Count Hannibal

Was it wonderful, when they had suffered so much on that northern bank?

When their experience during the month had been comparable only with the

direst nightmare? Yet one among them, after the first impulse of relief

and satisfaction, felt differently. Tignonville's gorge rose against the

sense of compulsion, of inferiority. To be driven forward after this

fashion, whether he would or no, to be placed at the back of every base-

born man-at-arms, to have no clearer knowledge of what had happened or of

what was passing, or of the peril from which they fled, than the women

among whom he rode--these things kindled anew the sullen fire of hate.

North of the Loire there had been some excuse for his inaction under

insult; he had been in the man's country and power. But south of the

Loire, within forty leagues of Huguenot Niort, must he still suffer,

still be supine?

His rage was inflamed by a disappointment he presently underwent. Looking

back as they rode clear of the wooden houses of Ponts de Ce, he missed

Tavannes and several of his men; and he wondered if Count Hannibal had

remained on his own side of the river. It seemed possible; and in that

event La Tribe and he and Carlat might deal with Badelon and the four who

still escorted them. But when he looked back a minute later, Tavannes

was within sight, following the party with a stern face; and not Tavannes

only. Bigot, with two of the ten men who hitherto had been missing, was

with him.

It was clear, however, that they brought no good news, for they had

scarcely ridden up before Count Hannibal cried, "Faster! faster!" in his

harshest voice, and Bigot urged the horses to a quicker trot. Their

course lay almost parallel with the Loire in the direction of Beaupreau;

and Tignonville began to fear that Count Hannibal intended to recross the

river at Nantes, where the only bridge below Angers spanned the stream.

With this in view it was easy to comprehend his wish to distance his

pursuers before he recrossed.

The Countess had no such thought. "They must be close upon us!" she

murmured, as she urged her horse in obedience to the order.

"Whoever they are!" Tignonville muttered bitterly. "If we knew what had

happened, or who followed, we should know more about it, Madame. For

that matter, I know what I wish he would do. And our heads are set for

it."

"What?"

"Make for Vrillac!" he answered, a savage gleam in his eyes.

"For Vrillac?"

"Yes."

"Ah, if he would!" she cried, her face turning pale. "If he would. He

would be safe there!"

"Ay, quite safe!" he answered with a peculiar intonation. And he looked

at her askance.

He fancied that his thought, the thought which had just flashed into his

brain, was her thought; that she had the same notion in reserve, and that

they were in sympathy. And Tavannes, seeing them talking together, and

noting her look and the fervour of her gesture, formed the same opinion,

and retired more darkly into himself. The downfall of his plan for

dazzling her by a magnanimity unparalleled and beyond compare, a plan

dependent on the submission of Angers--his disappointment in this might

have roused the worst passions of a better man. But there was in this

man a pride on a level at least with his other passions: and to bear

himself in this hour of defeat and flight so that if she could not love

him she must admire him, checked in a strange degree the current of his

rage.