“Chevalier, I am not only under heavy personal obligation towards you, but the memory of your friendship for me and mine ties me closer to you than you know. I stand high in the esteem of my general, who in turn can command attention to any request. You have approved of my own conduct in accepting service; let me open the way for you to the same honourable career. You have abundantly paid your debt to France; give your arm to your own people. Surely there come times when you dream of 'home.'”
“Captain Nairn,” I answered, “believe me, I can pay you no higher compliment than in saying I receive your words without offence. I am sensible, deeply sensible of the kindness, may I say the affection, which prompts your offer; but 'my people' are wanderers on the face of the earth; my lot is that of the soldier of fortune. 'Home,' Nairn! Though I have never set my foot on my own soil save as an outlaw and a rebel, my heart at times grows faint for it, and the turn of an old song sets my brain aching and my eyes longing, but my only inheritance has been the loyalty which has robbed me of it all. That I am on the losing side is my misfortune; that I have inspired your respect and affection is my reward. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, but do not mention the subject again if you love me.”
One personal gratification the siege brought to me was the renewal of my intercourse with the fair Madame Prévost. Now that I had her truculent husband under my thumb, for I held exposure over him like the sword of Damocles, I was free to see as much of her as I chose.
People eat and sleep, breathe and hope, though danger may lie down with them by night and draw their curtains with the day; at such times the most marked difference is that life goes with a faster foot, so that my intimacy with my charming rescuer grew at a pace altogether disproportionate to the hours.
On the evening of the 24th of July, when capitulation was unavoidable, when our fire was so weak that it was more like funeral guns than a defence, and our one anxiety was to obtain honourable terms, Madame Prévost came to me in a sad state of distraction.
“Chevalier,” she said, “it is hopeless! No matter what the commandant may resolve, we are betrayed. Prévost will force them to accept any terms, no matter how great the humiliation. It is nothing to him so long as he escapes; but it is death to me. I have been despised all these years on account of my connection with him; I have suffered tortures of shame daily through the siege, and now all will be crowned with this height of infamy. I cannot bear it! I cannot look upon it!” And the poor distracted creature fell to sobbing and weeping as if her very heart would break.
When she had recovered somewhat she revealed her design, which was that, should Prévost succeed in forcing the commandant to the disgraceful surrender we all feared, she and I would escape together.
I was much moved by her generous offer, for generous it was beyond a doubt. I have known too much of women not to recognise when full credit should be given to their virtues, and if Madame Prévost had a second thought beyond escaping from the disgrace of the capitulation, then I know nothing of the sex.
“My dearest madame,” I answered, warmly, “'tis quite out of the question.”
“Why? I have seen old Gourdeau, the pilot; his two sons have a boat at my service. They know every hole and corner of the harbour, and will do anything for me.”