The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 259: what you’re looking at

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248 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. ¢ you—we flee together—and in happiness we dwell for the remainder of our days!” Finette agreed to all that De Margaux sug- gested: he ted his instructions relative to the files and the cord; and he explained to her what drug she was to purchase at the chemist’s, and with what quantity of spirits she was to mix it. Everything was arranged between them: the infatuated girl gave the captive the wine and the tobacco which she had brought: he pressed to his lips the hand that was passed through the guichet -—she closed the trap-door—and tripped away across the court: while again her heart was beating with hope—her cheeks covered with blushes. In about a quarter of an hour Finette returned to the guichket, and gave the captive the files and the cord. The joy which he experienced at this proof of her continued infataation on his behalf, infused an almost real enthusiasm into the language that he again addressed to her: her hand was again pressed to his lips—and again did she flit away with palpitating bosom and blushing cheeks, - CHAPTER CXXXITI, THE STROLLING PLAYERS, Ir was about half-past ten o’clock, and the night was tolerably dark,—when the sentinel pacing to and fro on the opposite side of the moat, fancied that he heard light footsteps approaching. He stopped, and was almost immediately accosted by a female enveloped in a cloak. In accordance with her station aad with the custom of her coun- try, she wore no bonnet—but a very neat cap, somewhat coquettishly adorned with pink ribbons. The hood of her cloak was purposely thrown back, so that her face might be recognised if the soldier should happen to be acquainted with her—which she knew to be most probable, inasmuch as the regiment hed been long in the town, and every private soldier in it hed over and over again mounted guard at the principal entrance of the prison as well as on the bank of the moat in the rear. “Ah! Mademoiselle Finette!” exclaimed the eentinel: “how happens it that you are ont so late ?” “TI am going to see a friend who has suddenly been taken very ill: she lives in this direction—a little way farther on—upon the outskirt of the town—and as she is not very well off, I am taking her a bottle of brandy.” “ Brandy for an invalid!” ejaculated the senti- | De nel jocosely, bag not with the slightest ecintilla- tion of suspicion that any treachery was intended. “What can the malady be? Is it cholera ?” “Something of that kind,” responded Finette. “ At all events my father told me I had better take a bottle of brandy with me: and I havo it here in my basket.’’ “The invalid will not require it all, Made- mowelle Finette,” said the soldier: “and there- Oor@———..”” “Ob! I dare say,” interjected the maiden, as if quite ingenuously, “her hasband will help her to dispose of it. All men are Yond of brandy-——” “ And no one more ao than myself,” rejoined the sentinel with a laugh: and then he smacked his lips significantly. “Oh, I did not understand!” asid Finette, now laughing likewise. “You shall have a taste and be welcome too!” Thus speaking, the young woman prodaced the bottle from her basket, and handed it to the soldier. He lowered his firelock until the butt rested upon the ground; and taking the cork from the bottle, applied the latter to his lips. The draught he imbibed was a long one; and scarcely had he given back the bottle into Finstte’s hand, when he was seized with a sadden disziness: he staggered=—-the musket fell forward upon the ground—and the word “ Treachery !” escaped his lips. But it was only uttered lowly; and the next instant he tumbled heavily backward, with ao mingled moaning and gasping voice. Finette was seized with affright: the apprehension smote her that he was dead: but the next instant she re. covered her self.possession, as she recollected the information De Margaux had given her as to the mode in which the soporific would operate. Thea she drew forth a white kerchief, which she waved for a few moments; and as she desisted, a slight splash in the water at the foot of the tower made her aware that her signal had been discerned through the obscurity of the night. It was the rope which De Margaux lowered from the window. He had worked well during the three or four hours which had elapsed since he received the files from the hand of Finette. The fetters were no longer upon his limbs: one of the massive bars of the window had been eaten through with the iron teeth of the file: no misadventure had occarred to interfere with his plan of escape. And now Finette, as she stood full of anxious suspense on the verge of the moat, hebeld a dark form issuing forth from the window of thé tower—then de- scending by means of the rope—then plashiag in the water. The moat was very deep, and at that spot about thirty yards wide: but De Margaux was an excellent swimmer—he struck out—and in a few moments reached the bank where Finstte so anxiously awaited him, and on which the un- conscious sentinel lay. But the noise of the gurgling water, es he glided rapidly through it, had prevented Finette’s cars from catching the sounds of footsteps that were advancing across the field which stretched beyond the moat towards the open country. Thus, at the very instant that the now overjoyed maiden extended her hand to assist ax up the bank, a cry of alarm was thundered forth close behind her. A shriek from her lipe: it was the voice of her father which had spoken! “Help! help! an escape!” he vociferated. * Good heavens, Finette!—Vile girl!—Ah, mis- ereant !” These were the ejaculations which in rapid sue~- cession burst from the turnkey’s lips; and then he grappled with De Margaux. Bat the struggle lasted only for an instant: De Margaux possessed the strength of ten thousand: desperation rendered him invincible. He hurled the turnkey away COMME HOG