Chauvelin felt as if his head would burst--sneeze after sneeze
seemed nearly to choke him; he was blind, deaf, and dumb for the
moment, and during that moment Blakeney quietly, without the slightest
haste, took up his hat, took some money out of his pocket, which he
left on the table, then
calmly stalked out of the room!
CHAPTER XXVI THE JEW
It took Marguerite some time to collect her scattered senses;
the whole of this last short
episode had taken place in less than a
minute, and Desgas and the soldiers were still about two hundred yards
away from the "Chat Gris."
When she realised what had happened, a curious
mixture of joy
and wonder filled her heart. It all was so neat, so ingenious.
Chauvelin was still
absolutelyhelpless, far more so than he could
even have been under a blow from the fist, for now he could neither
see, nor hear, nor speak,
whilst his
cunningadversary had quietly
slipped through his fingers.
Blakeney was gone,
obviously" target="_blank" title="ad.明显地;显而易见地">
obviously to try and join the fugitives at
the Pere Blanchard's hut. For the moment, true, Chauvelin was
helpless; for the moment the
daring Scarlet Pimpernel had not been
caught by Desgas and his men. But all the roads and the beach were
patrolled. Every place was watched, and every stranger kept in sight.
How far could Percy go, thus arrayed in his
gorgeous clothes, without
being sighted and followed?
Now she blamed herself
terribly for not having gone down to
him sooner, and given him that word of
warning and of love which,
perhaps, after all, he needed. He could not know of the orders which
Chauvelin had given for his
capture, and even now, perhaps. . .
But before all these
horrible thoughts had taken
concrete form
in her brain, she heard the grounding of arms outside, close to the
door, and Desgas' voice shouting "Halt!" to his men.
Chauvelin had
partially recovered; his sneezing had become
less
violent, and he had struggled to his feet. He managed to reach
the door just as Desgas' knock was heard on the outside.
Chauvelin threw open the door, and before his secretary could
say a word, he had managed to
stammer between two sneezes--
"The tall stranger--quick!--did any of you see him?"
"Where, citoyen?" asked Desgas, in surprise.
"Here, man! through that door! not five minutes ago."
"We saw nothing, citoyen! The moon is not yet up, and. . ."
"And you are just five minutes too late, my friend," said
Chauvelin, with concentrated fury.
"Citoyen. . .I. . ."
"You did what I ordered you to do," said Chauvelin, with
patience" target="_blank" title="n.不耐烦,急躁">
impatience. "I know that, but you were a precious long time about it.
Fortunately, there's not much harm done, or it had fared ill with you,
Citoyen Desgas."
Desgas turned a little pale. There was so much rage and
hatred in his superior's whole attitude.
"The tall stranger, citoyen--" he
stammered.
"Was here, in this room, five minutes ago, having supper at
that table. Damn his impudence! For
obvious reasons, I dared not
tackle him alone. Brogard is too big a fool, and that cursed
Englishman appears to have the strength of a bullock, and so he
slipped away under your very nose."
"He cannot go far without being sighted, citoyen."
"Ah?"
"Captain Jutley sent forty men as reinforcements for the
patrol duty: twenty went down to the beach. He again
assured me that
the watch had been
constant all day, and that no stranger could
possibly get to the beach, or reach a boat, without being sighted."
"That's good.--Do the men know their work?"
"They have had very clear orders, citoyen: and I myself spoke
to those who were about to start. They are to shadow--as
secretly as
possible--any stranger they may see, especially if he be tall, or
stoop as if her would
disguise his height."
"In no case to
detain such a person, of course," said
Chauvelin,
eagerly. "That impudent Scarlet Pimpernel would slip
through
clumsy fingers. We must let him get to the Pere Blanchard's
hut now; there surround and
capture him."
"The men understand that, citoyen, and also that, as soon as a
tall stranger has been sighted, he must be shadowed,
whilst one man is
to turn straight back and report to you."
"That is right," said Chauvelin, rubbing his hands, well
pleased.
"I have further news for you, citoyen."
"What is it?"
"A tall Englishman had a long conversation about
three-quarters of an hour ago with a Jew, Reuben by name, who lives
not ten paces from here."
"Yes--and?" queried Chauvelin, impatiently.
"The conversation was all about a horse and cart, which the
tall Englishman wished to hire, and which was to have been ready for
him by eleven o'clock."
"It is past that now. Where does that Reuben live?"
"A few minutes' walk from this door."
"Send one of the men to find out if the stranger has driven
off in Reuben's cart."
"Yes, citoyen."
Desgas went to give the necessary orders to one of the men.
Not a word of this conversation between him and Chauvelin had escaped
Marguerite, and every word they had
spoken seemed to strike at her
heart, with terrible hopelessness and dark foreboding.
She had come all this way, and with such high hopes and firm
determination to help her husband, and so far she had been able to do
nothing, but to watch, with a heart breaking with
anguish, the meshes
of the
deadly net closing round the
daring Scarlet Pimpernel.
He could not now advance many steps, without spying eyes to
track and
denounce him. Her own
helplessness struck her with the
terrible sense of utter
disappointment. The
possibility of being the
slightest use to her husband had become almost NIL, and her only
hope rested in being allowed to share his fate,
whatever it might
ultimately be.
For the moment, even her chance of ever
seeing the man she
loved again, had become a
remote one. Still, she was determined to
keep a close watch over his enemy, and a vague hope filled her heart,
that
whilst she kept Chauvelin in sight, Percy's fate might still be
hanging in the balance.
Desgas left Chauvelin moodily pacing up and down the room,
whilst he himself waited outside for the return of the man whom he had
sent in search of Reuben. Thus several minutes went by. Chauvelin
was
evidently devoured with
patience" target="_blank" title="n.不耐烦,急躁">
impatience. Apparently he trusted no one:
this last trick played upon him by the
daring Scarlet Pimpernel had
made him suddenly
doubtful of success, unless he himself was there to
watch, direct and
superintend the
capture of this impudent Englishman.
About five minutes later, Desgas returned, followed by an
elderly Jew, in a dirty, threadbare gaberdine, worn
greasy across the
shoulders. His red hair, which he wore after the fashion of the
Polish Jews, with the corkscrew curls each side of his face, was
plentifully sprinkled with grey--a general coating of grime, about his
cheeks and his chin, gave him a
peculiarly" target="_blank" title="ad.特有地;古怪地">
peculiarly dirty and loathsome
appearance. He had the
habitual stoop, those of his race
affected in
mock
humility in past centuries, before the dawn of
equality and
freedom in matters of faith, and he walked behind Desgas with the
peculiar shuffling gait which has remained the
characteristic of the
Jew
trader in
continental Europe to this day.
Chauvelin, who had all the Frenchman's
prejudice against the
despised race, motioned to the fellow to keep at a respectful
distance. The group of the three men were
standing just underneath
the
hanging oil-lamp, and Marguerite had a clear view of them all.