Athelstane Ford Part 16

CHAPTER XIII

_A NIGHT ADVENTURE_

As soon as I had heard that name from Rupert's lips, all my hesitation was at once overcome, as he no doubt foresaw would be the case.

"Come," I said, springing upon my feet with an energy I had not felt for some time, "let us be going, then."

My fellow prisoners looked not a little astonished at this sudden change in my resolution. However, they offered me their good wishes for the journey, and Mr. Holwell in particular entrusted me with some messages to Mr. Drake, in case I should succeed in penetrating to him.

We had no certain information at this time as to the whereabouts of the English s.h.i.+ps, but supposed them to be lying somewhere about the mouth of the Hooghley. It was judged best that I should carry no writing.

We two then crept softly out of the hut, my cousin going first, and I following. There was no moon abroad, but a sufficiency of light was afforded us by the extraordinary brilliancy of the stars, which appear much bigger, as well as thicker in the sky, in these lat.i.tudes than in England. At a short distance from the door of the shed I could perceive the sentinel, seated with his back towards us, his hands resting on his matchlock.

"This way," whispered Rupert in my ear. And turning in the opposite direction from the sentry, he stooped down and ran along under the shadow of a high wall which bordered a winding road.

The wall was about eight feet high, and enclosed a garden. Here and there it was overhung by branches of trees, whose foliage I failed to distinguish in the darkness, but I once or twice thought I smelt the fragrance of lemons. Within the garden behind the wall we could hear the tinkle of a fountain and a noise like the singing of some bird.

"What is this place?" I asked in a whisper, as I ran along by Rupert's side.

"Hus.h.!.+" he answered crossly. "We shall be overheard. This is the Nabob's garden, where are the pavilions of his women."

We ran on in silence for some little time longer, when we arrived at the end of the garden, and plunged into a narrow and dark lane that led out of the town. This pa.s.sage we followed till we came out upon a deserted nook immediately under the walls of Moorshedabad, which were here much damaged, and matted with ivy and other weeds.

"Now," said Rupert, as he flung himself panting on the ground, in a little gra.s.sy place, "we can talk over our plans without fear of being disturbed."

I sat down beside him, inly marvelling at that great transformation which had so quickly converted us from deadly enemies seeking each other's lives, into allies, if not friends. After all our hostilities against each other in Great Yarmouth, at Gheriah, and in Calcutta, we were now in Moorshedabad, bound together by a common purpose, and that purpose concerned with her who had originally been the cause of our enmity.

I have often thought since that the change which took place in my cousin's behaviour about this time was due, not so much to any tardy p.r.i.c.ks of conscience, as to a sort of dizziness of mind, brought about by the spectacle of the prodigious crimes of Surajah Dowlah. His own spirit, however bold and wicked, was daunted in the presence of this being who, though so much younger in years, was so greatly superior in evil; so that he shrank back, like one brought suddenly to the edge of a precipice. Perhaps he had a secret apprehension of his coming fate; at all events, it is certain that for a short time he manifested a hearty longing to return to the society of honest men.

As soon as we were seated his first act was to pluck off the turban he wore on his head, and cast it to the ground.

"Faugh!" he exclaimed. "What an intolerable thing to wear! If it were not for their turbans and their abstinence, I declare Mahometanism would suit me well enough."

I gazed at him in horror.

"Do you mean, Rupert, that you have really embraced that idolatrous sect?" I demanded.

"You need not look so scandalised, cousin," he retorted. "In the first place you are quite wrong to call it idolatrous, images of every kind being strictly forbidden by the Alcoran. In the second place it is a very decent, respectable religion, as religions go, and extremely convenient for seafaring men who sometimes need an excuse for overhauling a Christian cargo."

"Rupert Gurney," I replied sternly, "you have within the hour brought me away out of prison, and for that I thank you. But I will neither listen to your blasphemous talk, nor suffer it, and rather than consent to do so I will go back to the place from which you took me but now."

"Fair and softly, young Athelstane," he answered grinning. "I see you are as fierce a Puritan as ever, and as I have lost the wish to quarrel with you I will endeavour to refrain from saying anything offensive to your delicacy. But do you, on your part, abstain from flying into a pa.s.sion at every word that does not happen to sound to your liking; for patience is a virtue recommended, as I believe, by your religion as well as mine, and it seems to me that your stock of it is rather scant."

I cannot say how deeply mortified I was by this rebuke, which, coming from one whose evil life I held in just detestation, wrought more conviction in me than all the sermons I had heard from good Mr. Peter Walpole of Norwich, when I was a boy. I discovered, as though by a flash of light, how unchristian was the temper I had too often shown in my dealings, not only with my cousin, but with other persons, and from that moment I set an earnest watch on myself in this respect.

Forcing myself to acknowledge my error at once, though much against the grain, I said--

"I ask your pardon, Rupert, if I spoke harshly. But let us leave these questions, and come to the business in hand. What of Marian, and how do you propose that we should effect her escape?"

He looked at me surprised.

"Why, Athelstane, my boy, give me your hand!" he exclaimed, in a more cordial tone than I had ever heard him use before. "Curse me if I don't heartily wish we had never quarrelled!" I gave him my hand with some reluctance, and he proceeded. "You saw that garden which we pa.s.sed on our way to this spot? The girl is detained a prisoner in one of the Nabob's summer-houses which stand within it. I have found means to corrupt one of the eunuchs who is a friend of mine, and anxious to stand well with the English. For I must tell you, Athelstane, that all is not working smoothly in the government here. Surajah Dowlah, by his arrogance and violence, has made many enemies, among whom are his own uncle, Meer Jaffier, and Roy Dullub, the most important of the Gentoos. These men have a just apprehension of the vengeance which the English may take for the late invasion of their settlements, and moreover they stand in dread of the young Nabob's reckless temper, sometimes bordering on insanity. So that we have more friends than we know of in the Court. This eunuch, then, as I was going to say, has agreed to introduce me into the garden to-night, in about an hour's time through a small postern in the wall of which he has the key. He is going to conduct me to the summer-house where Marian is. There it may be necessary to use force to overpower the eunuchs in charge of the place, but if we succeed in doing that, as I think there is little doubt we shall, we have nothing to do but to carry her off and retire by the way we came. I have provided a safe retreat afterwards to the coast."

I fell in heartily with this scheme, which seemed to present a tolerable chance of success. Rupert went on to explain to me the means by which he hoped that we might afterwards be able to pa.s.s through the country without being stopped. He proposed that we should give it out that we were a party of Mahometan pilgrims bound for the mouth of the river, to take s.h.i.+p for Mecca; and he told me he had three horses already hired, with a driver, waiting for us in a certain place. In order that this scheme might be carried through it was necessary that I should be disguised to pa.s.s for a Moor, like himself. He now produced from his bosom a brown pigment, such as he had already used with good enough success on his own complexion, and carefully stained the skin of my face, also my feet and hands.

"Remember, above all," he said, while he was thus engaged, "if you would be taken for a Mahometan, never to wash your hands without was.h.i.+ng your feet at the same time, for this custom is inveterate with them, and is, I think, the princ.i.p.al point of difference between the two religions."

When he had finished, I asked--

"And now what shall I do for a suitable dress?"

For I was still clad in the garments of rough canvas which the Moors had given to us on the morning after our release from the Black Hole.

"By the Lord Harry, I don't know what you can do!" cried Rupert. "I had overlooked that part of it. Unless you were to cut down one of these black rascals in the dark, and exchange suits with him?"

I declined to do what I thought would amount to committing a murder, although it were to be done upon an Indian; whereupon my cousin offered to kill the man, if I would wear the clothes. At last we agreed to procure the dress by peaceful means, if that should be possible, and set out on our return to the centre of the town.

Sure enough we had not gone a great way when we met a man of the city, a Gentoo, wearing a loose woollen robe and white turban, which we thought would pa.s.s, and which he agreed very easily to part with for five rupees. I offered him my canvas suit into the bargain, but this he rejected with disdain, on account of his religion, and walked off from us stark naked, but for a loin-cloth.

It was now time that we should repair to the meeting appointed by the eunuch. We found the postern without any difficulty, and as soon as my cousin had knocked twice in a peculiar manner the eunuch came and admitted us. This eunuch appeared to be a very civil, worthy person, very different to most of his kind, whom I have found to be full of spite and malice, and untrustworthy in all their dealings.

As soon as we were entered in the garden the eunuch conducted us through an orchard and down a grove of persimmons, to where there was a fountain, and close by it a square marble tank bordered by roses in white marble boxes. Here he left us for a moment, while he went forward to examine the summer-house, if there were any one stirring within. While we were waiting I took an interest in gazing at the clear water of the tank, and picturing the scene when the Nabob's women came thither to bathe, as I heard was their daily custom.

Presently the eunuch returned, and beckoned to us.

"The Sahibs may go forward now," he said. "The cage is shut and the birds are asleep."

We followed him, and he brought us out upon an open s.p.a.ce, and in the midst of it a small pavilion, like a temple, built in white stone or marble, in two storeys, very elegantly, with small pillars before it and a dome above, the whole covered over with fantastical designs of trees and flowers, curiously wrought in the stone.

The door of the pavilion was closed. In the upper storey I saw several lattices open, but no lights.

"What are we to do in the next place?" I asked of the eunuch.

He gave me an expressive look out of his black eyes, and silently delivered to me a scymetar which he carried.

"Let the Sahib knock, and when they who keep the door put forth their heads, let the Sahib strike them off," he said, seeing me hesitate.

It had been well for us, as it turned out, if I had done as he bid me, for the squeamishness which we feel about shedding blood is not understood amongst Indians, and they despise us for it. However, before I could say anything further, my cousin stepped up to the door and knocked boldly.

There was a commotion inside. I drew my scymetar, and Rupert did the same. As soon as the door was unfastened from within, without waiting to parley, we flung ourselves through the opening, striking out blindly in the dark.

Instantly there went up a howl for mercy, and the eunuchs inside--for there were two of them, both well-armed--cast themselves down writhing on the floor, evidently in the expectation that they were immediately to be put to death. Rupert aimed a deadly blow at one of them, but I, like a fool, struck up his weapon.

"Stay," I said, using the Gentoo language purposely that they might understand, "it may save us trouble to spare their lives, on condition that they strictly obey our instructions."

The wretches hearing this, instantly broke into all sorts of grovelling entreaties and oaths of fidelity. Quite disgusted by their slavish cowardice, I said to them--