‘I shall not move,’ was Exili’s reply. ‘I shall be doomed myself, but I will drag her with me to the scaffold. See! they are coming—she is mine!’
His further speech was cut short by Philippe, who, raising his heavy country whip, struck the physician with all his force with the butt-end upon the temple. Exili staggered back, and then the student, lashing his horse furiously, drove from the hovel with tolerable speed, placing the lantern under the covering, that it might not be seen; whilst Marie, without speaking a word, gazed anxiously behind upon the advancing patrol. In a minute, however, a turn of the road shut them from her sight, and the travellers found themselves approaching the faubourg of La Villette, upon the high-road, without the Porte St. Martin.
It was, as Exili had said, a party of the guard who were in pursuit, mounted, and headed by Desgrais. The active exempt had gone to the Hôtel d’Aubray, as we have seen, and being at last admitted by Françoise, had seen some traces of a departure on the snow, which had drifted into the sheltered parts of the court. But in the street the fall had covered up the wheel-tracks; and, as the fugitives had conceived, he went directly to the Porte St. Antoine. The sentinel, however, told him that no one had passed the barrier; and he then rode briskly along the boulevards to the next gate, near the Temple. Here he learned a tumbrel had gone out of the city but a few minutes before his arrival; upon which he divided his troop into two parties, sending one along the road to La Courtille, whilst with the other he took the same line that Philippe had chosen, these being the only two practicable routes for vehicles without the barrier, and accompanied by the latter escort he soon arrived at the foot of Montfaucon.
Exili had been stunned for a few seconds by the heavy blow which Philippe Glazer had dealt to him; but, recovering himself before the guard came up, he darted back into the hovel, and seizing a piece of lighted wood from the hearth, told La Voisin to save herself as she best might, and then scrambled with singular agility up the steep mound at the back of the house, until he reached the stone-work of the gibbet. This was crumbling, and afforded many foot-places by which he could ascend, until he stood between two of the pillars that still supported the crosspieces, above the hollow way along which Desgrais and his troop were progressing.
The exempt knew the physician directly, as his gaunt form appeared in the lurid light of the cressets, and the rude torch that he himself carried; and he would have ordered the guard immediately to capture him, had not Exili arrested the command by speaking.
‘You seek the Marchioness of Brinvilliers,’ he cried. ‘She was here not an instant back; and you will find her, if you care to hurry, on the grande route.’
‘I call upon you to surrender yourself my prisoner,’ said Desgrais, speaking from below; ‘you may then guide us on the track.’
‘If I had meant to give myself up,’ said Exili, ‘I should have remained below. I have put you on the scent, and that was all I wanted. Farewell!’
He waved his hand to the officers, and disappeared behind the foundation of the masonry. On seeing this, Desgrais sprang
