The Adventures of Dick Trevanion: A Story of Eighteen Hundred and FourStrang, Herbert
History
The Adventures of Dick Trevanion: A Story of Eighteen Hundred and Four
Strang, Herbert
Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Juvenile fiction; Smugglers -- Juvenile fiction
But he had scarcely taken half-a-dozen steps when, from behind a bush
close by, there rose a red-capped figure, and Trevanion looked straight
at the muzzle of a firelock. He stopped, and before he could collect
his wits, two other figures joined the first. "C’est lui!" cried one of
the Frenchmen. They were three of the sentries whom Delarousse had
placed around the village, and were hastening to rejoin their leader in
advance of the band now dashing up the hill. Trevanion was so much
taken aback as to be incapable of resistance. All that he did when the
men roughly seized him was to protest that a mistake had been made.
"Ah! ah!" said one of his captors. "On ne s’en trompe pas; pas de
tout." The other two each took one of Trevanion’s arms, and marched him
at a great pace through a gate in the fence towards the Towers, the
third man bringing up the rear. What happened when Trevanion and
Delarousse came face to face has already been related.
Maidy Susan, when Trevanion had left the house, showed herself strangely
callous to the sad plight of Cook. Convinced that the Corsican Ogre had
at last effected his long-threatened landing, she wondered in her simple
soul why her master had not ordered the alarm bell to be rung, and the
men servants to seize their arms and sally forth to defend their
country. She peeped in at the kitchen, saw that Cook had recovered
sufficiently to fan herself and scream, and then ran upstairs to watch
what was going on. Only a minute or two afterwards, Trevanion broke
from his captors and fled, the yelling Frenchmen in full cry behind.
"’Tis he! ’Tis Boney!" cried Susan.
She clutched at the casement frame for support, then suddenly flew
downstairs like a young deer. It was she who held the door open, she
who was forced back by the onrush of the infuriated Frenchmen. She
crouched behind the door until the last of them, Delarousse himself,
passed, then sped to the top of the house and began frantically to pull
the bell-rope. Meanwhile the men whom Trevanion had been at such pains
to drill had fled towards the village, and fallen into the hands of
Delarousse’s sentries.
Trevanion darted along the passage and up the stairs like a fox seeking
cover from the hounds. He flung himself into his room, slammed and
bolted the door, caught up a pistol, and stood, panting from haste and
terror, in the middle of the floor. He heard the loud and rapid tramp
of his pursuers drawing near.
"Keep out, or I’ll shoot you!" he cried.
The Frenchmen laughed him to scorn. He was one; they were many. They
set their shoulders to the door; the timbers cracked, gave way; a bullet
whizzed harmlessly over their heads; and bursting into the room, they
seized their victim and dragged him out and down the stairs again.
Delarousse met them at the foot. Gasping for breath, he ordered some of
his men to bind Trevanion’s arms behind his back and take him down to
the lugger, others to set fire to the house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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