“But you are not recommending it, now—in this little convent matter?”
“All! that’s quite a different affair! There are certain ends that justify certain means—when the Devil must be fought with his own weapons. Ours is of that kind, and we must either use strategy, or give the thing up altogether. By open measures there wouldn’t be the slightest chance of our getting this girl out of the convent’s clutches. Even then we may fail; but, if successful, it will only be by great craft, some luck, and possibly a good deal of time spent before we accomplish our purpose.”
“Poor fellow!” rejoins Ryecroft, speaking of the Wye waterman, “he won’t like the idea of long waiting. He’s madly, terribly impatient. This afternoon as we were passing the Convent I had a difficulty to restrain him from rushing up to its door, ringing the bell, and demanding an interview with the ‘Soeur Marie’—having his Mary, as he calls her, restored to him on the instant.”
“It’s well you succeeded in hindering that little bit of rashness. Had he done so, ’twould have ended not only in the door being slammed in his face, but another door shut behind his back—that of a gaol; from which he would never have issued till embarking on a voyage to New Caledonia or Cayenne. Aye, both of you might have been so served. For would you believe it Ryecroft, that you, an officer of the boasted H.B.R.A.; rich, and with powerful friends—even you could be not only here imprisoned, but déporté, without any one who has interest in you being the wiser; or, if so, having no power to prevent it. France, under the régime of Napoleon le Petit, is not so very different from what it was under the rule of Louis le Grand, and lettres de cachet are now rife as then. Nay, more of them now written, consigning men to a hundred Bastilles instead of one. Never was a people so enslaved as these Johnny Crapauds are at this present time; not only their speech fettered, but their very thoughts held in bondage, or so constrained, they may not impart them to one another. Even intimate friends forbear exchanging confidences, lest one prove false to the other! Nothing free but insincerity and sin; both fostered and encouraged from that knowledge intuitive among tyrants; that wickedness weakens a people, making them easier to rule and ride over. So, my boy, you perceive the necessity of our acting with caution in this business, whatever trouble or time it may take—don’t you?”
“I do.”
“After all,” pursues the Major, “it seems to me that time isn’t of so much consequence. As regards the girl, they’re not going to eat her up. And for the other matters concerning yourself, they’ll keep, too. As you say, the scent’s become cold; and a few days more or less can’t make any difference. Beside, the trails we intend following may in the end all run into one. I shouldn’t be at all surprised if this captive damsel has come to the knowledge of something connected with the other affair. Faith, that may be the very reason for their having her conveyed over here, to be cooped up for the rest of her life. In any case, the fact of her abduction, in such an odd outrageous way, would of itself be damning collateral evidence against whoever has done it, showing him or them good for anything. So, the first work on our hands, as the surest, is to get the waterman’s sweetheart out of the convent, and safe back to her home in Herefordshire.
“That’s our course, clearly. But have you any thoughts as to how we should proceed?”
“I have; more than thoughts—hopes of success—and sanguine ones.”
“Good! I’m glad to hear it. Upon what do you base them?”
“On that very near relative of mine—Sister Kate. As I’ve told you, she’s a pet of the Lady Superior; admitted into the very arcana of the establishment. And with such privilege, if she can’t find a way to communicate with any one therein closeted, she must have lost the mother wit born to her, and brought thither from the ‘brightest gem of the say.’ I don’t think she has, or that it’s been a bit blunted in Boulogne. Instead, somewhat sharpened by communion with these Holy Sisters; and I’ve no fear but that ’twill be sharp enough to serve us in the little scheme I’ve in part sketched out.”