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Above the ominous din that told of the business afoot there came now and again the crack of a musket, and dominating all other sounds was the sullen roar of the revolted peasants, the risen serfs, the rebellious vassals of the Siegneur de Bellecour. For time has sped and has much altered in the speeding.
If you were to come to me again as in the woods at Bellecour " She paused abruptly, her cheeks flamed scarlet, and she covered them with her hands. "Suzanne!" he cried, seeking to draw those hands away. "Is it true, this? You care, beloved!" She uncovered her face at last. Again their eyes met. "I was right," she whispered. "Love never dies, you see."
They dared not so much as look at their women-folk, lest they should be unmanned by the sight of those huddled creatures their finery but serving to render them the more pitiable in their sickly affright. In a body the whole thirty of them swept from the room, and with Bellecour at their head and Ombreval somewhere in the rearmost rank, they made their way to the great staircase.
In fact, Citizen, I know of no reason why I should interfere with your freedom at all. On the contrary when I recall the kindness you sought to do me that day, years ago, at Bellecour, I find every reason why I should further your escape from the Revolutionary tribunal.
The Marquis looked, and saw that the secretary had collapsed, and hung limp in his bonds, his head fallen back upon his shoulders and his eyes closed. With a shrug and a short laugh Bellecour turned to his daughter. "You may take the carrion, if you want to. But I think you can do no more than order it to be flung into a ditch and buried there." But she had no mind to be advised by him.
"You are very good, Maximilien," answered the old man, to which the other returned a gesture of deprecation. In this fashion, then, was the matter settled to the satisfaction of the Seigneur's retainers, and upon having received Duhamel's solemn promise that Caron should be carried out of Bellecour, and, for that matter, out of Picardy, before the night was spent, they withdrew.
He informed the nobleman that he was acting under the orders of a Commissioner, who had heard at Amiens, that evening, of the attack that was to be made upon Bellecour. Not unnaturally the Marquis was mistrustful of the ends which that Commissioner, whoever he might be, looked to serve by so unusual an act.
Into the hands of the man whose bride the Marquis de Bellecour had torn from him were now delivered by a wonderful chance the wife and daughter of that same Bellecour. And at Boisvert this briganding Captain was as much to-night the lord of life and death, and all besides, as had been the Marquis of Bellecour of old.
Here was one whose habits were of solemnity and gloomy thought turned, so joyous that he could sing aloud, alone in the midst of sunny Nature, for no better reason than that Suzanne de Bellecour had yesternight smiled as for some two minutes by the clock she had stood speaking with him. "Presumptuous that I am," said he to the rivulet, to contradict himself the next moment.
Meanwhile, leaving the main body bivouacked in the courtyard, he entered the Chateau with a score of men, and came upon the ten gentlemen still standing in the shambles that the grand staircase presented. With the Marquis de Bellecour the Captain had a brief and not over courteous interview.
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