The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (ereader for comics .TXT) 📕

“Oh, lud!” said Marguerite, as she advanced into the room, holding her handkerchief to her dainty nose, “what a dreadful hole! Are you sure this is the place?”

“Aye! ’tis the place, sure enough,” replied the young man as, with his lace-edged, fashionable handkerchief, he dusted a chair for Marguerite to sit on; “but I vow I never saw a more villainous hole.”

“Faith!” she said, looking round with some curiosity and a great deal of horror at the dilapidated walls, the broken chairs, the rickety table, “it certainly does not look inviting.”

The landlord of the Chat Gris⁠—by name, Brogard⁠—had taken no further notice of his guests; he concluded that presently they would order supper, and in the meanwhile it was not for a free citizen to show deference, or even courtesy, to anyone, however smartly they might be dressed.

By the hearth sat a huddled-up figure clad, seemingly, mostly in rags: that figure was apparently a woman, although even that would have been hard to distinguish, except for the cap, which had once been white, and for what looked like the semblance of a petticoat. She was sitting mumbling to herself, and from time to time stirring the brew in her stockpot.

“Hey, my friend!” said Sir Andrew at last, “we should like some supper.⁠ ⁠… The citoyenne there,” he added, “is concocting some delicious soup, I’ll warrant, and my mistress has not tasted food for several hours.”

It took Brogard some few minutes to consider the question. A free citizen does not respond too readily to the wishes of those who happen to require something of him.

“Sacrrrés aristos!” he murmured, and once more spat upon the ground.

Then he went very slowly up to a dresser which stood in a corner of the room; from this he took an old pewter soup-tureen and slowly, and without a word, he handed it to his better-half, who, in the same silence, began filling the tureen with the soup out of her stockpot.

Marguerite had watched all these preparations with absolute horror; were it not for the earnestness of her purpose, she would incontinently have fled from this abode of dirt and evil smells.

“Faith! our host and hostess are not cheerful people,” said Sir Andrew, seeing the look of horror on Marguerite’s face. “I would I could offer you a more hearty and more appetising meal⁠ ⁠… but I think you will find the soup eatable and the wine good; these people wallow in dirt, but live well as a rule.”

“Nay! I pray you, Sir Andrew,” she said gently, “be not anxious about me. My mind is scarce inclined to dwell on thoughts of supper.”

Brogard was slowly pursuing his gruesome preparations; he had placed a couple of spoons, also two glasses on the table, both of which Sir Andrew took the precaution of wiping carefully.

Brogard had also produced a bottle of wine and some bread, and Marguerite made an effort to draw her chair to the table and to make some pretence at eating. Sir Andrew, as befitting his role of lackey, stood behind her chair.

“Nay, Madame, I pray you,” he said, seeing that Marguerite seemed quite unable to eat, “I beg of you to try and swallow some food⁠—remember you have need of all your strength.”

The soup certainly was not bad; it smelt and tasted good. Marguerite might have enjoyed it, but for the horrible surroundings. She broke the bread, however, and drank some of the wine.

“Nay, Sir Andrew,” she said, “I do not like to see you standing. You have need of food just as much as I have. This creature will only think that I am an eccentric Englishwoman eloping with her lackey, if you’ll sit down and partake of this semblance of supper beside me.”

Indeed, Brogard having placed what was strictly necessary upon the table, seemed not to trouble himself any further about his guests. The Mére Brogard had quietly shuffled out of the room, and the man stood and lounged about, smoking his evil-smelling pipe, sometimes under Marguerite’s very nose, as any freeborn citizen who was anybody’s equal should do.

“Confound the brute!” said Sir Andrew, with native British wrath, as Brogard leant up against the table, smoking and looking down superciliously at these two “sacrrrés Anglais.”

“In Heaven’s name, man,” admonished Marguerite, hurriedly, seeing that Sir Andrew, with British-born instinct, was ominously clenching his fist, “remember that you are in France, and that in this year of grace this is the temper of the people.”

“I’d like to scrag the brute!” muttered Sir Andrew, savagely.

He had taken Marguerite’s advice and sat next to her at table, and they were both making noble efforts to deceive one another, by pretending to eat and drink.

“I pray you,” said Marguerite, “keep the creature in a good temper, so that he may answer the questions we must put to him.”

“I’ll do my best, but, begad! I’d sooner scrag him than question him. Hey! my friend,” he said pleasantly in French, and tapping Brogard lightly on the shoulder, “do you see many of our quality along these parts? Many English travellers, I mean?”

Brogard looked round at him, over his near shoulder, puffed away at his pipe for a moment or two as he was in no hurry, then muttered⁠—

“Heu!⁠—sometimes!”

“Ah!” said Sir Andrew, carelessly, “English travellers always know where they can get good wine, eh! my friend?⁠—Now, tell me, my lady was desiring to know if by any chance you happen to have seen a great friend of hers, an English gentleman, who often comes to Calais on business; he is tall, and recently was on his way to Paris⁠—my lady hoped to have met him in Calais.”

Marguerite tried not to look at Brogard, lest she should betray before him the burning anxiety with which she waited for his reply. But a freeborn French citizen is never in any hurry to answer questions: Brogard took his time, then he said very slowly⁠—

“Tall