Sir Jasper Carew Part 45

"These are not days in which one can trust to the post, Jasper; but if ever the occasion offer of letting us hear of you by other means, you 'll not neglect it."

"The Pere Tonsurd will manage this for you," broke in Ursule. "He knows how to communicate, when, and with whom he pleases."

"But how am I to meet with him?" asked I.

"This is his address, and this letter will introduce you," said she, giving me a carefully-folded and well-sealed packet. "Make a friend of him, Jasper, and your happiness will be the reward."

I thought that Margot's lip was upturned at these words, with a faint expression of disdainful meaning; but I may easily have been deceived, for as I looked again, her features were calm and unmoved.

"The Pere," resumed Ursule, "was superintendent of the 'Chaise Dieu,'

and removed to be a Professor at Namur. He is a man of high acquirements and sincere piety, but his great characteristic is his humility. With a tenth of the ambition that others possess, he had been a Prince of the Church."

Margot's eyes were downcast as this was spoken, so that I could not detect how the speech affected her; but again it struck me that her mouth was moved with an expression of scorn.

"There! I hear the horn of the postilion; you have n't a moment to lose!" cried Ursule.

A fond, close embrace with each in turn, and a whispered word from Margot which I tried in vain to catch, and I was gone! I buried my head between my hands in shame, for I was crying bitterly, and never looked up till we were far away from the village, and traversing a wide, open country, with great undulating fields of corn, and few traces of habitation.

"Come, come, be a man," broke in the _conducteur_, with a rough good-humor. "You 're not the first who had to leave his home for the conscription, and some have gone back _chefs-d' escadron_, afterwards."

I accepted the part he thus erringly a.s.signed me, and let him run on about all the fortunes and chances of a soldier's life.

If his conversation did not divert my thoughts, it at least suffered me to pursue them unmolested; and so I travelled along through the whole of that night and the following day, seldom speaking, or only in half mechanical a.s.sent to some remark of my companion.

"They 'll want to see your pa.s.sport here, citizen," said he, as we approached the gate of a fortified town; "so get it ready, and don't delay the authorities."

A few minutes more brought us to the outworks of a fortification, pa.s.sing through which, we crossed a drawbridge, over a deep moat, and entered a long, dark archway. Here the diligence drew up, and the pa.s.sengers were ordered to descend. I overheard the _conducteur_ say the word "conscript," and began to fear that he used it in relation to me, when suddenly the official, opening my pa.s.sport, called out:

"Which of you is the citizen Bernard?"

I at once remembered that it was the name I had recruited under, and answered, "It is I."

"Step inside here," said he, civilly; "I have some directions with respect to you."

I walked into a small chamber off the public room, when, having carefully closed the door, he said,--

"So you are going over to England, monsieur?"

The last word was accented deeply, and with an emphasis meant to show that he who used it proclaimed himself no partisan of republican principles, but one who held to the ancient habits of the monarchy.

The manners of the time suggested distrust on all sides, and I answered, guardedly, that I had some intention of visiting England.

"You will see them, then," resumed he, "and even that much is a blessing in itself! How do I envy you! Ah, monsieur, if the name should not escape you, will you try and remember Claude Mirepois? My father was head postilion in the royal stables, and enjoyed his pension to his death; and I was educated by order of the princes, and was to have been in the household too."

"Are we all right and regular, citizen?" broke in the _conducteur_, putting in his head.

"All right--quite right, citizen Guichemar," said the other, in some confusion. "These are ticklish times; I was anxious to see that this youth's pa.s.s was regular."

"_Parbleu!_ a conscript is always _en regle_," said the other, laughing, and so hurried me away to the diligence; and once more we rattled along on our journey.

The whole of that night my mind dwelt upon this incident. Amongst the various parties that disputed for preeminence in the country, I had never heard of any professing royalist principles, except the Vendeans; nor had I the slightest suspicion that many concealed monarchists held places of trust under the government of the republic.

At Havre, I discovered that the measures of the police were of the very strictest kind, and that to obtain a permission to embark, it was necessary to have a reference to some citizen of the town, who should stand guarantee for your loyalty and integrity. Now, I had never been there before; I knew none, not even by name; and what was I to do?

Great as my difficulty was, I did not suffer it to appear so to the commissary, but calmly said that I 'd return to my hotel, and run my eye over a list of the merchants for one to be my bail.

The packet was to sail that evening with the tide; and as the office of the commissaire closed at four o'clock, there was little time to lose.

I wandered on "from street to street; I walked into cafes; I sat down in the most public places, scanning with eagerness every face that pa.s.sed me, and straining my eyes to try and detect the features of an acquaintance. The pursuit became at length a perfect farce, and I hurried to and fro with a burning brain, and a restless impatience that was almost maddening.

"Parbleu! this is the fourth time you've been in here to-day," cried a short, thickset man, past the prime of life, and who kept a sort of slop-shop near the quay. "What do you want with me, my lad?"

I was turning to leave the spot without replying, when he closed the half-door of his shop, and placed his back against it.

"Come, my friend, you shall certainly say what has brought you here, ere you get away this time."

"I am in search of some one,--I am looking for one of my acquaintances,"

said I, hurriedly.

"And expected to find him here?" added he, half sneeringly.

"Here--anywhere," said I, recklessly.

"Just so; I thought as much. Well, my lad, you had better give a more satisfactory account of yourself to the commissary. Come along with me to the police."

"With all my heart," cried I.

"Who are you? Whence do you come?" asked he, with somewhat of kindliness in his voice.

"These are questions you have no right to ask me, citizen," replied I.

"Well, have I not a right to know why you have been four several times in my shop this forenoon, and never bought nor asked for anything?"

"That you shall hear freely and frankly," said I; "I have a pa.s.sport made out for England, whither I wish to go. The authorities require that I should have some reference to a citizen of Havre before they allow me to depart. I am a stranger here,--I know of no one, not even by name.

The whole of this morning I have spent hurrying hither and thither to find out some one I have seen before, but in vain. All are strangers to me; none know me. In my wanderings, it may be that I have chanced to come here as often as you say,--perhaps I have done so in twenty places; for my head is distracted, and I cannot collect my thoughts. There, then, is the answer to your inquiry."

"Have you a trade or a handicraft, lad?"

"Not either."

"Nor any means of support?"

"Quite sufficient for all my wants," replied I, boldly; and at the same time producing my purse, well stored as it was with five-franc pieces.

"Ah, then, you belong to some of the _emigres?_ You are going to join your family?" asked he, but in a lower and more cautious voice.

"Don't you think that I have been candid enough already, friend?" said I; "and do you not know sufficient of my affairs, without asking me more?"

"Not if it be for more than mere curiosity," said he, drawing nearer to me; "not if I ask from a sincere interest in you."