"She is my patron saint," he answered.

"Then you are a Parisian?"

"Your lordship is always right."

"But does her saintship do you any good?" I asked curiously.

"Certainly, by your lordship's leave. My wife prays to her and she loosens
the nails in the sorrel's shoes."

"In fact she pays off an old grudge," I answered, "for there was a time
when Paris liked me little; but hark ye, master smith, I am not sure that
this is not an act of treason to conspire with Madame GeneviГЁve against
the comfort of the king's minister. What think you, you rascal; can you
pass the justice elm without a shiver?"

This threw the simple fellow into a great fear, which the sight of the
livre of gold speedily converted into joy as stupendous. Leaving him still
staring at his fortune I rode away; but when we had gone some little
distance, the aspect of his face, when I charged him with treason, or my
own unassisted discrimination suggested a clew to the phenomenon.

"La Trape," I said to my valet--the same who was with me at Cahors--"what
is the name of the innkeeper at Poissy, at whose house we are accustomed
to dine?"

"Andrew, may it please your lordship."

"Andrew! I thought so!" I exclaimed, smiting my thigh. "Simon and Andrew
his brother! Answer, knave, and, if you have permitted me to be robbed
these many times, tremble for your ears. Is he not brother to the smith at
Aubergenville who has just shod my horse?"

La Trape professed to be ignorant on this point, but a groom who had
stayed behind with me, having sought my permission to speak, said it was
so, adding that Master Andrew had risen in the world through large
dealings in hay, which he was wont to take daily into Paris and sell, and
that he did not now acknowledge or see anything of his brother the smith,
though it was believed that he retained a sneaking liking for him.

On receiving this confirmation of my suspicions, my vanity as well as my
sense of justice led me to act with the promptitude which I have exhibited
in greater emergencies. I rated La Trape for his carelessness of my
interests in permitting this deception to be practiced on me; and the main
body of my attendants being now in sight, I ordered him to take two Swiss
and arrest both brothers without delay. It wanted yet three hours of
sunset, and I judged that, by hard riding, they might reach Rosny with
their prisoners before bedtime.

I spent some time while still on the road in considering what punishment I
should inflict on the culprits; and finally laid aside the purpose I had
at first conceived of putting them to death--an infliction they had richly
deserved--in favor of a plan which I thought might offer me some
amusement. For the execution of this I depended upon Maignan, my equerry,
who was a man of lively imagination, being the same who had of his own
motion arranged and carried out the triumphal procession, in which I was
borne to Rosny after the battle of Ivry. Before I sat down to supper I
gave him his directions; and as I had expected, news was brought to me
while I was at table that the prisoners had arrived.

Thereupon I informed the duchess and the company generally, for, as was
usual, a number of my country neighbors had come to compliment me on my
return, that there was some sport of a rare kind on foot; and we
adjourned, Maignan, followed by four pages bearing lights, leading the way
to that end of the terrace which abuts on the linden avenue. Here, a score
of grooms holding torches aloft had been arranged in a circle so that the
impromptu theater thus formed, which Maignan had ordered with much taste,
was as light as in the day. On a sloping bank at one end seats had been
placed for those who had supped at my table, while the rest of the company
found such places of vantage as they could; their number, indeed,
amounting, with my household, to two hundred persons. In the center of the
open space a small forge fire had been kindled, the red glow of which
added much to the strangeness of the scene; and on the anvil beside it
were ranged a number of horses' and donkeys' shoes, with a full complement
of the tools used by smiths. All being ready I gave the word to bring in
the prisoners, and escorted by La Trape and six of my guards, they were
marched into the arena. In their pale and terrified faces, and the shaking
limbs which could scarce support them to their appointed stations, I read
both the consciousness of guilt and the apprehension of immediate death;
it was plain that they expected nothing less. I was very willing to play
with their fears, and for some time looked at them in silence, while all
wondered with lively curiosity what would ensue. I then addressed them
gravely, telling the innkeeper that I knew well he had loosened each year
a shoe of my horse, in order that his brother might profit by the job of
replacing it; and went on to reprove the smith for the ingratitude which
had led him to return my bounty by the conception of so knavish a trick.

Upon this they confessed their guilt, and flinging themselves upon their
knees with many tears and prayers begged for mercy. This, after a decent
interval, I permitted myself to grant. "Your lives, which are forfeited,
shall be spared," I pronounced. "But punished you must be. I therefore
ordain that Simon, the smith, at once fit, nail, and properly secure a
pair of iron shoes to Andrew's heels, and that then Andrew, who by that
time will have picked up something of the smith's art, do the same to
Simon. So will you both learn to avoid such shoeing tricks for the
future."

It may well be imagined that a judgment so whimsical, and so justly
adapted to the offense, charmed all save the culprits; and in a hundred
ways the pleasure of those present was evinced, to such a degree, indeed,
that Maignan had some difficulty in restoring silence and gravity to the
assemblage. This done, however, Master Andrew was taken in hand and his
wooden shoes removed. The tools of his trade were placed before the smith,
who cast glances so piteous, first at his brother's feet and then at the
shoes on the anvil, as again gave rise to a prodigious amount of
merriment, my pages in particular well-nigh forgetting my presence, and
rolling about in a manner unpardonable at another time. However, I rebuked
them sharply, and was about to order the sentence to be carried into
effect, when the remembrance of the many pleasant simplicities which the
smith had uttered to me, acting upon a natural disposition to mercy, which
the most calumnious of my enemies have never questioned, induced me to
give the prisoners a chance of escape. "Listen," I said, "Simon and
Andrew. Your sentence has been pronounced, and will certainly be executed
unless you can avail yourself of the condition I now offer. You shall have
three minutes; if in that time either of you can make a good joke, he
shall go free. If not, let a man attend to the bellows, La Trape!"

This added a fresh satisfaction to my neighbors, who were well assured now
that I had not promised them a novel entertainment without good grounds;
for the grimaces of the two knaves thus bidden to jest if they would save
their skins, were so diverting they would have made a nun laugh. They
looked at me with their eyes as wide as plates, and for the whole of the
time of grace never a word could they utter save howls for mercy. "Simon,"
I said gravely, when the time was up, "have you a joke? No. Andrew, my
friend, have you a joke? No. Then--"

I was going on to order the sentence to be carried out, when the innkeeper
flung himself again upon his knees, and cried out loudly--as much to my
astonishment as to the regret of the bystanders, who were bent on seeing
so strange a shoeing feat--"One word, my lord; I can give you no joke, but
I can do a service, an eminent service to the king. I can disclose a
conspiracy!"

I was somewhat taken aback by this sudden and public announcement. But I
had been too long in the king's employment not to have remarked how
strangely things are brought to light. On hearing the man's words
therefore--which were followed by a stricken silence--I looked sharply at
the faces of such of those present as it was possible to suspect, but
failed to observe any sign of confusion or dismay, or anything more
particular than so abrupt a statement was calculated to produce. Doubting
much whether the man was not playing with me, I addressed him sternly,
warning him to beware, lest in his anxiety to save his heels by falsely
accusing others, he should lose his head. For that if his conspiracy
should prove to be an invention of his own, I should certainly consider it
my duty to hang him forthwith.

He heard me out, but nevertheless persisted in his story, adding
desperately, "It is a plot, my lord, to assassinate you and the king on
the same day."

This statement struck me a blow; for I had good reason to know that at
that time the king had alienated many by his infatuation for Madame de
Verneuil; while I had always to reckon firstly with all who hated him, and
secondly with all whom my pursuit of his interests injured, either in
reality or appearance. I therefore immediately directed that the prisoners
should be led in close custody to the chamber adjoining my private closet,
and taking the precaution to call my guards about me, since I knew not
what attempt despair might not breed, I withdrew myself, making such
apologies to the company as the nature of the case permitted.

I ordered Simon the smith to be first brought to me, and in the presence
of Maignan only, I severely examined him as to his knowledge of any
conspiracy. He denied, however, that he had ever heard of the matters
referred to by his brother, and persisted so firmly in the denial that I
was inclined to believe him. In the end he was taken out and Andrew was
brought in. The innkeeper's demeanor was such as I have often observed in
intriguers brought suddenly to book. He averred the existence of the
conspiracy, and that its objects were those which he had stated. He also
offered to give up his associates, but conditioned that he should do this
in his own way; undertaking to conduct me and one other person--but no
more, lest the alarm should be given--to a place in Paris on the following
night, where we could hear the plotters state their plans and designs. In
this way only, he urged, could proof positive be obtained.

I was much startled by this proposal, and inclined to think it a trap; but
further consideration dispelled my fears. The innkeeper had held no parley
with anyone save his guards and myself since his arrest, and could neither
have warned his accomplices, nor acquainted them with any design the
execution of which should depend on his confession to me. I therefore
accepted his terms--with a private reservation that I should have help at
hand--and before daybreak next morning left Rosny, which I had only seen
by torchlight, with my prisoner and a select body of Swiss. We entered
Paris in the afternoon in three parties, with as little parade as
possible, and went straight to the Arsenal, whence, as soon as evening
fell, I hurried with only two armed attendants to the Louvre.

A return so sudden and unexpected was as great a surprise to the court as
to the king, and I was not slow to mark with an inward smile the
discomposure which appeared very clearly on the faces of several, as the
crowd in the chamber fell back for me to approach my master. I was
careful, however, to remember that this might arise from other causes than
guilt. The king received me with his wonted affection; and divining at
once that I must have something important to communicate, withdrew with me
to the farther end of the chamber, where we were out of earshot of the
court. I there related the story to his majesty, keeping back nothing.

He shook his head, saying merely: "The fish to escape the frying pan,
grand master, will jump into the fire. And human nature, save in the case
of you and me, who can trust one another, is very fishy."

I was touched by this gracious compliment, but not convinced. "You have
not seen the man, sire," I said, "and I have had that advantage."

"And believe him?"

"In part," I answered with caution. "So far at least as to be assured that
he thinks to save his skin, which he will only do if he be telling the
truth. May I beg you, sire," I added hastily, seeing the direction of his
glance, "not to look so fixedly at the Duke of Epernon? He grows uneasy."

"Conscience makes--you know the rest."

"Nay, sire, with submission," I replied, "I will answer for him; if he be
not driven by fear to do something reckless."

"Good! I take your warranty, Duke of Sully," the king said, with the easy
grace which came so natural to him. "But now in this matter what would you
have me do?"

"Double your guards, sire, for to-night--that is all. I will answer for
the Bastile and the Arsenal; and holding these we hold Paris."

But thereupon I found that the king had come to a decision, which I felt
it to be my duty to combat with all my influence. He had conceived the
idea of being the one to accompany me to the rendezvous. "I am tired of
the dice," he complained, "and sick of tennis, at which I know everybody's
strength. Madame de Verneuil is at Fontainebleau, the queen is unwell. Ah,
Sully, I would the old days were back when we had Nerac for our Paris, and
knew the saddle better than the armchair!"

"A king must think of his people," I reminded him.

"The fowl in the pot? To be sure. So I will--to-morrow," he replied. And
in the end he would be obeyed. I took my leave of him as if for the night,
and retired, leaving him at play with the Duke of Epernon. But an hour
later, toward eight o'clock, his majesty, who had made an excuse to
withdraw to his closet, met me outside the eastern gate of the Louvre.

He was masked, and attended only by Coquet, his master of the household. I
too wore a mask and was esquired by Maignan, under whose orders were four
Swiss--whom I had chosen because they were unable to speak
French--guarding the prisoner Andrew. I bade Maignan follow the
innkeeper's directions, and we proceeded in two parties through the
streets on the left bank of the river, past the ChГўtelet and Bastile,
until we reached an obscure street near the water, so narrow that the
decrepit wooden houses shut out well-nigh all view of the sky. Here the
prisoner halted and called upon me to fulfill the terms of my agreement. I
bade Maignan therefore to keep with the Swiss at a distance of fifty
paces, but to come up should I whistle or otherwise give the alarm; and
myself with the king and Andrew proceeded onward in the deep shadow of the
houses. I kept my hand on my pistol, which I had previously shown to the
prisoner, intimating that on the first sign of treachery I should blow out
his brains. However, despite precaution, I felt uncomfortable to the last
degree. I blamed myself severely for allowing the king to expose himself
and the country to this unnecessary danger; while the meanness of the
locality, the fetid air, the darkness of the night, which was wet and
tempestuous, and the uncertainty of the event lowered my spirits, and made
every splash in the kennel and stumble on the reeking, slippery
pavements--matters over which the king grew merry--seem no light troubles
to me.

Arriving at a house, which, if we might judge in the darkness, seemed to
be of rather greater pretensions than its fellows, our guide stopped, and
whispered to us to mount some steps to a raised wooden gallery, which
intervened between the lane and the doorway. On this, besides the door, a
couple of unglazed windows looked out. The shutter of one was ajar, and
showed us a large, bare room, lighted by a couple of rushlights. Directing
us to place ourselves close to this shutter, the innkeeper knocked at the
door in a peculiar fashion, and almost immediately entered, going at once
into the lighted room. Peering cautiously through the window we were
surprised to find that the only person within, save the newcomer, was a
young woman, who, crouching over a smoldering fire, was crooning a lullaby
while she attended to a large black pot.

"Good evening, mistress!" said the innkeeper, advancing to the fire with a
fair show of nonchalance.

"Good evening, Master Andrew," the girl replied, looking up and nodding,
but showing no sign of surprise at his appearance. "Martin is away, but he
may return at any moment."

"Is he still of the same mind?"

"Quite."

"And what of Sully? Is he to die then?" he asked.

"They have decided he must," the girl answered gloomily. It may be
believed that I listened with all my ears, while the king by a nudge in my
side seemed to rally me on the destiny so coolly arranged for me. "Martin
says it is no good killing the other unless he goes too--they have been so
long together. But it vexes me sadly, Master Andrew," she added with a
sudden break in her voice. "Sadly it vexes me. I could not sleep last
night for thinking of it, and the risk Martin runs. And I shall sleep less
when it is done."

"Pooh-pooh!" said that rascally innkeeper. "Think less about it. Things
will grow worse and worse if they are let live. The King has done harm
enough already. And he grows old besides."

"That is true!" said the girl. "And no doubt the sooner he is put out of
the way the better. He is changed sadly. I do not say a word for him. Let
him die. It is killing Sully that troubles me--that and the risk Martin
runs."

At this I took the liberty of gently touching the king. He answered by an
amused grimace; then by a motion of his hand he enjoined silence. We
stooped still farther forward so as better to command the room. The girl
was rocking herself to and fro in evident distress of mind. "If we killed
the King," she continued, "Martin declares we should be no better off, as
long as Sully lives. Both or neither, he says. But I do not know. I cannot
bear to think of it. It was a sad day when we brought Epernon here, Master
Andrew; and one I fear we shall rue as long as we live."

It was now the king's turn to be moved. He grasped my wrist so forcibly
that I restrained a cry with difficulty. "Epernon!" he whispered harshly
in my ear. "They are Epernon's tools! Where is your guaranty now, Rosny?"

I confess that I trembled. I knew well that the king, particular in small
courtesies, never forgot to call his servants by their correct titles,
save in two cases; when he indicated by the seeming error, as once in
Marshal Biron's affair, his intention to promote or degrade them; or when
he was moved to the depths of his nature and fell into an old habit. I did
not dare to reply, but listened greedily for more information.

"When is it to be done?" asked the innkeeper, sinking his voice and
glancing round, as if he would call especial attention to this.

"That depends upon Master la RiviГЁre," the girl answered. "To-morrow
night, I understand, if Master la RiviГЁre can have the stuff ready."

I met the king's eyes. They shone fiercely in the faint light, which
issuing from the window fell on him. Of all things he hated treachery
most, and La RiviГЁre was his first body physician, and at this very time,
as I well knew, was treating him for a slight derangement which the king
had brought upon himself by his imprudence. This doctor had formerly been
in the employment of the Bouillon family, who had surrendered his services
to the king. Neither I nor his majesty had trusted the Duke of Bouillon
for the last year past, so that we were not surprised by this hint that he
was privy to the design.

Despite our anxiety not to miss a word, an approaching step warned us at
this moment to draw back. More than once before we had done so to escape
the notice of a wayfarer passing up and down. But this time I had a
difficulty in inducing the king to adopt the precaution. Yet it was well
that I succeeded, for the person who came stumbling along toward us did
not pass, but, mounting the steps, walked by within touch of us and
entered the house.

"The plot thickens," muttered the king. "Who is this?"

At the moment he asked I was racking my brain to remember. I have a good
eye and a fair recollection for faces, and this was one I had seen several
times. The features were so familiar that I suspected the man of being a
courtier in disguise, and I ran over the names of several persons whom I
knew to be Bouillon's secret agents. But he was none of these, and obeying
the king's gesture, I bent myself again to the task of listening.

The girl looked up on the man's entrance, but did not rise. "You are late,
Martin," she said.

"A little," the newcomer answered. "How do you do, Master Andrew? What
cheer? What, still vexing, mistress?" he added contemptuously to the girl.
"You have too soft a heart for this business!"

She sighed, but made no answer.

"You have made up your mind to it, I hear?" said the innkeeper.

"That is it. Needs must when the devil drives!" replied the man jauntily.
He had a downcast, reckless, luckless air, yet in his face I thought I
still saw traces of a better spirit.

"The devil in this case was Epernon," quoth Andrew.

"Aye, curse him! I would I had cut his dainty throat before he crossed my
threshold," cried the desperado. "But there, it is too late to say that
now. What has to be done, has to be done."

"How are you going about it? Poison, the mistress says."

"Yes; but if I had my way," the man growled fiercely, "I would out one of
these nights and cut the dogs' throats in the kennel!"

"You could never escape, Martin!" the girl cried, rising in excitement.
"It would be hopeless. It would merely be throwing away your own life."

"Well, it is not to be done that way, so there is an end of it," quoth the
man wearily. "Give me my supper. The devil take the king and Sully too! He
will soon have them."

On this Master Andrew rose, and I took his movement toward the door for a
signal for us to retire. He came out at once, shutting the door behind him
as he bade the pair within a loud good night. He found us standing in the
street waiting for him and forthwith fell on his knees in the mud and
looked up at me, the perspiration standing thick on his white face. "My
lord," he cried hoarsely, "I have earned my pardon!"

"If you go on," I said encouragingly, "as you have begun, have no fear."
Without more ado I whistled up the Swiss and bade Maignan go with them and
arrest the man and woman with as little disturbance as possible. While
this was being done we waited without, keeping a sharp eye upon the
informer, whose terror, I noted with suspicion, seemed to be in no degree
diminished. He did not, however, try to escape, and Maignan presently came
to tell us that he had executed the arrest without difficulty or
resistance.

The importance of arriving at the truth before Epernon and the greater
conspirators should take the alarm was so vividly present to the minds of
the king and myself, that we did not hesitate to examine the prisoners in
their house, rather than hazard the delay and observation which their
removal to a more fit place must occasion. Accordingly, taking the
precaution to post Coquet in the street outside, and to plant a burly
Swiss in the doorway, the king and I entered. I removed my mask as I did
so, being aware of the necessity of gaining the prisoners' confidence, but
I begged the king to retain his. As I had expected, the man immediately
recognized me and fell on his knees, a nearer view confirming the notion I
had previously entertained that his features were familiar to me, though I
could not remember his name. I thought this a good starting-point for my
examination, and bidding Maignan withdraw, I assumed an air of mildness
and asked the fellow his name.

"Martin, only, please your lordship," he answered; adding, "once I sold
you two dogs, sir, for the chase, and to your lady a lapdog called Ninette
no larger than her hand."

I remembered the knave, then, as a fashionable dog dealer, who had been
much about the court in the reign of Henry the Third and later; and I saw
at once how convenient a tool he might be made, since he could be seen in
converse with people of all ranks without arousing suspicion. The man's
face as he spoke expressed so much fear and surprise that I determined to
try what I had often found successful in the case of greater criminals, to
squeeze him for a confession while still excited by his arrest, and before
he should have had time to consider what his chances of support at the
hands of his confederates might be. I charged him therefore solemnly to
tell the whole truth as he hoped for the king's mercy. He heard me, gazing
at me piteously; but his only answer, to my surprise, was that he had
nothing to confess.

"Come, come," I replied sternly, "this will avail you nothing; if you do
not speak quickly, rogue, and to the point, we shall find means to compel
you. Who counseled you to attempt his majesty's life?"

On this he stared so stupidly at me, and exclaimed with so real an
appearance of horror: "How? I attempt the king's life? God forbid!" that I
doubted that we had before us a more dangerous rascal than I had thought,
and I hastened to bring him to the point.

"What, then," I cried, frowning, "of the stuff Master la RiviГЁre is to
give you to take the king's life to-morrow night? Oh, we know something, I
assure you; bethink you quickly, and find your tongue if you would have an
easy death."

I expected to see his self-control break down at this proof of our
knowledge of his design, but he only stared at me with the same look of
bewilderment. I was about to bid them bring in the informer that I might
see the two front to front, when the female prisoner, who had hitherto
stood beside her companion in such distress and terror as might be
expected in a woman of that class, suddenly stopped her tears and
lamentations. It occurred to me that she might make a better witness. I
turned to her, but when I would have questioned her she broke into a wild
scream of hysterical laughter.

From that I remember that I learned nothing, though it greatly annoyed me.
But there was one present who did--the king. He laid his hand on my
shoulder, gripping it with a force that I read as a command to be silent.

"Where," he said to the man, "do you keep the King and Sully and Epernon,
my friend?"

"The King and Sully--with the lordship's leave," said the man quickly,
with a frightened glance at me--"are in the kennels at the back of the
house, but it is not safe to go near them. The King is raving mad,
and--and the other dog is sickening. Epernon we had to kill a month back.
He brought the disease here, and I have had such losses through him as
have nearly ruined me, please your lordship."

"Get up--get up, man!" cried the king, and tearing off his mask he stamped
up and down the room, so torn by paroxysms of laughter that he choked
himself when again and again he attempted to speak.

I too now saw the mistake, but I could not at first see it in the same
light. Commanding myself as well as I could, I ordered one of the Swiss to
fetch in the innkeeper, but to admit no one else.

The knave fell on his knees as soon as he saw me, his cheeks shaking like
a jelly.

"Mercy, mercy!" was all he could say.

"You have dared to play with me?" I whispered.

"You bade me joke," he sobbed, "you bade me."

I was about to say that it would be his last joke in this world--for my
anger was fully aroused--when the king intervened.

"Nay," he said, laying his hand softly on my shoulder. "It has been the
most glorious jest. I would not have missed it for a kingdom. I command
you, Sully, to forgive him."

Thereupon his majesty strictly charged the three that they should not on
peril of their lives mention the circumstances to anyone. Nor to the best
of my belief did they do so, being so shrewdly scared when they recognized
the king that I verily think they never afterwards so much as spoke of the
affair to one another. My master further gave me on his own part his most
gracious promise that he would not disclose the matter even to Madame de
Verneuil or the queen, and upon these representations he induced me freely
to forgive the innkeeper. So ended this conspiracy, on the diverting
details of which I may seem to have dwelt longer than I should; but alas!
in twenty-one years of power I investigated many, and this one only can I
regard with satisfaction. The rest were so many warnings and predictions
of the fate which, despite all my care and fidelity, was in store for the
great and good master I served.




Robert Louis Stevenson





_The Pavilion on the Links_


I

I was a great solitary when I was young. I made it my pride to keep aloof
and suffice for my own entertainment; and I may say that I had neither
friends nor acquaintances until I met that friend who became my wife and
the mother of my children. With one man only was I on private terms; this
was R. Northmour, Esquire, of Graden Easter, in Scotland. We had met at
college; and though there was not much liking between us, nor even much
intimacy, we were so nearly of a humor that we could associate with ease
to both. Misanthropes, we believed ourselves to be; but I have thought
since that we were only sulky fellows. It was scarcely a companionship,
but a co-existence in unsociability. Northmour's exceptional violence of
temper made it no easy affair for him to keep the peace with anyone but
me; and as he respected my silent ways, and let me come and go as I
pleased, I could tolerate his presence without concern. I think we called
each other friends.

When Northmour took his degree and I decided to leave the university
without one, he invited me on a long visit to Graden Easter; and it was
thus that I first became acquainted with the scene of my adventures. The
mansion house of Graden stood in a bleak stretch of country some three
miles from the shore of the German Ocean. It was as large as a barrack;
and as it had been built of a soft stone, liable to consume in the eager
air of the seaside, it was damp and draughty within and half ruinous
without. It was impossible for two young men to lodge with comfort in
such a dwelling. But there stood in the northern part of the estate, in a
wilderness of links and blowing sand hills, and between a plantation and
the sea, a small pavilion or belvedere, of modern design, which was
exactly suited to our wants; and in this hermitage, speaking little,
reading much, and rarely associating except at meals, Northmour and I
spent four tempestuous winter months. I might have stayed longer; but one
March night there sprung up between us a dispute, which rendered my
departure necessary. Northmour spoke hotly, I remember, and I suppose I
must have made some tart rejoinder. He leaped from his chair and grappled
me; I had to fight, without exaggeration, for my life; and it was only
with a great effort that I mastered him, for he was near as strong in body
as myself, and seemed filled with the devil. The next morning, we met on
our usual terms; but I judged it more delicate to withdraw; nor did he
attempt to dissuade me.

It was nine years before I revisited the neighborhood. I traveled at that
time with a tilt-cart, a tent, and a cooking stove, tramping all day
beside the wagon, and at night, whenever it was possible, gypsying in a
cove of the hills, or by the side of a wood. I believe I visited in this
manner most of the wild and desolate regions both in England and Scotland;
and, as I had neither friends nor relations, I was troubled with no
correspondence, and had nothing in the nature of headquarters, unless it
was the office of my solicitors, from whom I drew my income twice a year.
It was a life in which I delighted; and I fully thought to have grown old
upon the march, and at last died in a ditch.

It was my whole business to find desolate corners, where I could camp
without the fear of interruption; and hence, being in another part of the
same shire, I bethought me suddenly of the Pavilion on the Links. No
thoroughfare passed within three miles of it. The nearest town, and that
was but a fisher village, was at a distance of six or seven. For ten miles
of length, and from a depth varying from three miles to half a mile, this
belt of barren country lay along the sea. The beach, which was the natural
approach, was full of quicksands. Indeed I may say there is hardly a
better place of concealment in the United Kingdom. I determined to pass a
week in the Sea-Wood of Graden Easter, and making a long stage, reached it
about sundown on a wild September day.

The country, I have said, was mixed sand hill and links; _links_ being a
Scottish name for sand which has ceased drifting and become more or less
solidly covered with turf. The pavilion stood on an even space: a little
behind it, the wood began in a hedge of elders huddled together by the
wind; in front, a few tumbled sand hills stood between it and the sea. An
outcropping of rock had formed a bastion for the sand, so that there was
here a promontory in the coast line between two shallow bays; and just
beyond the tides, the rock again cropped out and formed an islet of small
dimensions but strikingly designed. The quicksands were of great extent at
low water, and had an infamous reputation in the country. Close in shore,
between the islet and the promontory, it was said they would swallow a man
in four minutes and a half; but there may have been little ground for this
precision. The district was alive with rabbits, and haunted by gulls which
made a continual piping about the pavilion. On summer days the outlook was
bright and even gladsome; but at sundown in September, with a high wind,
and a heavy surf rolling in close along the links, the place told of
nothing but dead mariners and sea disaster. A ship beating to windward on
the horizon, and a huge truncheon of wreck half buried in the sands at my
feet, completed the innuendo of the scene.

The pavilion--it had been built by the last proprietor, Northmour's uncle,
a silly and prodigal virtuoso--presented little signs of age. It was two
stories in height, Italian in design, surrounded by a patch of garden in
which nothing had prospered but a few coarse flowers; and looked, with its
shuttered windows, not like a house that had been deserted, but like one
that had never been tenanted by man. Northmour was plainly from home;
whether, as usual, sulking in the cabin of his yacht, or in one of his
fitful and extravagant appearances in the world of society, I had, of
course, no means of guessing. The place had an air of solitude that
daunted even a solitary like myself; the wind cried in the chimneys with a
strange and wailing note; and it was with a sense of escape, as if I were
going indoors, that I turned away and, driving my cart before me, entered
the skirts of the wood.

The Sea-Wood of Graden had been planted to shelter the cultivated fields
behind, and check the encroachments of the blowing sand. As you advanced
into it from coastward, elders were succeeded by other hardy shrubs; but
the timber was all stunted and bushy; it led a life of conflict; the trees
were accustomed to swing there all night long in fierce winter tempests;
and even in early spring, the leaves were already flying, and autumn was
beginning, in this exposed plantation. Inland the ground rose into a
little hill, which, along with the islet, served as a sailing mark for
seamen. When the hill was open of the islet to the north, vessels must
bear well to the eastward to clear Graden Ness and the Graden Bullers. In
the lower ground, a streamlet ran among the trees, and, being dammed with
dead leaves and clay of its own carrying, spread out every here and there,
and lay in stagnant pools. One or two ruined cottages were dotted about
the wood; and, according to Northmour, these were ecclesiastical
foundations, and in their time had sheltered pious hermits.

I found a den, or small hollow, where there was a spring of pure water;
and there, clearing away the brambles, I pitched the tent, and made a fire
to cook my supper. My horse I picketed farther in the wood where there was
a patch of sward. The banks of the den not only concealed the light of my
fire, but sheltered me from the wind, which was cold as well as high.

The life I was leading made me both hardy and frugal. I never drank but
water, and rarely eat anything more costly than oatmeal; and I required so
little sleep, that, although I rose with the peep of day, I would often
lie long awake in the dark or starry watches of the night. Thus in Graden
Sea-Wood, although I fell thankfully asleep by eight in the evening I was
awake again before eleven with a full possession of my faculties, and no
sense of drowsiness or fatigue. I rose and sat by the fire, watching the
trees and clouds tumultuously tossing and fleeing overhead, and hearkening
to the wind and the rollers along the shore; till at length, growing weary
of inaction, I quitted the den, and strolled toward the borders of the
wood. A young moon, buried in mist, gave a faint illumination to my steps;
and the light grew brighter as I walked forth into the links. At the same
moment, the wind, smelling salt of the open ocean and carrying particles
of sand, struck me with its full force, so that I had to bow my head.

When I raised it again to look about me, I was aware of a light in the
pavilion. It was not stationary; but passed from one window to another, as
though some one were reviewing the different apartments with a lamp or
candle. I watched it for some seconds in great surprise. When I had
arrived in the afternoon the house had been plainly deserted; now it was
as plainly occupied. It was my first idea that a gang of thieves might
have broken in and be now ransacking Northmour's cupboards, which were
many and not ill supplied. But what should bring thieves at Graden Easter?
And, again, all the shutters had been thrown open, and it would have been
more in the character of such gentry to close them. I dismissed the
notion, and fell back upon another. Northmour himself must have arrived,
and was now airing and inspecting the pavilion.

I have said that there was no real affection between this man and me; but,
had I loved him like a brother, I was then so much more in love with
solitude that I should none the less have shunned his company. As it was,
I turned and ran for it; and it was with genuine satisfaction that I found
myself safely back beside the fire. I had escaped an acquaintance; I
should have one more night in comfort. In the morning, I might either slip
away before Northmour was abroad, or pay him as short a visit as I chose.

But when morning came, I thought the situation so diverting that I forgot
my shyness. Northmour was at my mercy; I arranged a good practical jest,
though I knew well that my neighbor was not the man to jest with in
security; and, chuckling beforehand over its success, took my place among
the elders at the edge of the wood, whence I could command the door of the
pavilion. The shutters were all once more closed, which I remember
thinking odd; and the house, with its white walls and green venetians,
looked spruce and habitable in the morning light. Hour after hour passed,
and still no sign of Northmour. I knew him for a sluggard in the morning;
but, as it drew on toward noon, I lost my patience. To say the truth, I
had promised myself to break my fast in the pavilion, and hunger began to
prick me sharply. It was a pity to let the opportunity go by without some
cause for mirth; but the grosser appetite prevailed, and I relinquished my
jest with regret, and sallied from the wood.

The appearance of the house affected me, as I drew near, with disquietude.
It seemed unchanged since last evening; and I had expected it, I scarce
knew why, to wear some external signs of habitation. But no: the windows
were all closely shuttered, the chimneys breathed no smoke, and the front
door itself was closely padlocked. Northmour, therefore, had entered by
the back; this was the natural, and indeed, the necessary conclusion; and
you may judge of my surprise when, on turning the house, I found the back
door similarly secured.

My mind at once reverted to the original theory of thieves; and I blamed
myself sharply for my last night's inaction. I examined all the windows on
the lower story, but none of them had been tampered with; I tried the
padlocks, but they were both secure. It thus became a problem how the
thieves, if thieves they were, had managed to enter the house. They must
have got, I reasoned, upon the roof of the outhouse where Northmour used
to keep his photographic battery; and from thence, either by the window of
the study or that of my old bedroom, completed their burglarious entry.

I followed what I supposed was their example; and, getting on the roof,
tried the shutters of each room. Both were secure; but I was not to be
beaten; and, with a little force, one of them flew open, grazing, as it
did so, the back of my hand. I remember, I put the wound to my mouth, and
stood for perhaps half a minute licking it like a dog, and mechanically
gazing behind me over the waste links and the sea; and, in that space of
time, my eye made note of a large schooner yacht some miles to the
northeast. Then I threw up the window and climbed in.

I went over the house, and nothing can express my mystification. There was
no sign of disorder, but, on the contrary, the rooms were unusually clean
and pleasant. I found fires laid, ready for lighting; three bedrooms
prepared with a luxury quite foreign to Northmour's habits, and with water
in the ewers and the beds turned down; a table set for three in the
dining-room; and an ample supply of cold meats, game, and vegetables on
the pantry shelves. There were guests expected, that was plain; but why
guests, when Northmour hated society? And, above all, why was the house
thus stealthily prepared at dead of night? and why were the shutters
closed and the doors padlocked?

I effaced all traces of my visit, and came forth from the window feeling
sobered and concerned.

The schooner yacht was still in the same place; and it flashed for a
moment through my mind that this might be the "Red Earl" bringing the
owner of the pavilion and his guests. But the vessel's head was set the
other way.


II

I returned to the den to cook myself a meal, of which I stood in great
need, as well as to care for my horse, whom I had somewhat neglected in
the morning. From time to time I went down to the edge of the wood; but
there was no change in the pavilion, and not a human creature was seen all
day upon the links. The schooner in the offing was the one touch of life
within my range of vision. She, apparently with no set object, stood off
and on or lay to, hour after hour; but as the evening deepened, she drew
steadily nearer. I became more convinced that she carried Northmour and
his friends, and that they would probably come ashore after dark; not only
because that was of a piece with the secrecy of the preparations, but
because the tide would not have flowed sufficiently before eleven to cover
Graden Floe and the other sea quags that fortified the shore against
invaders.

All day the wind had been going down, and the sea along with it; but there
was a return toward sunset of the heavy weather of the day before. The
night set in pitch dark. The wind came off the sea in squalls, like the
firing of a battery of cannon; now and then there was a flaw of rain, and
the surf rolled heavier with the rising tide. I was down at my observatory
among the elders, when a light was run up to the masthead of the schooner,
and showed she was closer in than when I had last seen her by the dying
daylight. I concluded that this must be a signal to Northmour's associates
on shore; and, stepping forth into the links, looked around me for
something in response.

A small footpath ran along the margin of the wood, and formed the most
direct communication between the pavilion and the mansion house; and, as I
cast my eyes to that side, I saw a spark of light, not a quarter of a mile
away, and rapidly approaching. From its uneven course it appeared to be
the light of a lantern carried by a person who followed the windings of
the path, and was often staggered, and taken aback by the more violent
squalls. I concealed myself once more among the elders, and waited eagerly
for the newcomer's advance. It proved to be a woman; and, as she passed
within half a rod of my ambush, I was able to recognize the features. The
deaf and silent old dame, who had nursed Northmour in his childhood, was
his associate in this underhand affair.

I followed her at a little distance, taking advantage of the innumerable
heights and hollows, concealed by the darkness, and favored not only by
the nurse's deafness, but by the uproar of the wind and surf. She entered
the pavilion, and, going at once to the upper story, opened and set a
light in one of the windows that looked toward the sea. Immediately
afterwards the light at the schooner's masthead was run down and
extinguished. Its purpose had been attained, and those on board were sure
that they were expected. The old woman resumed her preparations; although
the other shutters remained closed, I could see a glimmer going to and fro
about the house; and a gush of sparks from one chimney after another soon
told me that the fires were being kindled.

Northmour and his guests, I was now persuaded, would come ashore as soon
as there was water on the floe. It was a wild night for boat service; and
I felt some alarm mingle with my curiosity as I reflected on the danger of
the landing. My old acquaintance, it was true, was the most eccentric of
men; but the present eccentricity was both disquieting and lugubrious to
consider. A variety of feelings thus led me toward the beach, where I lay
flat on my face in a hollow within six feet of the track that led to the
pavilion. Thence, I should have the satisfaction of recognizing the
arrivals, and, if they should prove to be acquaintances, greeting them as
soon as they landed.

Some time before eleven, while the tide was still dangerously low, a
boat's lantern appeared close in shore; and, my attention being thus
awakened, I could perceive another still far to seaward, violently tossed,
and sometimes hidden by the billows. The weather, which was getting
dirtier as the night went on, and the perilous situation of the yacht upon
a lee shore, had probably driven them to attempt a landing at the earliest
possible moment.

A little afterwards, four yachtsmen carrying a very heavy chest, and
guided by a fifth with a lantern, passed close in front of me as I lay,
and were admitted to the pavilion by the nurse. They returned to the
beach, and passed me a third time with another chest, larger but
apparently not so heavy as the first. A third time they made the transit;
and on this occasion one of the yachtsmen carried a leather portmanteau,
and the others a lady's trunk and carriage bag. My curiosity was sharply
excited. If a woman were among the guests of Northmour, it would show a
change in his habits, and an apostasy from his pet theories of life, well
calculated to fill me with surprise. When he and I dwelt there together,
the pavilion had been a temple of misogyny. And now, one of the detested
sex was to be installed under its roof. I remembered one or two
particulars, a few notes of daintiness and almost of coquetry which had
struck me the day before as I surveyed the preparations in the house;
their purpose was now clear, and I thought myself dull not to have
perceived it from the first.

While I was thus reflecting, a second lantern drew near me from the beach.
It was carried by a yachtsman whom I had not yet seen, and who was
conducting two other persons to the pavilion. These two persons were
unquestionably the guests for whom the house was made ready; and,
straining eye and ear, I set myself to watch them as they passed. One was
an unusually tall man, in a traveling hat slouched over his eyes, and a
highland cape closely buttoned and turned up so as to conceal his face.
You could make out no more of him than that he was, as I have said,
unusually tall, and walked feebly with a heavy stoop. By his side, and
either clinging to him or giving him support--I could not make out
which--was a young, tall, and slender figure of a woman. She was extremely
pale; but in the light of the lantern her face was so marred by strong and
changing shadows, that she might equally well have been as ugly as sin or
as beautiful as I afterwards found her to be.

When they were just abreast of me, the girl made some remark which was
drowned by the noise of the wind.

"Hush!" said her companion; and there was something in the tone with which
the word was uttered that thrilled and rather shook my spirits. It seemed
to breathe from a bosom laboring under the deadliest terror; I have never
heard another syllable so expressive; and I still hear it again when I am
feverish at night, and my mind runs upon old times. The man turned toward
the girl as he spoke; I had a glimpse of much red beard and a nose which
seemed to have been broken in youth; and his light eyes seemed shining in
his face with some strong and unpleasant emotion.

But these two passed on and were admitted in their turn to the pavilion.

One by one, or in groups, the seamen returned to the beach. The wind
brought me the sound of a rough voice crying, "Shove off!" Then, after a
pause, another lantern drew near. It was Northmour alone.

My wife and I, a man and a woman, have often agreed to wonder how a person
could be, at the same time, so handsome and so repulsive as Northmour. He
had the appearance of a finished gentleman; his face bore every mark of
intelligence and courage; but you had only to look at him, even in his
most amiable moment, to see that he had the temper of a slaver captain. I
never knew a character that was both explosive and revengeful to the same
degree; he combined the vivacity of the south with the sustained and
deadly hatreds of the north; and both traits were plainly written on his
face, which was a sort of danger signal. In person, he was tall, strong,
and active; his hair and complexion very dark; his features handsomely
designed, but spoiled by a menacing expression.