The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy (book recommendations TXT) 📗

Sir Andrew had been dreaming evidently, gazing into the fire, and seeing therein, no doubt, a pretty, piquant face, with large brown eyes and a wealth of dark curls round a childish forehead.

“Yes!” he said, still musing, “all right!”

“No hitch?”

“None.”

Lord Antony laughed pleasantly as he poured himself out another glass of wine.

“I need not ask, I suppose, whether you found the journey pleasant this time?”

“No, friend, you need not ask,” replied Sir Andrew, gaily. “It was all right.”

“Then here’s to her very good health,” said jovial Lord Tony. “She’s a bonnie lass, though she is a French one. And here’s to your courtship⁠—may it flourish and prosper exceedingly.”

He drained his glass to the last drop, then joined his friend beside the hearth.

“Well! you’ll be doing the journey next, Tony, I expect,” said Sir Andrew, rousing himself from his meditations, “you and Hastings, certainly; and I hope you may have as pleasant a task as I had, and as charming a travelling companion. You have no idea, Tony.⁠ ⁠…”

“No! I haven’t,” interrupted his friend pleasantly, “but I’ll take your word for it. And now,” he added, whilst a sudden earnestness crept over his jovial young face, “how about business?”

The two young men drew their chairs closer together, and instinctively, though they were alone, their voices sank to a whisper.

“I saw the Scarlet Pimpernel alone, for a few moments in Calais,” said Sir Andrew, “a day or two ago. He crossed over to England two days before we did. He had escorted the party all the way from Paris, dressed⁠—you’ll never credit it!⁠—as an old market woman, and driving⁠—until they were safely out of the city⁠—the covered cart, under which the Comtesse de Tournay, Mlle. Suzanne, and the Vicomte lay concealed among the turnips and cabbages. They, themselves, of course, never suspected who their driver was. He drove them right through a line of soldiery and a yelling mob, who were screaming, ‘À bas les aristos!’ But the market cart got through along with some others, and the Scarlet Pimpernel, in shawl, petticoat and hood, yelled ‘À bas les aristos!’ louder than anybody. Faith!” added the young man, as his eyes glowed with enthusiasm for the beloved leader, “that man’s a marvel! His cheek is preposterous, I vow!⁠—and that’s what carries him through.”

Lord Antony, whose vocabulary was more limited than that of his friend, could only find an oath or two with which to show his admiration for his leader.

“He wants you and Hastings to meet him at Calais,” said Sir Andrew, more quietly, “on the second of next month. Let me see! that will be next Wednesday.”

“Yes.”

“It is, of course, the case of the Comte de Tournay, this time; a dangerous task, for the Comte, whose escape from his château, after he had been declared a ‘suspect’ by the Committee of Public Safety, was a masterpiece of the Scarlet Pimpernel’s ingenuity, is now under sentence of death. It will be rare sport to get him out of France, and you will have a narrow escape, if you get through at all. St. Just has actually gone to meet him⁠—of course, no one suspects St. Just as yet; but after that⁠ ⁠… to get them both out of the country! I’ faith, ’twill be a tough job, and tax even the ingenuity of our chief. I hope I may yet have orders to be of the party.”

“Have you any special instructions for me?”

“Yes! rather more precise ones than usual. It appears that the Republican Government have sent an accredited agent over to England, a man named Chauvelin, who is said to be terribly bitter against our league, and determined to discover the identity of our leader, so that he may have him kidnapped, the next time he attempts to set foot in France. This Chauvelin has brought a whole army of spies with him, and until the chief has sampled the lot, he thinks we should meet as seldom as possible on the business of the league, and on no account should talk to each other in public places for a time. When he wants to speak to us, he will contrive to let us know.”

The two young men were both bending over the fire for the blaze had died down, and only a red glow from the dying embers cast a lurid light on a narrow semicircle in front of the hearth. The rest of the room lay buried in complete gloom; Sir Andrew had taken a pocketbook from his pocket, and drawn therefrom a paper, which he unfolded, and together they tried to read it by the dim red firelight. So intent were they upon this, so wrapt up in the cause, the business they had so much at heart, so precious was this document which came from the very hand of their adored leader, that they had eyes and ears only for that. They lost count of the sounds around them, of the dropping of the crisp ash from the grate, of the monotonous ticking of the clock, of the soft, almost imperceptible rustle of something on the floor close beside them. A figure had emerged from under one of the benches; with snakelike, noiseless movements it crept closer and closer to the two young men, not breathing, only gliding along the floor, in the inky blackness of the room.

“You are to read these instructions and commit them to memory,” said Sir Andrew, “then destroy them.”

He was about to replace the letter-case into his pocket, when a tiny slip of paper fluttered from it and fell on to the floor. Lord Antony stooped and picked it up.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” replied Sir Andrew.

“It dropped out of your pocket just now. It certainly does not seem to be with the other paper.”

“Strange!⁠—I wonder when it got there? It is from the chief,” he added, glancing at the paper.

Both stooped to try and decipher this last tiny scrap of paper on which a few words