France -- History -- Louis XV, 1715-1774 -- Fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction
"Doubt!" she exclaimed, turning her wan, white face on him. "Doubt!
How should I doubt? He has haunted me since that awful night--haunted
me, almost driven me to my death. Oh, you know not! I have risen at
night from my bed to see him standing there, muttering, grimacing over
that very spot, so that, as I gazed on him from out the darkness of my
room, I have swooned again as on that night I swooned. Had I been a
man, nay, had I had a man to call on, I would have gone forth and
seized him. Yet, when I have told others that nightly, almost, the
murderer came and gloated over the space where he slew the other, they
derided me, said I was mad, would not even watch themselves. Oh, the
horror of it! the horror of it!"
"The horror is ended for you now, poor woman," the priest said. "Never
more will he affright your sight when you rise from your bed. Yet do
me one service, I beg you. Put on some clothes, for the night air gets
cold"--she had, indeed, come forth from her room--where she had again
been watching in terror, fearing to see another murder--in little else
than her night raiment--"and go fetch the watch. I will see that he
escapes not."
The woman went away at his request, and coming out from the house, at
which she was the concierge, with a cloak thrown over her shoulders,
sped down the darkened streets, while once more the avenger and his
prey were left alone. But they spoke no more to one another now; only
stood there silent, facing each other. Yet once, after a few moments'
pause, Fordingbridge chuckled audibly and whispered to himself. God
only knows what was in the wretched man's mind as he did so;
Archibald, at least, made no attempt to discover.
For himself he was contented. Fate had thrown into his hands the
assassin of his beloved brother--that was enough.
Presently the woman came back, and with her three of the watch, armed
and with a lantern borne in the hands of one, and into their custody
the Jesuit gave Fordingbridge. Yet, since he could not feel at ease
until he had seen the other safe under lock and key, he accompanied
them to the prison--to which the guardhouse was attached--and handed
him over to the officials there.
"To-morrow," he said, "I will formally lay my charge against him
before the Procureur du Roi; till then, I pray you, keep him safe. He
is the murderer of the young Scotch officer who was slain outside the
cathedral, and was my brother, as all Amiens knows."
"Never fear, monsieur," said the chief of the watch; "we will keep him
safe enough. Our cage is strong."
* * * * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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