Children and war -- Juvenile fiction; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Juvenile fiction
“Humphrey Trail, I am glad to see you. Humphrey Trail, you were right
and I was wrong. I did not take your warning. I kept on going to the
baker’s shop until it became my prison. I brought Rosanne into awful
danger and you rescued her. Humphrey, I—” He looked about the dim, bare
place, weird in the uncertain light of the fast melting candles. “You
are welcome here,” he ended simply.
Marie Josephine never knew, she said afterward, whether she was really
awake, it all seemed so fantastic, the half-dark cellar, all of them
there together, Lisle talking about a prison in a bakery shop, and a
note in a cake which Dian found at a spinner’s supper. She heard over
again of Humphrey’s wrapping Rosanne in the blue velvet mantle, of his
vain search for Lisle, of his meeting at the gates with Dian, of Vivi.
They talked on, as Dian went through the dim, rocky alcoves beyond,
making beds out of rugs and blankets and lighting candles, the striking
of the flint and tinder making an odd sound in the stillness.
Vivi had come in late that evening and had brought disquieting news.
This Humphrey told Dian in an aside. She had spent a good part of the
day roaming about, and had gone to the house of the Marquise du Ganne.
With other curious children of the street, she had looked through the
broken door at the comtesse. She had heard that there were other
prisoners hidden in the house and that in the course of a few days they
were to be taken to the prison of La Force. She had heard, too, among
the crowd that there was to be a general search for missing aristocrats
through the Saint Antoine district. She had come in tired and excited,
after Humphrey had searched for her in vain and had returned to the
alley, and she had told him all she knew. What he had not understood,
Rosanne had explained in English. They had thought it best that Vivi
should not know who they were, as much for her own safety as for theirs;
so, when they left, Humphrey put a mound of coins on the table and said
to her: “Th’art faithful. We ha’ trust in tha. I shall come back,” but
he did not tell her where they were all going.
Rosanne had put her arms around her friend and cried, and when Humphrey
carried her out of the door, she had said earnestly:
“I, too, shall see you again. We are friends, Vivi.”
It was a grave risk that Humphrey ran, for there was no friendly
snowstorm to cover their getting away, but the alley had been deserted
and he had concealed Rosanne completely with his cloak.
“Dian, I wish we had brought Vivi with us. I think all the time of
Vivi,” Rosanne said as he came up to her, a pillow for her bed and Marie
Josephine’s in his hands.
The shepherd smiled.
“You need not be afraid for the little Vivi, Mademoiselle. She is safe
in the only home she has ever known, and there are bright days ahead for
her. She is better off now than she knows. Have no thought for her but
one of love.” He paused a moment. “The good God who sent us Vivi loves
her, Mademoiselle,” he said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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