When he had gone I began to think and ponder over what had passed. Had I been foolish in being so frank and clear spoken? A word from the Marquis, and I might be returned to the hulks or the prison-yard. Yet in getting out of England lay my only chance. From what had gone before, I understood that it was intended to make a voyage across the Channel in one of the small smuggling vessels that plied an adventurous and remunerative trade along the coast of England, despite the careful watching of the coast-guard vessels and the war-ships. But Monsieur de Brissac's manner had chilled towards me—I felt that. My words had killed the enthusiasm with which he had always addressed me. I half feared that I had been rash.
Notwithstanding this, we made rather a merry party at the gathering that evening. To all intents, nothing had occurred, and not until it came to the breaking up of the little poverty-stricken court, which was held at the mansion of the Comtesse de Navarreins, was there anything said of the approaching departure; but as we left, De Brissac ran his arm through mine, at the same time saying, "I shall walk home with you, if you will permit me, Monsieur de Brienne." We strolled in silence, I waiting for my friend to speak. At last he did so, at my door. "At twelve o'clock to-night you and I will start northwards in a chaise, and to-morrow evening," he whispered, softly, "we will find ourselves in the neighborhood of N——, where we will meet the others, and debark, if the weather permits, in one of the little luggers that cut deeply into the King's revenue. If we land safely on the other side, you had best leave us at once. Leave it all to me. In an hour I call for you."
Before daylight of the next morning Monsieur de Brissac and myself were some thirty miles north of London, driving through the county of Essex. At about ten o'clock we breakfasted at a way-side tavern, where we exchanged our tired horse for two saddle beasts, I having quite a tussle with mine as I mounted, and then we pressed ahead all the afternoon, expecting to be near the little village of N—— some time in the evening. It was damp and chilly for this time of the year; the prospect was not fine in the way of scenery, and my companion was in no talkative frame of mind. It was strange; I was, so to speak, a blind man in the power of his guide, for if I should lose Monsieur de Brissac, I should be in a bad way. At last I knew we were near the sea, for I could smell it in the air long before it burst in view.
I wondered greatly at my patron's knowledge of the road and the by-ways by which we reached this particular bit of the coast. For hours we had ridden across a wind-swept plateau, seamed by many deep-worn paths running in all directions. In the earlier part of the afternoon gibbetlike sign-posts had helped to point us to the right direction, but as it grew toward dusk we saw none of them, and yet never once had Monsieur de Brissac faltered; turning and twisting and yet keeping the same general direction, until he had brought us to the edge of the narrow height along which we were riding. Finally we sighted a little cluster of huts, whose roofs we looked down upon from the top of a great, high sand cliff, and then Monsieur de Brissac pointed.
"Your eyes are good," he said. "Can you see whether there is anything hanging from the window of the house nearest yonder small dock?"
I gazed intently. In the growing darkness I could make out a white rag or something fluttering from the window-sill, and so I reported.
"The signal," was the response to my information. "They are ahead of us, and all is well."
It was no easy job to urge our tired nags down the steep runway, and had my mount backed and filled the way he had when I first put my leg over him, we might both of us have pitched headlong upon the roofs of some of the outlying huts, for they were scarcely more.
I suppose that this little village was considered of too small importance to be watched closely by the government, but it must have been apparent that it was not fishing or net-mending that kept so many stalwart sailor-men there.