“We can but try it,” was Gerard’s reply.
Babillon was absent so long that all began to grow uneasy; but when he came he explained that he had had much to do, and he brought less cheerless news.
“I have been to the spot, monsieur, and found, as I hoped, that it is scarcely watched at all. I have got help, too. A man on whom I can rely as on myself, a fisherman, has his boat on the other bank of the river some distance from the spot, and he will help us. He scaled the wall while I was by and swam the river without being seen, and he will have his boat moored ready for us right under the place where we shall leave. I hope now that we shall win the way out.”
“Are there many soldiers abroad?” asked Dubois.
“Yes, monsieur, search parties, I learnt, hunting for some of your prisoners, friend Pierre, who have escaped from the Castle. But they will not trouble us,” answered Babillon. “I can lead you by ways they will never suspect. Have no fear on that score.”
Gabrielle was roused, and after some words of caution from their guide they set out, Babillon leading them through narrow devious streets and alleys where they met no one.
“We are close to the spot now,” he said at length. “Remain here in the shadow and I will go forward to see that all is well.”
He was absent some few minutes.
“All seems quiet, monsieur,” he reported to Gerard, and they started again. “The wall is yonder,” he said, pointing to it. “I shall climb it and fix the rope in position, and I need not urge you to make all haste in following and to keep silent.”
They watched him dart across the intervening space at top speed, stand for a moment in the deep shadow of the wall, and then begin the ascent. Gabrielle’s heart began to beat fast with excitement and hope, and even the men’s pulses quickened as his black shadow crept nearer and nearer to the parapet at the top.