"Go, hangdog," he said. "Seek another executioner than I."
With a cry--almost pitiful in its tone of misery, vile as the creature was--with a howl of wild despair, Francbois rushed now across the salle d'armes to the other side of it; the side against which the English bombs and cannon balls were being hurled, and there endeavoured to snatch a huge mace out of another trophy of arms. But, suddenly, not only he but Bevill, and also the two affrighted women, started with terror at that which they saw now.
From another door than the one by which they had entered they saw a second figure approaching, creeping towards Francbois; a figure in whose eyes there was a more awful light than even those of Francbois possessed; one whose lips gibbered as the lips of the raving maniac gibber; whose face was flecked with the foam from them. It was the form of Stuven, also free, of Stuven, now an absolute demoniac, that they saw; the form of the man whose thirst for the blood of spies and traitors was at its height. Armed also with an ancient weapon, a thing pointed and sharp like the shell-dag of mediæval days, he crept as swiftly towards Francbois as the panther creeps towards its prey, while uttering incoherent sounds yet telling plainly all that was in his distraught brain by the look that shone from out those awful, scintillating eyes, and by the hideous twitching of that mouth. And Francbois, paralysed with fear, shrieked aloud and turned to flee. At this moment the madman flew with a bound at him, the great two-handled knife was raised--yet it was never fated to be buried in the unhappy wretch's breast.
There came a fresh discharge of bombs and artillery against the wall of the salle d'armes, that wall already so sorely tried; the trembling, half-fainting women, with Bevill now by their side, saw the whole mass bulge inwardly, even as a sail bulges when a fierce gust of wind catches it; a horrible, cracking roar was heard, a blinding dust filled the room. In front of them a fearful chasm yawned as the greater portion of that side of the hall fell in, while carrying below part of the floor, and, at the same time, exposing the whole of the besiegers to their gaze.
Francbois's would-be executioner had found him, and together they had perished.
An instant later Bevill, looking out through the great opening made by the fall of that side of the salle d'armes, observed that an order had been suddenly given by the English for all firing to cease, and knew that, above the Citadel, a white flag must be flying now. Also, he saw the English flag run up upon the outer wall, he heard the soldiers huzzaing and singing the National Anthem--then so new, now known over all the world! he knew that Liége was in Marlborough's hands.
Clasping Sylvia to his heart with one hand, as with the other he held that of Madame de Valorme, he murmured: "The end of these griefs has come," while a moment later he whispered in Sylvia's ear, "Sweet love, all fears are done with. Hope shines resplendent on us at last."
[CHAPTER XXXVI.]
Outside Mynheer Van Ryck's house, a month or so later, there stood a coach upon which was placed a small amount of baggage. By its side, held by a groom who had some considerable difficulty in restraining its restlessness, a bright bay mare emitted great gusts from her nostrils and pawed the stones impatiently--a mare on the corners of whose saddle-cloth were stamped a crown, the letters "A.R." and a pair of cross swords, as was also the case with the holsters and the bridle-plate.
After the fall of the Citadel, and before the French were allowed to march out on condition that they returned at once into France and separated, the whole place had been ransacked by the English troops, and amongst the horses found was one that, later, a mousquetaire said belonged to the English prisoner who should have been shot the day the Citadel fell. That prisoner, being now at liberty, was sent for by orders of General Ingoldsby, and, when the meeting between him and the animal was witnessed, there was no need for him to confirm the statement.