第78章 HOW NORMAN LESLIE FARED IN PARIS TOWN(4)

Remembering the story of Michael Hamilton,which I have already told,and other noble and virtuous miracles of Madame St.Catherine of Fierbois,I commanded me to her,that,by God's grace,she would be pleased to release me from bonds and prison.And I promised that,if she would so favour me,I would go on pilgrimage to her chapel of Fierbois.I looked that my chains should now fall from my limbs,but,finding no such matter,and being very weary (for all the last night I had slept none),I fell on slumber and forgot my sorrow.

Belike I had not lain long in that blessed land where trouble seldom comes when I was wakened,as it were,by a tugging at my clothes.Isat up,but the room was dark,save for a faint light in the casement,high overhead,and I thought I had dreamed.Howbeit,as Ilay down again,heavy at heart,my clothes were again twitched,and now I remembered what I had heard,but never believed,concerning "lutins"or "brownies,"as we call them,which,being spirits invisible,and reckoned to have no part in our salvation,are wont in certain houses to sport with men.Curious rather than affrighted,I sat up once more,and looked around,when I saw two bright spots of light in the dark.Then deeming that,for some reason unknown to me,the prison door had been opened while I slept,and a cat let in,I stretched out my hands towards the lights,thence came a sharp,faint cry,and something soft and furry leaped on to my breast,stroking me with little hands.

It was Elliot's jackanapes,very meagre,as I could feel,and all his ribs standing out,but he made much of me,fondling me after his manner;and indeed,for my lady's sake,I kissed him,wondering much how he came there.Then he put something into my hands,almost as if he had been a Christian,for it was a wise beast and a kind.

Even then there shone into my memory the thought of how my lady had prayed for her little friend when he was stolen (which I had thought strange,and scarcely warranted by our Faith),and with that,hope wakened within me.My eyes being now more accustomed to the darkness,I saw that the thing which the jackanapes gave me was a little wallet,for he had been taught to fetch and carry,and never was such a marvel at climbing.But as I was caressing him,I found a string about his neck,to which there seemed to be no end.Now,at length,I comprehended what was toward,and pulling gently at the string,I found,after some time,that it was attached to something heavy,on the outside of the casement.Therefore I set about drawing in string from above,and more string,and more,and then appeared a knot and a splice,and the end of a thick rope.So Idrew and drew,till it stopped,and I could see a stout bar across the stanchions of the casement.Thereon I ceased drawing,and opening the little wallet,I found two files,one very fine,the other of sturdier fashion.

Verily then I blessed the violer woman,who at great peril of her own life,and by such witty device as doubtless Madame St.Catherine put into her heart,had sent the jackanapes up from below,and put me in the way of safety.I wasted no time,but began filing,not at the thick circlet on my wrist,but at a link of the chain whereto it was made fast.And such was the temper of the file,that soon I got the stouter weapon into the cut,and snapped the link;and so with the others,working long hours,and often looking fearfully for the first glimmer of dawn.This had not come in,when I was now free of bonds,but there was yet the casement to be scaled.With all my strength I dragged and jerked at the rope,whereby I meant to climb,lest the stanchions should be rusted through,and unable to bear my weight,but they stood the strain bravely.Then I cast off my woman's kirtle,and took from my pouch the arrow-point,and therewith scratched hastily on the plastered wall,in great letters: