OCR Text |
Show PRINCESS MARY'S GIFT BOOK OUT OF THE .IAW'S OF DEATH That was. I think. the most awful moment of that truly fearful hour. Icould not have moved then. even had I wished or been able group of men in filthy, ragged clothing who sat round a deal table in 110 Maman was lying on a horse~hair sofa at the other end of the room, murdering mob there was now nothing-except the hand of God and the heroism of a band of English gentlemen. Together they gave a cry-as loud. as terrifying as any that were uttered by the butchering crowd in the building. and with a wild rush with Marguerite beside her, and papa sat in a low chair by her side, At least that is what it all felt like to me, and afterwards I heard from our gallant rescuer himself that that is exactly what he and his friends did. There were eight of them altogether. and we four young ones had each been hoisted on a pair of devoted shoulders, whilst maman and papa were each carried by two men. I was lying across the finest pair of shoulders in the world, and close to me was beating the bravest heart. on God's earth. Thus burdened, these eight noble English gentlemen charged right through an army of butchering. howling brutes, they themselves howling with the fiercest of them. All around me I heard weird and terrifying cries: " \Vhat ho, citizens ! what have you there ? " " Six aristos l" shouted my hero boldly as be rushed on, forcing his way through the crowd. \\ \ mum the centre of a small, ill-furnished room. to do so, but I knew that between us all and a horrible. yelling. they seemed to plunge with us" right into the thick of the awful melee. \\w.~n 11] " \Vhat are you doing with them ? " yelled a raucous voice. " Food for the starving fish in the river," was the ready response. "Stand aside, citizen," he added, with a round curse. " I have my orders from citizen Danton himself about these six aristos. You hinder me at your peril." He was challenged over and over again in the same way, and so were his friends who were carrying papa and maman and the children, but they were always ready for a reply. \Vith eyes that could not see one could imagine them as hideous, as vengeful, as cruel as the rest of the crowd. I think that soon I must have fainted from sheer excitement and terror, for I remember nothing more till I felt myself deposited on a hard floor, propped against the wall, and the stifling piece of sacking taken off my head and face. I looked around me dazed and bewildered; gradually the horrors of the past hour came back to me, and I had to close my eyes again, for I felt sick and giddy with the sheer memory of it all. But presently I felt stronger and looked around me again. Jean and Andre were squatting in a corner close by, gazing wide-eyed at the holding her hand. The voice I loved was speaking in its quaint, somewhat drawly cadence: " You are quite safe now, my dear Monsieur Lemereier," it said. " After Madame and the young people have had a rest some of my friends will find you suitable disguises, and they will escort you out of Paris, as they have seine really genuine passports in their possession. which we obtain from time to time through the agency of a personage highly placed in this murdering Government, and with the help of English banknotes. Those passports are not always unchallenged, I must confess," added my hero, with a quaint laugh, " but to-night every one is busy Inurdering in one part of Paris, so the other parts are comparatively safe." Then he turned to one of his friends and spoke to him in English : " You had better see this through, Tony," he said, " with Hastings and Mackenzie. Three of you will be enough: I shall have need of the others." No one seemed to question his orders. He had spoken and the others made ready to obey. Just then papa spoke up : " How are we going to thank you, sir i " he asked, speaking broken English, but with his habitual dignity of manner. " By leaving your welfare in our hands, Monsieur," replied our gallant rescuer quietly. I'apa tried to speak again, but the Englishman put up his hand to stop any further talk. " There is no time now, Monsieur." he said, with gentle courtesy. " I must leave you, as I have much work yet to do." " IV here are you going. Blakeney 1'" asked one of the others. " Back to the Abbaye prison," he said ; " there are other women and children to be rescued there I 7' |