Chapter XXVIII: Foiled!

The clock had just struck ten.

It was a dark and stormy night, and the howling of the wind was the only sound that broke the profound silence which pervaded the spacious mansion.

The young girls had been talking for two hours of their sad past and their radiant future, though it seemed to them that the interchange of confidence had scarcely begun.

But suddenly Ernestine paused in the middle of a sentence, and, turning her head in the direction of Madame Laine's room, seemed to listen attentively.

"What is the matter, Ernestine?" inquired Herminie.

"Nothing, my dear, nothing," replied Mlle. de Beaumesnil, "I was mistaken, of course."

"But what was it?"

"It seemed to me I heard a sound in Madame Laine's room."

"What a timid little thing you are!" said Herminie. "It was probably some outside shutter rattling in the wind you heard and--"

But Herminie, making a sudden movement of surprise in her turn, quickly turned her head towards the door that separated Ernestine's bedroom from the adjoining parlour, and said:

"How strange, Ernestine! Did you notice--?"

"That some one turned the key in that door."

Without replying, Herminie ran to the door and turned the knob.

Further doubt was impossible. Some one had, indeed, locked the door on the outside.

"Great Heavens! what does this mean?" whispered Ernestine, really frightened now. "And all the servants are out. Ah, fortunately, Placide, one of Mlle. Helena's maids remained at home."

And rushing to the bell-rope, Mlle. de Beaumesnil pulled it violently several times.

Meanwhile Herminie had recalled the vague uneasiness the marquis had shown that afternoon when he alluded to the intimacy between Ravil and Macreuse, but though she was considerably alarmed herself she did not wish to increase Ernestine's terror, so she said:

"Don't be frightened, my dear; the person you rang for can explain what surprises you so much, probably."

"But she doesn't come, and this is the third time I have rung for her!" exclaimed Mlle. de Beaumesnil.

Then, trembling like a leaf, she added, in a whisper, pointing this time to the door which separated her chamber from Madame Laine's':

"Listen. Oh, my God! don't you hear somebody walking about in there?"

Herminie made her a reassuring gesture, but Mlle. de Beaumesnil, after listening again for an instant, exclaimed with even greater terror:

"Herminie, I tell you I hear some one moving about! They are coming towards the door. Listen!"

"We'll push the bolt and fasten ourselves in," said Herminie, promptly, hastening towards the door.

But just as the young girl was about to place her hand on the bolt, the door suddenly opened, and M. de Macreuse entered the room.

On seeing him, Herminie uttered a cry and sprang back, while this model young man, turning towards some one who had remained in the next room, exclaimed, in accents of amazement and baffled rage:

"Hell! she is not alone! All is lost!"

On hearing these words, a second intruder appeared.

It was Ravil.

And at the sight of Herminie, he cried, in a no less surprised and angry tone:

"Damnation! that girl here!"

Herminie and Ernestine had retreated to the farther end of the room, and there, clasped in each other's arms as if to afford each other mutual support, they stood, paralysed with fright, and unable to utter a word.

Macreuse and Ravil, at first astounded, and then infuriated by the unexpected presence of Herminie, which seemed likely to ruin their plans, also stood silent and motionless for a moment, gazing inquiringly at each other as if to read in each other's faces what they had better do under such unforeseen circumstances.

The two girls, in spite of their terror, had noted the exclamations of astonishment and dismay which had escaped both Macreuse and his accomplice on finding that Mlle. de Beaumesnil was not alone, as they had anticipated.

The two girls had also noticed the state of consternation in which the founder of the St. Polycarpe mission and his accomplice had been momentarily plunged.

Both these observations served to restore a little courage to the sisters, and, reason coming to their aid, they finally came to the conclusion that together they were as strong as they would have been helpless had either of them found herself at the mercy of these wretches, alone.

So Mlle. de Beaumesnil, realising how great was the danger from which Herminie's presence had saved her, exclaimed, with a tenderness and gratitude which proved the intensity of her anxiety and dread:

"See, Herminie, Heaven has again sent you to act as my protector! But for you I should be lost."

"Courage, my dear, courage!" whispered the duchess. "See how disconcerted the scoundrels look!"

"You are right, Herminie! Such a blissful day as this has been to us can not be spoiled! I have a blind confidence in our star now."

Cheered by this brief interchange of whispered words, the orphans, strengthened, too, by the thought of the radiant future before them, gradually recovered their composure, and at last Ernestine, addressing Macreuse and his accomplice, said, bravely:

"You will not succeed in terrifying us. The first shock is over and your audacity arouses only disdain. In a short time the servants will return, and you will be put out of the house as disgracefully as you entered it."

"It is true we may be compelled to endure your presence for awhile," added Herminie, with bitter scorn; "but in spite of our contempt and aversion, Mlle. de Beaumesnil and I have both been subjected to more severe ordeals."

"What a courageous man you are, M. de Macreuse, to steal at night, with an accomplice, into the room of a young girl you believe to be alone, in order to secure a cowardly revenge for the humiliation that M. de Maillefort, who knows you, inflicted upon you in public!" added Ernestine.

Macreuse and Ravil listened to these sarcasms in silence, interchanging wrathful looks the while.

"My dear Herminie," resumed Mlle. de Beaumesnil, whose countenance was gradually regaining its accustomed serenity, "I may seem very silly to you, and it may be that the great happiness we have experienced to-day has upset me a little, but really all this seems so utterly absurd and ridiculous to me that I can scarcely help laughing."

"I, too, must admit that it seems ridiculous, and even grotesque, to me."

"The discomfiture of these scoundrels is really pitiable," remarked Mlle. de Beaumesnil, bursting into a hearty laugh this time.

"The impotent rage of these conspirators, who excite mirth rather than fear, is extremely amusing," chimed in Herminie, no less gaily.

In fact, the bewilderment of these two scoundrels, who did not consider themselves in the least subjects for mirth, was so ludicrous that the orphans, either because their happiness had, indeed, made them bold, or because they were really brave enough to face this danger unflinchingly, gave way to another burst of feverish, vindictive gaiety,--feverish, because the two girls were naturally excited by the very strangeness of the situation, vindictive, because they were fully conscious of the disappointment and exasperation they were causing Macreuse and Ravil.

The intruders, momentarily disconcerted by the unexpected presence of Herminie, and by the strange hilarity of the young girls, soon began to recover their assurance.

Macreuse, whose drawn features were assuming a more and more threatening expression, whispered a few words in Ravil's ear, whereupon that worthy hastily stepped to the only window in the room, and slipped a small steel chain around the fastening, thus effectually closing the window as well as the inside shutters, and then united the two ends of the chain with a padlock.

This done, it was impossible, of course, to open either the window or shutters from the inside and call for help.

The two girls thus found themselves at the mercy of Macreuse and De Ravil.

The door leading into the sitting-room had been locked on the other side by Mlle. Helena's maid, for it is needless to say that this saintly creature and her attendant were Macreuse's accomplices, but both were ignorant that Herminie was still with Mlle. de Beaumesnil.

While Ravil was thus engaged, Macreuse, whose countenance expressed the most execrable sentiments, folded his arms upon his breast, and said, with portentous calmness:

"My first plan has failed by reason of the presence of this accursed creature (indicating Herminie by a gesture). I am frank, you see. But I have ingenuity in plenty, and a devoted friend. You are both in our power. We have two hours at our disposal, and I will convince you that I am not a person to be laughed at long."

These threats, as well as the tone and expression of the man that made them, were rendered even more terrifying by the solitude and entirely defenceless position in which the two girls found themselves; but if tragical things are once viewed in a ridiculous light, anything that increases the horror of them likewise seems to increase the laughter of the beholder, which soon becomes irrepressible.

Macreuse's threats produced this very effect upon the two young girls, for, unfortunately, as he spoke he made an involuntary movement that caused his hat to slip far back on his head, and this, in spite of his threatening, almost ferocious expression, gave such an odd appearance to his rather broad face that the two girls burst into a fresh fit of merriment.

Then came the accomplice's turn.

The girls had watched Ravil's manoeuvre with even more curiosity than alarm, but when the time came to pass the hasp of the padlock through the last links of the chain, Ravil, who was a little near-sighted, did not succeed at first, and stamped his foot violently in his anger and impatience.

This elicited another such paroxysm of nervous laughter from the two girls that Macreuse and his accomplice, amazed, then as deeply exasperated as if they had been slapped in the face, in the presence of a hundred witnesses, lost their heads, and, quite carried away with ferocious rage, sprang towards the young girls, and seized them savagely by the arm.

As they did so, Macreuse, his face livid, his eyes haggard, and positively foaming at the mouth with rage, but with his unfortunate hat still on the back of his head, exclaimed:

"Have we got to kill you to frighten you?"

"Alas! it is not our fault," said Ernestine, bursting into another fit of laughter at the sight of this alike terrible and grotesque figure. "You can only kill us--with laughter."

And Herminie chimed in.

Infuriated beyond expression, there is no knowing to what violence the two villains might have resorted, but at that very instant the door leading into the sitting-room--the door which had been locked on the outside--was suddenly opened, and M. de Maillefort, accompanied by Gerald, burst into the room, exclaiming, in a voice full of anxiety and alarm:

"Have no fears, my children; here we are!"

But judge of the newcomers' astonishment. Both had rushed in, pale and terrified, like persons who had come to rescue a friend from some great danger. And what did they behold?

Two young girls with brilliant colour, sparkling eyes, and bosoms heaving with laughter, while Macreuse and Ravil stood pale with rage and motionless with terror at this unexpected interference.

For an instant the marquis attributed this strange hilarity on the part of the two girls to hysteria, caused by intense fright, but he was speedily reassured by Ernestine, who said:

"Forgive this extraordinary gaiety, my dear M. de Maillefort, but such a strange thing has happened. These two men entered the house by that back stairway I told you about--"

Original etching by Adrian Marcel.]

"Yes," said the marquis, turning to Herminie; "the key--this morning--you remember, my child. My presentiments did not deceive me, it seems."

"I must admit that we were terribly frightened at first," replied Herminie, "but when we saw the rage and disappointment of these men, who had expected to find Ernestine alone--"

"And their consternation was so ludicrous," added Mlle. de Beaumesnil, "and we felt so perfectly safe, being together, that what had seemed so terrible at first began--"

"To appear positively ludicrous," added Herminie.

"But just as you came in M. de Macreuse was talking of killing us to cure us of our inclination to laugh," remarked Ernestine.

"Did any one ever see the like of them?" the marquis exclaimed, admiringly, turning to Gerald. "Are they not as brave as they are charming?"

"I admire their courage as much as you do," replied Gerald, "but when I think of the shameful audacity of these scoundrels, whom I hardly dare to look at for fear I shall not be able to control myself and so trample them under my feet, I--"

"Nonsense, my dear Gerald, nonsense!" exclaimed the marquis. "Gentlemen do not touch carrion like that even with their feet. The criminal court will attend to them now."

And turning to the model young man and to Ravil, who had summoned up all their assurance with the evident intention of braving the storm, the hunchback said:

"M. de Macreuse, since your sudden intimacy with M. de Ravil began, knowing what you were both capable of, I have had you closely watched."

"A system of espionage, eh?" said Macreuse, with a haughty smile. "I am not surprised."

"Yes, of espionage," retorted the hunchback. "This morning I happened to see you in a locksmith's. You were showing a key to him, and this excited my suspicions. I consequently redoubled my vigilance, and this evening you and your companion were followed here by two of my men. One of those men remained by the door which he had just seen you open with a false key. The other ran to inform me, and I, in turn, sent him to summon the police, who must be waiting for you this very minute at the foot of the stairway by which you effected an entrance here. They will speedily give you and your worthy friend some idea of the annoyance to which persons who enter an occupied house at night by the aid of false keys expose themselves."

On hearing this announcement, Macreuse and Ravil gave a violent start, and looked at each other, their faces livid with fear.

"You are pretty certain to be sent to the galleys, I think," continued the hunchback, coolly. "But M. de Macreuse can play the part of St. Vincent de Paul there, and excite the admiration of his red-capped colleagues by his Christian virtues."

The sound of footsteps was heard in the room of Mlle. de Beaumesnil's governess.

"The commissioner of police has taken the trouble to come for you, as you don't seem inclined to go down," remarked the marquis. "It is certainly very kind in him."

The door opened almost at that very instant, and a commissioner of police, followed by several members of the force, entered, and said to Macreuse and Ravil:

"I arrest you in the name of the law, and I shall now proceed in your presence to draw up an official report of the criminating facts in the case."

"Come, my dear children," said the marquis to Ernestine and Herminie, "let us leave these gentlemen to attend to their own affairs while we go up to Madame de la Rochaigue's apartments to await the return of your guardian."

"The testimony of these young ladies will be indispensable, M. le marquis," said the commissioner, "and I shall do myself the honour to call upon them for it presently."

* * * * *

An hour afterwards, the founder of the St. Polycarpe Mission and his accomplice were both placed in prison, to answer to the charge of having entered an occupied house at night by means of false keys, and of having attempted to intimidate the inmates by threats and violence.

On the return of the baron and baroness, it was decided that Ernestine and Herminie should share Madame de la Rochaigue's room the rest of the night.

As the hunchback took leave of the young girls, he smilingly remarked to them:

"I have accomplished a good deal since I last saw you. The marriage contracts are drawn up, and they will be signed at Herminie's home at seven o'clock to-morrow evening."

"At my home? How glad I am!" said the duchess.

"Is it not always customary to sign the contract at the house of the bride?" asked the marquis. "And as you and Ernestine are so devoted to each other that you are almost the same as sisters--"

"Exactly the same as sisters, you mean."

"It is only proper that Ernestine's marriage contract should be signed at the home of her elder sister."

* * * * *

So all the next day, Herminie, radiant with happiness, was making important preparations in her pretty, dainty room for the signing of the marriage contracts of the richest heiress in France, and of the adopted daughter of M. le Marquis de Maillefort, Prince Duc de Haut-Martel,--an adoption of which the poor musician had not as yet the slightest suspicion.