best of our carvers brought me a snuff-box, which he had just completed, and which, while it was yet in hand, he had often declared he would not part with under fifteen dollars.I believe the piece was worth the money too! And yet the voice stuck in my throat with which I must thank him.I found myself, in a word, to be fed up like a prisoner in a camp of anthropophagi, and honoured like the sacrificial bull.

And what with these annoyances, and the risky venture immediately ahead, I found my part a trying one to play.

It was a good deal of a relief when the third evening closed about the castle with volumes of sea-fog.The lights of Princes Street sometimes disappeared, sometimes blinked across at us no brighter than the eyes of cats; and five steps from one of the lanterns on the ramparts it was already groping dark.We made haste to lie down.Had our jailers been upon the watch, they must have observed our conversation to die out unusually soon.Yet I doubt if any of us slept.Each lay in his place, tortured at once with the hope of liberty and the fear of a hateful death.The guard call sounded;

the hum of the town declined by little and little.On all sides of us, in their different quarters, we could hear the watchman cry the hours along the street.Often enough, during my stay in England, have I listened to these gruff or broken voices; or perhaps gone to my window when I lay sleepless, and watched the old gentleman hobble by upon the causeway with his cape and his cap, his hanger and his rattle.It was ever a thought with me how differently that cry would re-echo in the chamber of lovers, beside the bed of death, or in the condemned cell.I might be said to hear it that night myself in the condemned cell! At length a fellow with a voice like a bull's began to roar out in the opposite thoroughfare:

'Past yin o'cloak, and a dark, haary moarnin'.'

At which we were all silently afoot.

As I stole about the battlements towards the - gallows, I was about to write - the sergeant-major, perhaps doubtful of my resolution, kept close by me, and occasionally proffered the most indigestible reassurances in my ear.At last I could bear them no longer.

'Be so obliging as to let me be!' said I.'I am neither a coward nor a fool.What do YOU know of whether the rope be long enough?

But I shall know it in ten minutes!'

The good old fellow laughed in his moustache, and patted me.

It was all very well to show the disposition of my temper before a friend alone; before my assembled comrades the thing had to go handsomely.It was then my time to come on the stage; and I hope I took it handsomely.

'Now, gentlemen,' said I, 'if the rope is ready, here is the criminal!'

The tunnel was cleared, the stake driven, the rope extended.As I moved forward to the place, many of my comrades caught me by the hand and wrung it, an attention I could well have done without.

'Keep an eye on Clausel!' I whispered to Laclas; and with that, got down on my elbows and knees took the rope in both hands, and worked myself, feet foremost, through the tunnel.When the earth failed under my feet, I thought my heart would have stopped; and a moment after I was demeaning myself in mid-air like a drunken jumping-

jack.I have never been a model of piety, but at this juncture prayers and a cold sweat burst from me simultaneously.