Shrewsbury: A Romance

  CHAPTER XXVII

  The terror that had gripped me on their first entrance, and drivingall the blood in my body to my heart had there set it boundingmadly--this terror I should vainly try to describe to persons who havenever been in such a situation or within a few feet of death, as Ithen found myself. That, reckless and driven to the wall, theconspirators would sacrifice me to their vengeance if they discoveredme I felt certain; and at any moment they might come up and discoverme. Yet behind me were the confining walls of the rooms whence I knewof no exit, and before me, where alone evasion seemed to be possible,the open door of the room below, and the flood of light that issuedfrom the doorway, forbade the attempt. I lay sweating and listeningtherefore, while they snarled and cursed in the black mood of menbetrayed and hopeless; and yet because of the chance that after allthey might go out as they had come, I could so far keep my terrorwithin bounds.

  Not so, when I heard Ferguson bid the man mount and fetch the keg. Hadhe come without a light I might still have controlled myself and keptquiet; and holding my breath though I were suffocated, and silencingmy heart though I died, might have lain and let him pass in thedarkness. Nay, had I crouched low, he need not have observed me with alight; for I was a little beside the stairhead, and to enter the roomwhence I had broken out he need not face me. But when I heard himstumbling upwards, a sudden sense of the loneliness of the house inthat far corner of town came on me; and with it, an overwhelmingperception of my helplessness and of the life and death struggle towhich the men below were committed--so that death seemed to be in theair; which together so far overcame me that I did the last thing Ishould have expected. As the man came up the stairs, the light in hishand, I rose up and stood, gasping at him.

  He paused and held up the light. "The devil!" he said, staring. Andthen, "Who the ---- are you? Here, Ferguson! Here's your man!"

  The only answer from below was a roar for liquor.

  "What are you doing here?" he went on, puzzled as much by my silenceas my presence.

  "I am--going," I stammered; a desperate hope rising in my breast atsight of the man's perplexity. He might let me pass.

  For aught I know he would have done so; and it is possible that Imight have gone unseen by the open door below and gained the street.But as he stood staring, a second man came into the passage, andlooked up and saw me. "Hallo!" he said. "Who is that?"

  "Ferguson's man," Keyes answered. "But, boil me, if I know what is thematter with him!"

  The other called Ferguson and he came out, and saw me; looked, andwith a scream of rage, sprang up the stairs. In the fury of hiswrath--he threw himself on me so suddenly and with so much violenceand intention that I was a child in his hands; and but for the other'sexertions, who not understanding the matter tore him from me, I musthave been choked out of hand. As it was I was black in the face,dizzy, and scarcely conscious when they freed me from him: nor in muchbetter case for the respite. For with all they could do he would notrelease my shoulder, but dragging me down, cried breathlessly andcontinuously to the others to listen--to listen! That he had thetraitor! that I was the informer! the spy, the blood-seller! And withthat, and as he partly forced and partly tugged me down the menthickened round me, until dragged into the lighted room I found myselfhemmed in by a circle of lowering faces and gloomy eyes, a circlethat, look where I might, presented no breach or chance of escape, noface that pitied or understood. He who seemed to be in highestauthority among them--afterwards I knew him for Charnock, theunfrocked Fellow of Magdalen, who suffered with King and Keyes--didindeed make Ferguson let me go; thrusting him back and calling on himto tell his tale, and have done with his blasphemy. But though Iturned that way in momentary hope of aid, I read no encouragement in aface as stern and relentless as it was fanatical. A lamp hooked highon one wall, and so that it threw its light downwards, obscured halfthe circle, and flung a bright glare on the other half; but in lightor shade, seen or unseen, and whether drink flushed it, or passionblanched it, every face that met my shrinking gaze seemed to beinstinct with coming doom.

  In such situations fear, which spurs some minds, paralyses others.Vainly I tried to think, to frame a defence, to deny or avoid. Theglare of the lamp dazzled and confused me. To Ferguson's passionateiterations, "The Lord has delivered him into our hands! I tell you,the Lord has delivered him into our hands! There is your informer! Iswear it! I can prove it!" I could find no answer except a feeble, "Iam not! I am not!" which I continued to repeat--while one plucked methis way that he might see me better, and another that way--untilKeyes struck me on the mouth, and thrusting me back bade me be silent.

  "And you, too, Mr. Ferguson," Charnock said, raising his hand to stillthe tumult, "have done with your blasphemy. And talk plainly. Say whatyou know, and have no fear; if what you allege be proved, we will dojustice on him."

  "Ay, by----!" cried Cassel, the swearer. "A life for a life."

  "But, first, what do you know?" Charnock continued brusquely. "Speakto the point. We must be gone by midnight if we are to saveourselves."

  Then, and then only, I think, Ferguson, hitherto blinded by rage,became sensible of the fact that he stood himself in a dubiousposition; and that to tell all, and particularly to reveal the visitwhich the Secretary had paid to him at his lodgings, would, even withthe addition of the attempt he had made on the Duke's life, place hisconduct in a light far from favourable. Not only were the men beforehim in no mood to draw fine distinctions, or take all for granted, butit was on the credit of his name and as his tool that I had come to bemixed up in the matter and gained my knowledge of it. It took no greatacuteness, therefore, to foresee that their suspicions, once roused,they would punish first and prove afterwards, and be as ready to turnon the master as the man.

  These, when I came to review the scene afterwards, coolly and insafety, were, I had no doubt, the reflections that gave Fergusonpause at the last moment, and occasioned a kind of fit into whichhe fell at that--his eyes glaring, his jaws moving dumbly, andhis hands springing out in uncouth gestures, like those of a manhalf-paralysed--a fit which at the time was set down to pure rage anda temper of mind always bordering on the insane. I suppose that inthat moment, and under cover of that display, his crafty brain, apt insuch crises, did its work, for when he found his voice he had his talepat; and where truth and a lie most ingeniously and sometimesinexplicably mixed would scarcely serve his turn or win him credence,he imposed on them, even on Charnock, by pure scorn and an air ofsuperior knowledge.

  "What I know?" said he. "You shall have it. It is enough to blast himten times. To-day it happened that the Secretary came to me to mylodgings."

  For a moment the roar of surprise which followed this statement,silenced him. But in a moment he recovered himself.

  "Ay!" he said, looking round him, defiantly. "The Secretary. What ofit? Do you think that you know everything, or that everything is toldto you? To-day, I say, the Duke of Shrewsbury came to my lodgings."

  "Why?" cried Charnock, between his teeth. "Why?"

  "Why?" Ferguson answered. "Well, if you will have it, to send amessage through me to the other Duke, as he has done three timesbefore since his Grace has been in England."

  "To the Duke of Berwick?"

  "What other Duke is there?" the plotter asked, scornfully.

  "But G----! If the Secretary knows that his Grace is in England----"

  "Well?"

  "What will he not know?"

  "I cannot say what he will not know, Mr. Charnock," the plotteranswered, with a cunning smile that brought his wig to his eyebrows."But I can say what he did not know. He knew nothing of your littlebusiness. For the rest, when he left me I missed my man here, andcoming to enquire, learned that he had been seen to join the Secretaryat the door of the house, speak to him, and go away with him. That wasenough for me. I changed my lodging, slipped away here, and had beenhere an hour when you came. As soon as you said that some one hadpeached to-day I knew who it was. Then Keyes cried that he was here,and th
ere he was."

  "But how did he come to be here?" Charnock asked sternly, and withsuspicion.

  "God knows!" said Ferguson, shrugging his shoulders; "I don't."

  "You did not bring him?"

  "Go to, for a fool! Perhaps he came to listen, perhaps he was sent. Heknew of this place. For the rest, I have told you all I know, and itis enough or should be. Hang the dog up! There is a beam and a hook.You hound, you shall swing for it!" he shrieked, passionately, as hebrought his crimson, blotched face close to mine, and threatened mewith his two swollen fingers. "You thought to outwit me, did you? You,you dog! You crossed me and thought to sell me, did you? You dolt! youzany! you are sold yourself! Sold and shall swing! Swing! Ay, and soshall all my enemies perish!"

  "An end to that," said Charnock, pushing him away roughly. "All thesame, if this is true, he shall swing."

  "Well, it is true enough," cried a man thrusting himself forward,while with shaking knees and chattering teeth, and tongue that refusedto do its work, I strove to form words, to speak, to say or dosomething--something that might arrest the instant doom thatthreatened me. "It is true enough," continued he coolly. "I was on thewatch at the Kensington end this afternoon and saw the Secretaryarrive and go in to the Dutchman. And he had this bully boy with him.I know him again and can swear to him."