Detective and mystery stories; Rouletabille, Joseph (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
“You see, to-night there is nothing that we can do except to barricade
ourselves. It is only a temporary barricade, for I want the place
put in an absolutely unassailable state to-morrow. I have had the
iron doors closed and Pere Jacques is guarding them. I have stationed
Mattoni as sentinel at the chapel. I have established a barrier under
the postern, the only vulnerable point of the inner court, and I will
guard that myself. Pere Bernier will watch all night at the door of the
Square Tower, and Mere Bernier, who has a good pair of eyes, and to
whom I have given a spyglass, will remain until morning on the platform
of the tower. Sainclair will station himself in the little palm leaf
pavilion upon the terrace of the Round Tower. From the height of this
terrace he will watch as I do all the inner court and the boulevards
and parapets. M. Rance and M. Darzac will go into the garden and walk
until daylight, the one toward the boulevard on the west, the other
toward the boulevard on the east--the two boulevards which are at the
edge of the outer court near the sea. The vigil will be hard to-night,
because we are not yet organized. To-morrow we shall draw up a set of
rules for our little garrison, and a list of the trustworthy domestics
upon whom we may depend with security.
“If there is one on the place who could come under the slightest
suspicion, he must be dismissed at once. You will bring here to this
cell all the arms which you can gather--rifles and revolvers. We will
divide them among those who do guard duty. The sentinel is to draw upon
every person who does not reply to ‘Who goes there?’ and who is not
recognized. There is no need of a password, it would be useless. Let
the countersign be to utter one’s name and to show one’s face. Besides,
it is only ourselves who have the right to pass. Beginning to-morrow
morning I will have raised at the inner entrance of the North gate the
grating which until to-day formed its exterior entrance--the entrance
which is closed, henceforth, by the iron doors; and in the daytime the
commissaires can come as far as this grating with their provisions.
They will place their wares in the little lodge in the tower where I
have stationed Pere Jacques. At seven o’clock every night, the iron
doors will be closed. To-morrow morning M. Arthur Rance will send for
builders, masons and carpenters. Every person on the place will be
counted, and no one allowed, under any pretext, to pass the door of
the second court. Before seven o’clock in the evening everyone will be
counted again, and the workpeople will be allowed to go out. In this
one day the men must completely finish their work, which will consist
of making a door for my postern, repairing a small breach in the wall
which joins the New Castle to the Tower of Charles the Bold and another
little break near the Round Tower (B in the plan), which defends the
north-east corner of the outer court. After that, I shall be tranquil,
and Mme.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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