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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1940-08-15, Page 6PAGE SIX From The Manor House Mamcgisaiign When I waked it must have been near noon, so I lay still for a time, listening to the cheerful noise of fowls and cattle in the yard without, and to the clacking of a hen above me. The air smelt very sweet. 1 also heard my unknowing host, at whose table I had once eat, two years be fore, talking with bis song who had just come over from Quebec, bring- ing news of my escape, together with a wonderful story of the fight be- tween Gabord and myself, It had, by his calendar, last some three hours, and both of us, in the end, fought as we lay upon the ground. "But pies ently along comes a cloaked figure • with horses, and he lifts m'sieu' the Englishman upon one. and away they ride like the devil towards St. Charles River and Besuport. Gabord was taken to the hospital, and he swore that Englishman would uo have got away le stranger had no fetched hien a crack with a pistol - butt which sent him dumb and dizzy. And there IMI'sieu' Laney sleep snug through all until the horses ride away!" The farmer and his son laughed heartily, with many a "By Gar!' their sole English oath. Then came the news that six tbousand livres were offered for me, dead or living, the drums beating far and near to tell the people so. The farmer gave a long whistle,. and in a great bustle set to calling all his family to arm themselves and join with him in this treasure -hunt- ing. I am sure at least a dozen were at the task. searching all about: nor did they neglect the loft where 1 lay, But I had dug far down. drawing the hay over me as I went en that they '.rust needs have been to smell me cut. After about three hours' poking about over all the :term. they met again outside this building. and I cculd hear their gabble plainly. The smallest among therm the Piping ilaore-boy, he was for spitting me without mercy; and the milking -lass would toast me with a bay -fork, that she would, and six thousand livres should set her up forever. In the midst of their rattling came two soldiers, who ordered them about, and with much blustering be- gan searching here and there, and chucking the maids under the chins, as I could tell by their little bursts of laughter and the "La m'sieu's!" 'which trickled through the hay. 1 am sure that one such tittle episode saved me; for I heard a soldier just above me poking and tossing hay with uncomfortable vigour. But pre- sently the amorous hunter turned his thoughts elsewhere, and I was left to myself, and to a late Lreakfast of parched beans. and bread, and raw ggs, after which I lay and thought; and the sum of the thinking was that I would stay where I was till the first wave of the hunt bed nassed, Near midnight of the second clay I sane out secretly from my lurking - place, and faced straight for the St. Charles River. Finding ;t at high water, I plunged in, with any knap- sack and cloak on my head, and made my way across, reaching the ole posite shore safely. After going two miles or so, I discovered friendly co. vert in the woods, where, in spite of my cloak and dry cedar boughs wrapped round, I shivered as I lay until the morning. When the sun came up, I drew out; and after I was dry again I crawled back into my nest and fell into a broken sleep. Many times during the day I heard the horns of my bunters, and voices near me more than once. But I had crawled into the hollow of a half - uprooted stump, and the cedar brancbes, which had been tut off a day or two before, were a screen. I could see soldiers here and there, armed and swaggering, and faces of peasants and sbopkeepers whom I knew. A function was being made of my escape; it was a hunting -feast, in which women were as eager as their Husbands and their brothers. There was something-devi]ieb in it, when you come to think of it: a whole town roused and abroadto hunt down one poor fugitive, whose only sin was, in themselves, a virtue— loyalty to his country. 1 saw women armed with sickles and iron forks, and lads bearing axes and hickory poles out to a point like a spear, while blunderbusses were in plenty. Now and again a weapon was fired, and, to watch their motions and peepings, it might have been thought I was a dragon, or that they all were hunting La Jongleuse, their fabled witch, whose villanies, are they not told at every fireside? Often I shivered violently, and anon I was burning hot; my advent - are had given me a chill and fever. Late in the evening of this day, my hunters having drawn off with as little sense as they had hunted Inc I edged cautiously down past Beau - port and on to the Montmorenci Falls. I came along in safety, ant reached a spot near the point where Vahan was to hide the boat. The highway ran between, 3 looked out cautiously. I could hear and see no- thing, and so I ran out, crossed the road, and pushed for the woods on the banks of the river. I had scarcely got across when I heard a shout, and looking round I saw three horsemen, who inetautly spurred towards me, I sprang through the tnderbrush, and came down roughly into a sort of quarry, spraining my ankle on a pile of stones. I got up quickly; but my ankle hurt me sorely. 'and I turned sick and dizzy. Limping a little way, I set my back against a tree told drew my hanger. As I did so, the three, gentlemen burst in Want me. They were General 3Ioutcalm, a g(,n- tieman et the Governor's household, and Doltaire! "It is no use. dear captain," said Doltaire. "Yield up your weapon," General 3lontcainl eyed 111e ctu'i- ouelee as the other genilenlau talked in low, excited tones; and presently he made a gesture of courtesy, for he saw that I was hurt, Doltaireee Ater wore a malicious ensile; but when he noted how sick I was, he came and offered me his arm, and was constant in courtesy till I was set up a horse; and with him and the General riding beside me 1 came to my new impris- onment. They both forbore to torture me with words, for I was suffering greatly; but they fetched me to the Chateau St. Louis, followed by a crowd, who hooted at me. Doltaire turned on them at last, and stopped them. The Governor, whose petty vanity was roused, showed a foolish fury at seeing me, and straightway ordered me to the citadel again. "It's useless kicking 'gainst the pricks," said Doltaire to me cynical- ly, as 1 passed out limping between two soldiers; but I did not reply. In another half hour of hitter journey- ing I found myself in my dungeon. 1 sack upon the old 0001-11 of straw, un- touched si1a1.. I had left it; and when the dour ri.ut upon nee. desponding, aching in ell my body, now feverish and r,ow shivering, my ankle in great pain, I cuuid bear up no longer, and I bowed my head and fell a -weeping like 11 woman. XVIII. Now I am come to a period on which I shall not dwell. nor repeat a tale of suffering greater than that I had yet endured. All the first night of this new imprisonment I tossed on my wretched bed in pain and misery. A strange and surly soldier came and went, bringing bread and water; but when 1 asked tbat a physician be sent me, he replied, with a vile oath, that the devil should be my only surgeon. Soon be came again, accompanied by another soldier, and put irons on me. With what quiet- ness I could I asked him by whose orders this was done; but he vouch- eafed no reply save that I was to "go bound to fires of bell." "There is no journeying there," I answered; "here is the place itself," Then a chain was roughly put round my injured ankle, and it gave me such agony that I turned sick, but I kept back groaning, for I would not have these varlets catch me quaking. THE SEAFORTH NEWS "I'll have you grilled for this one day," said 1. "You are no men, but butchers. Can you not see my ankle bas been sorely hurt?" "You are for killing," was the gruff reply, "and here's a taste of it" With that be drew the chain with a jerk round the hurt member, so that it drove me to madness. I caught him by tbe throat and hurled him back epithet the wall, and, snatching a pistol from his comrade's belt, aimed it at his head. I was be- side myself with pain, and if he had been further violent I should straight way have shot him. His fellow dared not stir in his defence, tote the pistol was trained on him too surely; and so at last the 'wretch, promising bet- ter treatment. crawled to his feet. and made 'notion for the pistol to be given him. But I would not yield it, telling him it should be a guarantee of true. Presently the door closed behlud them, and I sank back upon the half -fettered chains. I must have sat for more than an hour, when there was a noise with- out, and there entered the command- ant, the Marquis de Montcalm, and the Seigneur Duvarney, The pistol was in my band, and 3 did not put it down, but struggled to my feet, and wafted for them to speak. For a moment there was silence, and then the commandant said, "Your guards have brought Inc word, Monsieur le Capitaine, that you are violent. You have resisted them, and have threatened them with their own pistols." "With one pistol, monsieur le com- mandant," answered I. Then, in bit- ter words, I told then of my treat- ment by those rascals, and I Showed them how my ankle had been tort- ured. "I have no fear of death," said 1, "but I will not lie and let dogs bite me with 'I thank you.' Death should come but once; it is a damned brut- ality to make one die a hundred and yet live—the work of Turks, not Christians! If you want my life, why, take it and have done," The Marquis de Montcabn whisp- ered to the commandant. The Seig- neur Duvarney, to whom 1 had not yet spoken, nor he to Ole, stood lean- ing against the wall, gazing at Inc seriously and kindly. Presently Ramsay, the Command- ant, spoke, met unkindly: "It was ord- ered you should wear chains, but not that you should be maltreated. A sur- geon shall be sent to you, and this chain shall be taken front your ankle. Meanwhile, your guards shall be changed." I held out the pistol. and he tools it. "I can not hope for justice here," said I, "but n,en are men, and not (logs. and 1 aslt for humane usage till my hour comes, aud niy couture is your jailer," The Marquis smiled, and his gay eyes sparkled. "Some find comfort in dully bread, and some in prophecy," he rejoined. "One should envy your spirit, Captain Moray," "Permit me, your Excellency," re- plied I; "all Englishmen must envy tbe spirit of the Marquis de Mont- calm, tlrolegh none is eneious of his cause." He bowed gravely. "Causes are good or bad as they are ours or our neighbours', The lion has a good cause when it goes hunting for its Young; the deer has a good cause when it resists the lion's leap upon. its fawn." 1 did not reply, for I felt a faintness coming; and at that moment the Sei- gneur Duvarney came to me and put his arm through mine, A dizziness seized me, my head sank upon his shoulder, and I felt myself floating away into darkness, while from a great distance came a voice: "It had been kinder to have ended it last year." "He nearly killed your son, Duvar- ney:" This was the voice of the Mar- quis in a tone of surprise. "He saved my life, Marquis." was the eurrowful reply. "I have notpaid back those forty pistoles, or ever can, in spite of all," "Ah, pardon me, seigneur," was the courteous rejoinder of the General, That was all I heard, for I had en- tered the land of complete darkness. When I came to, I found that my foot had been bandaged, there was a torch in the wall, and by my aide something in a jug, of which I drank, according to directions in a surgeon's hand on a paper beside it, I was easier in all my body, yet miserably sick still, and 1 remained so, now shivering and now burning, a racking pain in my chest. My couch was filled with fresh straw, but in no other wise was my condition altered from the first time I had entered this place. My new jailer was a man of no feeling that I could see, yet of no violence or cruelty; one whose life was like a wheel, doing the eternal round, He did,no more nm' less than his orders, and I made no complaint nor asked any favour. No one came to me no message found its way. Full three months went by in this fashion, and then, one day, who should step into my dungeon, torch in band, but Gabord! He raised the light above his head, and looked down at me quizzically, ' "Upon my soul--Gabord!" said I. "I, did not kill you, then?" "Upon your soul and upon your body, you killed not Gabord." "And what now, quarrelsome Gab- ord?" T questioned cheerfully. He shook some keys. "Back again to dickey -bird's nage. "Look you,' (oath Governor, 'who will guard and bait this prisoner like the man he mauled?' 'No one,' quoth a lady who stands by Governor's (hail,. And she it was 'who had Governor send. me here -even Ma'm'selle Duvarney. And she it was who made Governor loose off these challis." He began to free me from the chains. 1 was in a vile condition. The irons had made sores upon my wrists and legs, my limbs now trembled so beneath .toe litat I could scarcely walk, and my head was very light and dizzy at times, Presently Gabord ordered a new bed of straw brought in; and from that hour we returned to our old relations, as if there had not been between us a fight to the death. Of what was going on abroad he would not tell me, and soon I found myself in as ill a state as be- fore. No Voban came to 01e, ne Dol- taire, no one at all. I sank into a deep silence, dropped out of a busy world, a morsel£ of earth slowly coming to Mohler Earth again, A strange apathy began to settle on me. All those resources of my first year's imprisonment had gone, and I was alone: my mouse was dead; there was no history of my lite to write, no incident to break the piti- ful monotony, There seemed only one hope: that our army under Amherst would invest Quebec and take it. 3 had no news of any movement, win- ter again was here, and it must be floe or six months before any action could successfully be taken; for the St. Lawrence was frozen over in win• ter, and if the city was to be seized 1t must be from the water, with elnr ultaneons action by land. I knew the way, the only way, io take the city. At Sillery, west of the town, there was a hollow in the cliffs, up which men, secretly conveyed above the town by water, could climb. At the top was a plateau, smooth and fine as a parade -ground, where battle could be given, or move be made upon the city and citadel, which lay on ground no higher. Then, with the guns playing on the town from the fleet, and from the Levis shote with forces on the Betiuport side, attacking the lower town where was the Intendant's palace, the great fortress might be taken and Canada be ours. This passage up the cliff side at Sillery 1 had discovered three years before. When winter set well in Gabord brought me a blanket, and though last winter I had not needed it, now it was most grateful. 1 had been tell for months on bread and water, as in my hest imprisonment, but at last -- whether by orders or not, I never knew --he brought me a little meat- every eatevery day, and some wine also. Yet I did not care for them, and often left theist untested. A hacking cough had never left me since my attempt at escape, and I was miserably thin and so weak that I could hardly drag my- self about my dungeon. So, many weeks of the winter went on, and at last I was not able to rise from my bed of straw, and could do little more than lift a cup of water to my lips and nibble at some bread. I felt that my hours were numbered. At last, one day I heard commotion at my dungeon door! it opened, and Gabord entered and closed it after him. He came and stood over me, as with difficulty I lifted myself upon my elbow. "Come, try your wings," said he. "It is the end. Gabord?" asked 1. "Not paradise yeti" said he, "Then I am free?" 1 asked. "Free from this dungeon," he an- swered cheerily. I raised myself and tried to stand upon my feet, but fell back. He help- ed meeto rise, and 1 rested an arm ou bis shoulder, I tried to walk, but a faintness came over me, and I sank back. Then Gabord laid me down, went to the door, and called in two soldiers with a mattress. I was wrapped in my cloak and blankets, laid thereon, and so was borne forth, all covered even to my weak eyes. I was placed in a sleigh, and as the horses sprang away, the clear sleigh bells rang out, and a gun from the ramparts was fired to give the noon hour, 1 sank into unconsciousness. XIX Recovering, 1 found myself lying on a couch, in a large- well -lighted room hung about with pictures and adorned with trophies of the hunt. A wide window faced the foot of the bed where I lay, and through it I could see—though the light hurt my eyes greatly—the Levis shore, on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence. I' lay and thought, trying to discover where I was. It came to me at last that I was in a room of the Chateau St. Louis. Presently I heard breath- ing near Me, and, looking over, I saw a soldier sitting just inside the door. Then from another corner of the room came a surgeon with some cor- dial in a tumbler, and, handing it to me, he bade me drink. He felt my pulse; then stopped and put his ear to: my chest, and listened long, "la there great danger?" asked 1. "The trouble would pass," said he, "if you were stronger. Your lite is worth fighting for, but it will be a struggle. That dungeon was slow poison. You must have a barber," aided he; "you are a ghost litre this." I put my hand up, and found my bair and beard were very long and almost white. Held against the light, my hands seemed transparent. "What means my cooling here?" ask- ed 1. He shook his head. "1 am but a surgeon," Ile answered shortly, mean- while writing with a flourish on a, piece of paper. When Ile bad finished, he handed the paper to the soldier with an order. Then be turned to go, politely bowing to me, but came again and said, "I would not, were 1 you, trouble to plan escape these months yet. This is a comfortable Prison; but it is easier coming in than going out, Your mind and body need quiet. You have, we know, a taste for adventure" ---he smiled— ::but is it wise to fight a burning powder magazine?" "That you, monsieur," said I, "1 am myself laying the fuse to that maga- zine, It fights for me by-andbye." He shrugged a shoulder. "Drink," said lte, was a professional air which almost set me laughing, "good milk and brandy, and think of nothing but that you area lucky man to have this sort of prison.'" He bustled out in an important way, shaking his head and talking to himself, Tapping the chest of a bulky soldier who stood outside, he said brusquely, "Too fat, too fat; you'll come to apoplexy. Go fight the Eng- lish, lazy ruffian!" The soldier gave a grunt, made a mocking gesture, and the door closed on me and my attendaut. This fellow would not speak at all, and I did not urge him, but lay and watched the day decline and night conte dawn I was taken to a shall alcove which adjoined the room, where 1 slept soundly. Early the next morning 1 waked, and there was Voban sitting just out- side the alcove, looking at me. I sat up in bell and spoke to him, and 11 greeted ole in an absent sort of way He was changed as much us I; 11 moved as one in a dream; yet tiler, was the ceaseless activity of the ey the stt,tt, stealthy motion of the hand. lie began to attend me, and I questioned him; but he said he hard orders front mademoiselle that he was to tell nothing—that she, 'is soon as she could, would visit me. About three l'our's after this, es I lay upon the eolith in the large room, clean and well shaven, the door op- ened, and some one entered, saying to my guard, "You will remain out- side. I have the Governor's order." I knew the voice; an instant, and i saw the face shining with expect- ancy, the eyes eager, yet timid, a small white hand pressed to a puts - Ing breast—my one true friend, the jailer of my heart! For a moment she was all trembl- ing and excited, her hand softly clutching at my shoulder, tears drip- ping from her eyes and falling on my cheek, as hers ]ay pressed to mine; but presently she grew calm, and her face was lifted with a smile, and, brushing back some flying locks of hair, she said in a tone most quaint and touching too, "Poor gen- tleman! poor English prisoner! poor hidden lover! I ought not, I ought," she added, "show my feelings thus, nor excite you so." My hand was trembling on leers, for in truth 1 was very weak. "It was 11y purpose," she nu contied, "to conte most quietly to you, but there are times when one Must cry out or the heart will burst." 1 spoke then as a man may who has been delivered from bondage into the aims of love. She became very quiet, looking at me in her grave, sweet way, her deep eyes shining with sincerity. "Honest, honest eyes," said I— "eyes that never deceive and never were deceived." "'All this in spite of what you do not know," she answered. Por an in- stant a look elfish. and childlike cams into her eyes, and she drew back from toe, stood in the middle of the floor, and caught her skirts in her fingers. ""See," she said, "ie there no de- ceit here?" Then elle began to dance softly, her feet seeming hardly to tough the ground, her body swaying like a tall) flower in the wind, her face all light and fire. I was charmed, fascinated. I felt my sleepy blood stirring to the delicate rise and fail or her bosom, the; light of her eyes flashing a dozen colours. There was scarce a sound; her steps could not be heard across the room. All at once she broke oft from this, and stood atilt, "Did my eyes seem all honest e e F. W. AHRENS, Licensed Auction- s, eer for Perth and Huron Counties. Sales Solicited. Terms on Application, Farm Stock, chattels and real estate property, R. R. No. 4, Mitchell. Phone 634 r 6. Apply at this office. THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1940 PROFESSIONAL CARDS MEDICAL SEAFORTH CLINIC Dr. E. A. McMaster, MB., Graduate of University of Toronto, J. D. Colquhoun, M.D., C.M„ Grad- uate of Dalhousie University, Halifax. The Clinic is fully equipped with complete and modern x-ray and other up-to-date diagnostic and thereupttc equipment, Dr. Margaret h'. Campbeit, M.D„ L.A,13.P., Specialist in Diseases in Infants and Children, will be at the Clinic last Thursday in every month from 3 to 6 p.m. Dr. F. J. R. Forster, Specialist in Diseases of the Ear, Eye, Nose and Throat, will be at the Clinic the first Tuesday in every month from 4 to 6 p.m. Free well -baby clinic will be held on the second and last Thursday in every month from 1 to 2 p.m. JOHN A. GORWILL, B.A.,M.D. Physician and Surgeon In Dr. H. H. Ross' office. Phone 5J DR. F. J. R. FORSTER Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Graduate in Medicine, University of Toronto. Late Assistant New York Ophthalmic and Aural Institute, Moorefield's Eye, and Golden Square throat hospitals, London, Eng. At Commercial Hotel, Seaforth, third Wednesday in each month from 2 to 4 p.m. Also at Seaforth Clinic first Tuesday in each month. -53 Waterloo St., Stratford. Telephone 264. MARGARET K. CAMPBELL, M.D. London, Ontario - Graduate Toronto University Licentiate of American Board of Pedi- atrics, Diseases of Children At Seaforth Clinic, last Thursday at- ternoon, each month. AUCTIONEER GEORGE ELLIOTT, Licensed Auctioneer for the County of Iiuron, Arrangements can be made for Sala Date at The Seaforth News. Charges moderate and satisfaction guaranteed HAROLD JACKSON Licensed in Huron and Perth Coun- ties. Prices reasonable; satisfaction guaranteed. For information, write or phone Harold Jackson, 658r12, Sea - forth central; Brueefleld R.R.1. Watson & Reid REAL ESTATE AND INSURANCE AGENCY (successors to James 'Watson) MAIN ST., SEAFORTH, ONT. All kinds of Insurance risks effect- ed at lowest rates in First -Class Companies, The McKiIlop Mutual Fire Insurance Co. HEAD OFFICE-SEAFORTH, Ont. OFFICERS President, Wm. Knox, Londeaboro; Vice President, W. R. Archibald, Seaforth; Secretary Treasurer, M. A. Reid, Seaforth. AGENTS F, Meriel'cher, R.R.1, Dublin; John E. Pepper, R.R.1, Brucefielcl; J. F. Prueter, Brodhagen; James Watt, Blyth; Wm, Yeo, Holmesville. DIRECTORS Alex Broadfoot, Seaforth; William Knox, Londeaboro; Chris Leonhardt, Dublin; James Connolly, Goderich; Thomas Moylan, Seaforth; W. R. Archibald, Seaforth; AIex Moplwing, Blyth; Frank McGregor, Clinton; Hugh Alexander, Walton. Parties desirous to effect insurance or transact other business, will be promptly attended to by applications to any of the above named officers addressed to their respective post- offices, then?" site asked, with a strange, wistful expression. Then she ceme to the couch where 1 utas. "Robert," said she, "can you, do you, trust me even when you see me at such witchery?" "I trust you always," answered 1. "Such witcheries are no evils that I can see." "You're looking downcast, old man. 'What's on your mind?" ".A. piece of my wife's,"