They halted upon the road after some hours, and rested until morning, taking turns in watching the litter; but Péron could not close his eyes, for he was compelled to be prepared for any emergency and to defend his trust. Never did a night drag more slowly, for he was convinced that they only waited for light to examine their prisoner here, in the forest, where there was less danger of interruption. And he was right, as the event proved; for at dawn his captors were up and stirring, some of the men preparing breakfast over a fire of fagots, while M. de Vesson and his friends held a brief conference and then ordered the prisoner from his litter. Guerin Neff—no longer wearing the habit of a clerk, but in his proper character as a ruffianly soldier—and another man succeeded in dragging Péron before this tribunal. When they first approached the litter, he had thrust the silver ball of Père Matthieu into his mouth and this made speech impossible, so he decided to play the rôle of sullen endurance, refusing either to speak or move at the order of his captors, a part which they seemed to regard as only natural and not worth their consideration. The two worthies brought him before M. de Vesson and the two cardplayers of the inn. With them was the younger Vesson, the fop of the Rue St. Thomas du Louvre, and Péron at once concluded that he had been the other mask, which accounted for the gleam of triumph in his eyes, the gratified malice of a small nature. The four men stood on a little mound under a beech-tree away from the highroad, and surrounded by their followers, numbering in all fifteen stout soldiers. Péron, bound as he was, stood small chance of escape, but he understood that a man of M. de Vesson’s rank and character intended no lawless violence if he could accomplish his ends without it. He saw now that the two Vessons were father and son, for there was a marked likeness, although the elder man had a face of far more force and nobility. The four noblemen wore the rich dresses suited to their condition, and were in strange contrast to their bound and dishevelled captive, although Péron measured them with a glance of proud contempt. There was a significant silence for a few moments after the arrival of the prisoner and his guards, and then the elder Vesson, who seemed to be not only the senior but the leader of the party, spoke, addressing Péron in a tone of haughty command.
“Young man,” he said, “you are known to be a spy and a go-between for one you wot of. If you will make a full confession of the whole matter and give up any papers or information which you have, without further delay, you need fear no personal injury; but if you continue your stubborn resistance, you must take the consequences.”
He paused, waiting for the prisoner’s reply; but Péron, by force, was silent, and he assumed an air of sullen obstinacy to suit his speechlessness. The cavaliers around M. de Vesson were manifestly impatient and dissatisfied because any leniency was shown, and that nobleman’s son interrupted the pause.
“He is a stubborn devil as well as a braggart and a bully,” he remarked scornfully, the recollections of Péron’s treatment of him having left a sting that rankled. “You will get nothing from him unless you break his neck.”
Convinced that Péron did not intend to make terms by any act of treachery, the elder Vesson made a sign to his guards.
“Search him, Guerin,” he said sharply, “and be thorough, for we deal with one as cunning as a fox in his devices to obtain messages with impunity.”
The two soldiers did not need his injunctions, and they did their work so thoroughly that Péron feared that they would even find the cardinal’s ring in its hiding-place in the lining of his coat, but they did not; and more to their astonishment there were no papers, not a scrap of writing on his person. They searched his stockings and his boots, but in vain, and the noblemen looked on in evident disgust.
“He carries the message in his mind,” remarked M. de Vesson, in a tone of sharp disappointment.
“Then it is best to make short work of his head and the message as well,” replied one of the others, fiercely.
“Perhaps he can be bought,” suggested another, in an undertone.