"That's you, Rufus, lad! Down with you!" muttered the priest. Before I knew his purpose, he had tripped my feet from under me and knocked me flat on the floor. Overturning the empty coffin-box, he clapped it above my whole length, imprisoning me with the snap and celerity of a mouse-trap. Then I heard the thud of two hundred avoirdupois seating itself on top of the case. The man above my person had whisked out a book of prayers, and with lantern on the desk was conning over devotions, which, I am sure, must have been read with the manual upside down; for bits of the pater noster, service of the mass, and vesper psalms were uttered in a disconnected jumble, though I could not but apply the words to my own case.
"Libera nos a malo—ora pro nobis, peccatoribus—ab hoste maligno defende me—ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me—peccator videbit et irascetur—desiderium peccatorum peribit——" came from the priest with torrent speed.
"Jee-les-pee! Jee-les-pee!" roared a dozen throats above the half-way landing. Then came the stamp of many feet to the door.
"Wait, men!" Hamilton's voice commanded. "I'll see if he's here!"
"Simulacra gentium argentum et aurum, opera manuum hominum," like hailstones rattled the Latin words down on my prison.
"One moment, men," came Eric's voice; but he could not hold them back. In burst the door with a rush, and immediately the room was crowded with vociferating French soldiers.
"Manus habent, et non palpabunt; pedes——"
"Is Gillespie here?" interrupted Hamilton, without the slightest recognition of the priest in his tones.
"Pedes habent et non ambulabunt; non clamabunt in gutture suo," muttered the priest, finishing his verse; then to the men with a stiffness which I did not think Father Holland could ever assume—
"How often must I be disturbed by men seeking that young scoundrel? Look at this place, fairly topsy-turvy with their hunt! Faith! The room is before you. Look and see!" and with a great indifference he went on with his devotions.