“There is no limit to man’s cruelty to man, child; we can use this window trick for our end. I can tell you how to find the spring that moves the bars; you can take to your prisoner such a rope as would enable him to escape, open the bars, leave the rope dangling from the casement to suggest he has so fled; and then bring him here, where he can lie hid until we can find means to smuggle him out of the Castle and Morvaix.”
“Would God it were dark already,” exclaimed Gabrielle eagerly. “Till the time comes, the seconds will be as hours.”
At that moment they were interrupted and news was brought that Lucette was asking for Gabrielle.
CHAPTER XVI
PASCAL AND THE SPY
LUCETTE’S visit to the Castle in quest of Gabrielle was the result of several causes which had important bearing upon the position.
In the first place Gerard’s plan to send a second messenger in hot haste to Cambrai, urging his cousin in command of the Bourbon troops there to hurry on to Morvaix, had been delayed. The messenger had been stopped at the city gate.
Pascal, in his monk’s garb, was present and had been greatly disconcerted and not a little alarmed by the mischance. If it meant nothing more serious it must involve delay. The message must be despatched somehow, that was certain, because everything depended upon the troops being brought up at the earliest opportunity.
To attempt this in the daylight seemed impracticable; since the messenger would have to drop from the walls at some favouring point, and the cover of darkness was necessary for such a venture. Moreover, a spot would have to be found where the thing could be done; and neither Pascal nor any of his men knew enough of the city to select one. There was, further, the imminent risk that the courier, being on foot, might be intercepted and so the whole plan fail.
But in this dilemma, help came most unexpectedly. A stranger accosted Pascal, and recognizing him as the monk who had stood between the citizens and the crowd in the market place, offered his assistance. He was, he said, the brother of Babillon the smith, the murdered man.
After a few pointed questions Pascal decided to accept his help, and left him in the care of his men, while he made fresh plans. He resolved that two couriers should go to Cambrai by separate paths, each carrying a despatch; and in view of the grave risks he decided to be one of them.