The Buccaneer Chief: A Romance of the Spanish Main

The Major went on deck and got into the boat, which was at once pushed off, and set out for the landing place.

Michael's heart beat ready to burst, while he followed with an anxious eye, the light yawl which was rapidly leaving the lugger, and was already close in shore.

CHAPTER XI

FRANCE, FAREWELL!

The Major had scarce landed at Sainte Marguerite, ere everything were in commotion in the fort.

On leaving the isle on the previous evening, the governor had stated that he was going on a journey, and would be absent a week, perhaps two.

The Lieutenant, intrusted with the command of the fort during his absence, eagerly hastened to meet him, curious to learn the motive for such a speedy return.

The Major at first replied evasively, that news he had received on landing on the mainland, had necessitated the immediate interruption of his journey; and, while conversing thus, he entered the fort and proceeded to his apartments, followed by the Lieutenant whom he had invited to accompany him.

"Sir," he said to him so soon as they were alone, "you will immediately choose from the garrison ten resolute men; and proceed with them on board the fishing vessel I noticed at anchor when I entered the fort. The missive I entrust to you is most important, and if you carry it out thoroughly, may have important results for you; it must be managed with the most profound secrecy, however, for it is a secret of state."

The Lieutenant bowed gratefully, evidently flattered at the confidence his chief placed in him.

The Major continued.

"You will land on the coast a little below Antibes, and keep the boat, which you will use for your return; you will manage so as not to enter the town till nightfall, without attracting any attention, you will lodge your men as best you can without arousing suspicions, but so as to have them under hand at any moment. Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, you will present yourself to the town commandant, hand him a letter I shall give you, and place yourself at his disposal. Have you understood me thoroughly, sir?"

"Perfectly, Mr. Governor."

"Before all, I recommend you the most utter discretion; remember that your fortune probably depends on the success of the mission."

"I will obey you, Major, and I hope that you will only have compliments to pay me on my return."

"I trust so too, sir, but make haste, for you must be gone in half an hour. During your preparations I will write the letter; it will be ready when you come to take leave again."

The lieutenant, after bowing respectfully, retired with a joyous heart, not having the slightest suspicion of the treachery meditated by his chief, and went off at full speed to make all the preparations for his departure.

The Major had under his orders a garrison of fifty men, commanded by three officers, a captain and two lieutenants.

This captain, the next in rank to him, would doubtless have greatly impeded the success of the bold stroke he meditated, owing to the pretext he would have been obliged to invent, in order to account for the want of a release in writing for the Count.

By sending him away, the Major had only to deal with two subalterns, ranking too low in the military scale to venture to make observations, or hesitate to accomplish his orders, the more so, because during the ten or twelve years M. de l'Oursière had commanded Fort Sainte Marguerite, nothing in his conduct had led to the slightest painful suspicions about his honour.

Forced by circumstances to betray his duty and quit his native land forever, which he knew he should never see again after this audacious scheme, the Major wished to leave nothing to chance, but turn his lost position to the greatest possible advantage. He hoped that the measures he had taken would protect him from any danger, when his treachery was eventually discovered.

But, through a very laudable feeling of justice, especially on the part of such a man and under such circumstances, the Major desired alone to bear the burden of his infamous conduct and not to attract suspicion of complicity on his poor officers, whom duty compelled to obey him, in what they considered a portion of their military service.

Hence he wrote to the governor of Antibes a very circumstantial letter, in which he narrated, without the slightest omission, the treason he meditated, and which would be carried out at the time when the governor read the strange missive; he explained the motives that obliged him to act as he was doing, while taking on himself all the responsibility of such a deed, and acquitting his officers and soldiers, not only of all co-operation, but of all cognisance, even indirect, of his project.

These duties scrupulously accomplished – for it was impossible for the governor to be deceived as to the frankness of his confession, or to doubt them for a moment – the Major folded the letter, sealed it carefully, and laid it on the table while awaiting the return of his second in command.

Now, as his vessels were burnt, M. de l'Oursière could no longer retreat; he must push on and succeed; the certainty of certain ruin if his scheme were foiled, removed his last doubts, and restored him all the necessary calmness to act with the coolness demanded by the strange circumstances in which he found himself placed.

The Captain entered.

"Well?" the Major asked him.

"I am ready to start, Mr. Governor; my soldiers are already on board the fishing boat, and we shall have left the island in ten minutes."

"Here is the letter you have to deliver into the hands of the Governor of Antibes, sir; remember my instructions."

"I will obey them in every point."

"In that case, Heaven guard you! and good-bye," the Major said, as he rose.

The officer saluted, and left the room.

The Major watched through the open window of his room; he saw him leave the fort, go down to the shore, and on board the fishing vessel; the sail was hoisted, and ere long the boat started, slightly heeling over under the power of the breeze.

"Ough!" said the Major, closing the window, with a sigh of relief – "that's one, now for the other."

But, before aught else, the old officer shut himself up in his room, burnt certain papers, pocketed others, put some clothes in a small valise, as he did not wish to take all belonging to him, through fear of arousing suspicions, and carefully wrapping up in his cloak a small and very heavy iron casket, which, doubtless, contained his ready money, he assured himself by a glance around that everything was in order, opened the door again, and called.

A soldier appeared.

"Beg Mess. de Castaix and de Mircey to come here," he said, "as I wish to speak to them."

They speedily arrived, greatly puzzled at this unexpected interview, for usually the Governor talked but little with his officers.

"Gentlemen," he said to them, after returning their salute, "an order from the King caused me to return here in all haste. I have to take our prisoner, M. de Barmont, to Antibes, where your Captain has preceded me with a sufficient escort to prevent any attempt at escape on the part of the prisoner. I have acted thus because it is the King's good pleasure that this transference of the Count from one prison to another may have the appearance of a liberation, and I shall explain it in that sense to the prisoner, in order that he may have no suspicion of the new orders I have received. Until my return, which will be in two days at the least, you, Monsieur de Castaix, as senior officer, will assume the command of the fortress. I am pleased to believe, gentlemen, that I shall only have to praise the aptitude you will display in performing your duties during my absence."

The two officers bowed: accustomed to the Cardinal's tortuous and mysterious policy, the Major's remarks did not at all surprise them, for, although His Eminence was dead, the event had not occurred so long that the King should have in any way modified his sullen mode of governing.

"Be kind enough to give orders for the prisoner to be brought into my presence, while I inform him of his liberation," he added, with a mocking smile, whose strange meaning the officers did not comprehend. "You will have all the effects belonging to him placed in the boat of the smuggling lugger on board which I came back. Go, gentlemen."

The officers withdrew.

The Count was greatly surprised when La Grenade opened the door of his cell, and begged him to follow him, as the Governor wished to speak with the prisoner.

He fancied the Major on the road to Paris, as had been arranged between them on the previous evening, and did not at all understand his presence at the fort after the solemn promise he had made.

Another thing also caused him great surprise – ever since he had been a prisoner at Saint Marguerite the Governor had not once sent for him; on the contrary, he had always put himself out of the way by visiting his cell.

But the thing that completely routed his ideas was La Grenade's recommendation to him, to place all his belongings in a trunk, and take the key.

"Why this most unnecessary precaution?" the Count asked him.

"No one ever knows what may happen, sir," the gaoler replied, cunningly; "it is as well to take precautions; and stay, if I were you I would put on my hat and take my cloak."

And while speaking thus, the soldier actively helped him to pack his trunk.

"There, that's done," he said, with a grin of satisfaction, when the Count had taken out the key; "here are your hat and cloak."