'Nobody,' replied the Count; 'the rest of my people are now scattered
about, I scarcely know where. Go, Ludovico, collect them together, and
look out yourself, and listen if you hear the feet of mules.'
Ludovico then hurried away, and the Count consulted as to the means of
removing St. Foix, who could not have borne the motion of a mule, even
if his strength would have supported him in the saddle.
While the Count was telling, that the banditti, whom they had found
in the fort, were secured in the dungeon, Blanche observed that he was
himself wounded, and that his left arm was entirely useless; but he
smiled at her anxiety, assuring her the wound was trifling.
The Count's servants, except two who kept watch at the gate, now
appeared, and, soon after, Ludovico.
'I think I hear mules coming along
the glen, my Lord,' said he, 'but the roaring of the torrent below
will not let me be certain; however, I have brought what will serve the
Chevalier,' he added, shewing a bear's skin, fastened to a couple of
long poles, which had been adapted for the purpose of bringing home such
of the banditti as happened to be wounded in their encounters. Ludovico
spread it on the ground, and, placing the skins of several goats upon
it, made a kind of bed, into which the Chevalier, who was however now
much revived, was gently lifted; and, the poles being raised upon the
shoulders of the guides, whose footing among these steeps could best
be depended upon, he was borne along with an easy motion. Some of the
Count's servants were also wounded--but not materially, and, their
wounds being bound up, they now followed to the great gate. As they
passed along the hall, a loud tumult was heard at some distance, and
Blanche was terrified.
'It is only those villains in the dungeon, my
Lady,' said Ludovico. 'They seem to be bursting it open,' said the
Count. 'No, my Lord,' replied Ludovico, 'it has an iron door; we have
nothing to fear from them; but let me go first, and look out from the
rampart.' They quickly followed him, and found their mules browsing before the
gates, where the party listened anxiously, but heard no sound, except
that of the torrent below and of the early breeze, sighing among the
branches of the old oak, that grew in the court; and they were now glad
to perceive the first tints of dawn over the mountain-tops. When they
had mounted their mules, Ludovico, undertaking to be their guide, led
them by an easier path, than that by which they had formerly ascended,
into the glen. 'We must avoid that valley to the east, my Lord,'
said he, 'or we may meet the banditti; they went out that way in the
morning.'