Sir Russell had been wounded in the wrist by a slash from one of his own dinner knives; but the Fort physician had bound it up, and, now that the first alarm was over, he was able to go in search of his bride.
‘Maraquita, my dearest!’ he exclaimed fervently, as he saw the pale little figure which Mr Courtney was supporting, ‘this is a terrible affair, but, thank God, the brutes have not injured you, nor your parents! You must come away from here at once, my love. Take her, Mr Courtney, I beg of you, to her own apartments. This is no sight for her.’
Quita closed her eyes, and shuddered as her glance fell on the prostrate corpses, both black and white, that lay on the ballroom floor, and heard the moans of those to whom the surgeon was already attending; and she was quite willing to go away with her parents, and try and forget the terrible business in sleep.
‘Yes, yes,’ she murmured, clinging to her father; ‘take me away at once, papa—I cannot bear it.’
But when she had advanced a few paces into the room, her eyes opened again from sheer horror, and fell on a sight which paralysed her. There, standing before her, though held back by the pinioning arms of his captors, was Henri de Courcelles, whom she believed to be in America, with such hatred and fury in his glance as she had never seen before.
‘Henri!’ she shrieked involuntarily, before she could prevent herself.
‘So you have escaped!—curse you?’ he answered, glaring at her like a fiend. ‘Then what am I doing here? I must be free, to live to avenge myself on you.’ And without another word, and a sudden effort that took the men who held him completely by surprise, Henri de Courcelles wrenched himself away, and rushed to the open window, leapt into the darkness and was gone.
‘He must have killed himself!’ exclaimed one of the soldiers, looking out upon the night. ‘There is a fall here of about twenty feet.’
‘Order the guard round to take him prisoner!’ shouted Sir Russell. ‘The wall beneath the window is sixteen feet high. They will take him like a rat in a trap. And if not, tell them to shoot him like a dog.’
‘No, no!’ cried Maraquita wildly. ‘They must not—they shall not—he—he—’