The MS. in a Red Box Part 26

CHAPTER XXII

The earl maintained a great retinue and a kind of military state, and the courtyard of his castle was alive this morning with pages and serving-men in his livery, exercising or bustling about on various errands; but I had little fear any of them would know me, for not many of the gentlemen of the isle chose to enter his train, nor did the common folk relish the restraint and weariness of his service, so the bulk of those who wore his colours were enlisted from distant parts of the country. My confidence was justified, no one accosting me or taking any heed of me. I told the porter, using the style of speaking which matched my apparel, I had tidings for the earl of the first importance. He conducted me to a little room, where he bade me wait the leisure of the steward and left me. The door of the room stood ajar, and I heard voices in a room opposite, one of them being Boswell's. Needless to say I listened with both ears.

"Oh, sir, persuade the earl to hear me for one moment--I beg for only a moment."

"You do but waste my time. I tell you the earl will not see you."

"Then for pity's sake, good Master Nicholas, go you to him and let him know Vavasour is found. He is in hiding at Lindholme. If the earl will order a dozen men to go with me, the murderer shall be in his hands this afternoon. The frost makes the bog like stone."

"His lords.h.i.+p shall hear this, certainly."

"And beg him to spare my girl until I bring Vavasour. Entreat him to be so far merciful, Master Nicholas!"

"I will let you know his lords.h.i.+p's pleasure," answered the steward, and crossed the pa.s.sage to the room in which I awaited him.

"And what is your business, my man?" he asked loftily, toying with his gold chain of office.

"To give up the man that killed my Lord Sheffield and get my reward," I answered in rustic fas.h.i.+on.

"And where is the man?"

"By your leave, that is for his lords.h.i.+p's ear."

"Art insolent, knave? May'st take thyself off. Thy information is late. We happen to have one of the murderer's familiars on the rack."

"Who knows no more than you do."

"Which chances to be all that is needful. In a few hours we shall have the villain."

"If I give him up to you, not else. 'Tis a fool's errand to go to Lindholme to look for him."

"Ah! how know you that? To be sure the doors were open. There's a big reward offered for the apprehension of the rascal, and a percentage is due----"

"You shall have one pound out of every ten," I broke in. While this man delayed and chaffered, poor Bess might be suffering horribly.

"'Tis a bargain; follow me," he said.

He led me to the chamber in the tower which, I knew, was used for "questioning" accused prisoners and stubborn witnesses. Bidding me remain outside, he entered, closing the door behind him, and in a minute reappeared and beckoned me in. The old earl sat wrapped in furs on one side of the hexagonal room. Behind him stood a man whom I took to be a physician; in the corner, to the earl's right hand, stood another with writing materials on a small, high table in front of him.

The rack lay at his lords.h.i.+p's feet, two stout fellows at each end of it, with long staves in their hands, the ends inserted in the sockets of the poles on which the cords are wound. Bess was stretched by the wrists and ankles, so that no part of her body touched the floor, with nothing to cover her save a short smock. On the instant she knew me, and a hot flush came into her face; and I turned away my eyes unable to bear the sight of her pain and shame. For a moment the same red haze came over my sight as I saw when Staniforth fell by my side at Thorne, and a mad humour of smiting them that did the cruelty seized me. But I was brought to my senses by the thin, piping voice of the old n.o.bleman--

"My steward informs me you pretend to know where Vavasour is to be found."

How hard he strove to control himself! But his voice shook with eager desire.

"You shall have him safe within the hour, my lord, if you will give me the reward I ask."

"You speak positively, fellow, of the capture of a man who has evaded all pursuits for more than a month."

"He has not the ghost of a chance to escape me, my lord. You shall have him as fast as a bird in a cage."

"But you want a larger reward than a hundred pounds? How much?"

"I don't want a penny, my lord. I ask for what will cost you nothing."

"Shalt have it, whatever it is, only make thy word good," said he, leaning forward, his eyes fixed on me.

"The boon I ask is liberty for the prisoner on the rack."

"Release her," he ordered. "And now where is Vavasour."

"Here, my lord--I am he."

The earl rose from his seat, and sank back again, staring. The clerk let fall the pen with which he had been making notes. The four men who had lowered Bess to the floor gazed on me open-mouthed.

She was the first to speak. "Your lords.h.i.+p, this is a poor fellow who has had his head turned by trouble, and his craze is to think himself Frank Vavasour; but his true name is Jack Unwin. He has J.U. tattooed on his chest."

At a sign from the earl, the men laid hands on me and bared my breast, while the old n.o.bleman sat choking with rage and mortification, glaring from me to Bess, and from Bess to me.

"My lord," said I, "you have given me your word to let the prisoner go free. Her subsequent lie, meant to s.h.i.+eld and save me, will not hinder the fulfilment of your promise. As for these marks on my breast, and these scars on my face, the man who inflicted them is now in your steward's room, and may be compelled to say why he made them, if that be your pleasure. But of a surety I am Frank Vavasour, at one time your son Edmund's boyish friend, and familiar with everything in this castle."

The earl rubbed his hands. "Vavasour, a.s.suredly," he said. "The matchless impudence proves the breed."

He turned to Bess, who had taken her stand in the utmost shadow she could find.

"Get you gone, jade, before I order you a whipping."

Then he gave instructions to the steward and the scribe.

"Nicholas, bring hither the fellow Boswell, saying nothing of what has pa.s.sed here. Fetch your book of depositions and informations, Pennington."

Bess looked at me reproachfully as she went out, and I answered her with a smile, glad to note she walked not amiss for one who had been stretched on the rack. For the minute or two, while the steward and clerk were absent, the earl leaned back in his chair, gloating on me like a cat on the mouse she has struck. When they returned, he said--

"Boswell, look at this fellow, who says he is Frank Vavasour. What sayest thou?"

For half a second the gipsy hesitated.

"Quick, man, speak the truth, or----" and his lords.h.i.+p finished his sentence by a motion of the hand toward the rack.

"It is the man, your lords.h.i.+p."

"Pennington, read me the description of Vavasour given in our proclamation."

When the clerk had done so, the earl turned on Boswell.