CHAPTER X. THE SEINE.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 145, 13 March 1886, Page 6

CHAPTER X. THE SEINE.

For the first timo, during the hour that the interview lasted, Jottrat could reflect with a free mind, and began walking up and down, arranging in his memory the very unexpected revelations he had just heard. Now, no longer subjected to the allurements and surprises of a conversation every word of which was calculated with infernal skill, the information of M. de Noreff seemed to him rather more suspicious, as there were in it obscure points, unexplained facts, and evident contradictions ; yet nevertheless in conteatable truths stood out in this long history. The abduction of Susanne and her son mast have happened as De Noreff had said, as the notices received from St. Petersburg in the year that followed the ever^ proved that Henry had not been taken to Russia, and De Noreff s version explained all this. •'Who knows if there is not yet time," Jottrat said to himself, recalling certain allusions of Da NorefFs. •• Yes, these mysterious relations between the General's son and the Russian, those enormous sums paid without any known cause, were connected doubtless with a crime that attached the two together, — and the crime I divine it. This De Noreff was his accomplice, and wanting to rid hitnaelf of a responsibility that weighed upon him, denounced to him the principal author of the abduction, because he knew he would pursue the family ■with his vengance. Well, be it so! Whether Of not this man who has carried off Henry was the Marquis de Mensignac, — and even if hi 3 son were the friend of De Sartilly, what mattered it?— l must find my child, and be revenged." While Jottrat was in this state of excitement, his eyes fell on the book that remained open upon the table, and remembering M. daNoreiTslast words.hethought hecould not do better than begin searching immediately for the secret information. It was— the Russian had said it — opening the campaign against the enemy ; and in this first moment of enthusiasm, Jottrat went so far as to hope that he would decipher on one of the leaves of this book some information of his son, or at least a new proof of his existence. He began his work with feverish ardor ; went over two-thirds of the volume without finding, after the most scrupulous examination, the least token of the secret he was seeking. The work employing a great many horrs, Jottrat became so absorbed in his task as pot to perceive how fast the time was passing, until the daylight almost disappearing, he began to feel the need of rest and refreshment. Nothing had been changed in the cavern since M. de Noreff had left ; but the remains of his breakfast were ample to satisfy Jottrat's appetite, and, taking his meal with the hes<iles3 promptitude of a preoc cupied man, he began again his circular walk, listening to a strange, murmuring noise that seemed to increase gradually ; it resembled a continuous and regular movement, interrupted from time to time by dull blows that sounded like a heavy mass, pushed by an immense force, beating against the wall of the cave. Then the more distant rumbling noise began again, similar to the nocturnal rush of carnages which is the breath of sleeping Paris. Jottrat had not at first paid any attention to thi3 rumbling, — which on his arrival in the cave was not very distinct, but now seemed evidently to be drawing nearer,- and seeking to divine the cause of it, was seized by a vaeue anxiety. The day was waning, the last rays of the setting sun, gilding the upper part of the glass window, were dying away gradually, and at the same time it seemed as if the | glasa was darkened from the outside by a i thick mass that intercepted the light. While reflecting deeply on this singular phenomenon, Jottrat started back violently, uttering an exclamation of surprise and terror. " The Seine !— 'tis the Seine !" he cried, as a sheet of water penetrated the two square openings and fell on the floor of the cavern. Impelled, without doubt, by a violent wind, the river had passed above the level of the window, but it was not probable the accident would occur again. This partial inundation was, however, sufficient to make the prisoner understand the situation of his dungeon,a3 the immediate neighbourhood of the river explained all, and the vent-hole opening on one of the high banks of the Seine could only be seen by a boat, or from the opposite shore, aad the low rumbling waa produced by the current, probably very rapid in this place. Jottrat, astonished at not having found it out sooner, began making conjectures on the probable situation of his prison, and concluded that he must be near Passy ; that the garden that led to his prison was at the entrance of the rue Barre, extending along the river. After arriving at this conclusion, he bBgan to consider if he were really cafe in this cave, much lower than the level of the river. It was now night, and, to the great astonishment of the prisoner, the two lamps that the night before had illuminated this subterranean place had not been lighted again, and a profound darkness surrounding him, Jottrat felt a sensation of inexplicable uneasiness taking possession of his mind, while the dull sound from without seemed to increase, and another noise impossible to mistake was heard, as the dropping of water into water resembles no known sound, and there are languages that have even a special word to designate it. At long intervals at first, and then more frequently, the water of the Seine came over through the two openings of the glass window, and formed little by little a kind of pond on the floor of the vaulted room. Very soon after two abundant streams ran down the length of the wall, and flowing into the central pond., increased it rapidly. Jottrat was try tog to find out the cause of this inundation, which was not difficult to understand. The openii?g to admit air had been placed by the architect far above the ordinary course of the Seine, and for the water to have reached these openings the river must have swelled far beyond all foresight, and there was no reason that it should stop at this precise point ; and now Jottrat remembered perfectly that, the evening that he was kidnapped by M. de Noreff, the -river showed a strong tendency lo overflow its banks. The winter waa nearly over, and as it had been an extremely rainy one, an unusual flood might be foreboded, and it was impossible to conceal from himself that, if the water in the bottom of the cave continued increasing, [he was in a situation of grea t

peril, and perhaps exposed to a terrible death — a death which he must wait for without the power of defending himself from it —a death that comes slowly, and ia seen coming step by ste >. There was but one chance of safety, which was to get out of this tomb by the trapdoor hidden in the vaulted roof, or by the secret door of the closeti He first began by calling aloud with all his strength ; but whether his gaolers hadlett the place, or whether his voice was not piercing enough to penetrate the walls, no one answered to his cries. Then, thinking that M. de Noreff might not have locked the panel through which he had passed, he walked in spite of the darkness directly to the compartment, and in this short passage found, with terror, thut the water was nearly a foot deep in the middle of the cave, and several inches at the side, as the inclined floor, forming a basin in the centre, was raised near the walls. He had Borne trouble in finding the compartment on which he founded all his hopes, and when he sue ceeded in reaching it, his delusion quickly took flight, as the wainscoting was hermetically sealed, and nothing yielded under the energetic and repeated pressure of his hands. It was evident, therefore, that the Russian before leavinghad taken precautions against the flight ot his prisoner, as the door could not be opened, and the vaulted ceiling remained inaccessible, while the water was increasing every moment, and Jottrat prepared todie,as in all human pro bability it was nothing more than a question of time. An hour had scarcely passed since the first wave had penetrated the cavern, and the water already was as high as the prisoner's knees, and, calculating the height of the vault, he concluded that before daybreak the cavern would be completely inundated, if the river continued to increase with the same rapidity. And yet another danger loomed up before him —a danger that made his heart j stand still, for he foresaw that the fragile barrier of glass, which had resisted the first shock of the current, would certainly give way under the enormous pressure of th 6 river when the flood had reached a certain | height, and it wa3 evident that the longer the catastrophe was retarded, the more terrible it would be. Indeed, the sheet of water running down the wall was increasing in quantity, the subterranean cave wag tilling visibly, and for the last quarter of an hour Jottrat had been "obliged to stand upon a chair — even then his feet being in the water ; he left it, and climbed upon the table This might prove a respite for half an hour, or an hour at most, as when the water overflowed the table be must then die, and the bitter thought of losing his life when he had hope of again meeting his son was agony to the unhappy man While leaning on the desk to mount on the table, Jottrat's hand touched two objects, the first of which was the book that he had left open, and the other the long strap with which he had been gagged the night before ; and the chance that had brought within his reach this precious volume and this instrument of torture seemei to him as an inspiration from on high, a heaven sent idea to savo the precious volume ; tharefore, putting it upon his back above his shoulders, he bound it firmly with the leathern strap, which he drew three times around his breast, buckling it strongly. " If I am to be drowned here," murmured he, after finishing his preparations, " the secret will die with me ; if lam saved, I will at least carry back my weapon." Then, standing firmly and erect upon the table, which the water could not carry away, as it was fastened to the wall, he waited death or deliverance. The sinister rumbling of the rushing river was increasing every moment. The two cascades were still pouring down from the opening above the window ; the darkness was profound, and Jottrat turned his eyes to the window, where could be no longer seen the wan light which marked but just now the glass. The water was coming in rapidly ; in the interior of the subterranean room it had mounted to the prisoner's waist, and in a quarter of an hour afterward had reached his shoulders. Ho was a perfect swimmer, but what would it avail him to swim in a reservoir without air or opening ? The unhappy man felt that the moment of his death could not be far off, and the current mounted with dizzy rapidity, From the top of the wall came frightful, crackling noieea, and at last the water whirled round Jottrat's mouth ; and, giving a last thought to his son, and shutting his eyes before rolling in the gulf, he suddenly heard a loud noise like the discharge of a cannon burst over his head, and at the same time, feeling a tremendous shock, disappeared under an enormous mass of water which, after having broken through the glass, burst inro the cavern with the violence of a waterspout ; and this cataract ingulfing him with an impetuosity that lifted him like a feather, and threw him violently against the wall at the end of the cave ; while the water, breaking through the slight dam of the window, had taken possession of all the free spnee ; and now the subterranean lake and the current of the river were upon a level. If the table had been directly under the window, the shock of the enormous mass of water that fell through it would have crushed him, but he only felt the rebound, and had had presence of mind enough to hold hi 3 breath and extend his arms, and, thanks to his double precaution, had escaped death for the moment. He bad, however, great trouble in sustaining himself on the surface, and thus avoiding beingroughly pushed against the walls of his dungeon, now changed into a reservoir, with the waters turning as the terrible whirlpool that swallows so many -"easels on the Norwegian coast, —the too famous Maelstrom. Jottrat, caught in these fatal, driving waters, felt himself carried away, without power to resist them, and in spite of the darkness, which was intense, felt that the whirlpool was drawing him by degrees to the central abyss ; the eddying water in its overpowering orbit, in a few moments more, would devour its prey. This rapid whirling had stunned Jottrat who, thinking himself hopelessly lost, struggled only from the effect of that animal instinct which impels a man to execute mechanically the movements necessary for the preservation of his existence. He swam, or rather sustained himself, not trying to guide his movements, as the current was redoubling in violence and the circle becoming still narrower, when he suddenly struck his head violently against a hard substance, to which he fastened his hands with the energy of despair. This unexpected shock had an unhoped-for result, as the circular movement seemed drawing the prisoner into its vortex, and he was thrown at the same instant against the wall with an irresistable violence ; but still he kept hold of the object he had seized, and tried to find out its nature. It was an even and not very thick body, of a rough and hard surface, light^ enough to float, and heavy enough to yield a strong support ; and Jottrat discovered that it was a plank that the sudden fall of the water-avalanche had probably detached, and this stray board, mounting suddenly to the surface, Providence had willed to come within reach of the poor prisoner's hand. It is an adage that good fortune never comes alone, and the good luck of Jottrat was completed by the moat miraculous of all chances, for this piece of wood had been

pushed by the force of the water into so good a position that Jottrat could support himself on one of its ends, while the other extremity extended beyond the window. The result ot this was that the great outer current had seized the end that came out, and drew it from the fatal rush of the whirlpool ; but the plank did not project far enough outside to be carried away entirely by the first impetus. It had stopped against the wall, and Jottrat did not try to launch the plank, as he understood perfectly that the weight of his body was the only obstacle to the action of the current, and to launch tho board down the river, he must make a sea-saw movement. By a succession of repeated jerks he began to move the plank, and ay ith his body immersed in water each one of these movements was a great effort to him, and ho scarcely pushed the board forward an inch. It is true, however, that the work became les« and less painful, and as the piece of wood projected more, the weight decreased in proportion. The time passed in this struggle was short, but Jottrat was not in a etate to estimate its duration, for it seemed to him that hs had been working for many hours, and ho felt that sensation one often meets in dreams of an insurmountaLlo obstacle, or a useless pursuit. Who has not, while sloeping, run aftor an enemy that flew before him, and that he co jld never reach? Who has not, in a dream, climbed a mountain that seemed to increase in height as one mounted ? It was an hallucination of this kind that troubled the unhappy prisoner, for although the plank left its place little, he did not perceive that he was advancing slowly but surely to safety without knowing. At length the board was pushed sufffientlyinthe currentto be seized ond carried out by it — slowly at first, then like an arrow launched along with Jottrat clinging to it ; he felt that ho had, at least, escaped his first danger of being drowned in the dark well where M. de Noreff had abandonod him ; and if he must die, it would be in the free air, and under heaven's vaulo, and not between the dark walls of a dungeon. IN ow the stream carried him away with an mc "edible rapidity,and before he hadtimo to look around him, he was far away from the cavern. There was not a star to bo seen, and the night was so dark that tho waves of the Seine seemed to be of an inky hue. The immense sheet of water rushing with a °mister rumbling, tho west wind blowing violontly, raising foaming wavo3 that struck Jottrat in the'face, nt the same time blinded by a pouring rain, and deafonod by tho heavy and continued murmur of tho flood, it required all his efforts to hold to the plank that supported him. Even if the darkness had not been so intonse that nothing could bo distinguished beyond the Seine, Jottrat was so intent upon saving his life that he would not have obsorved the place where he was, but he was struck by seeing two rows of reflecting lamps clotting like roddish stars tho two banks of the stream. The principal lighting of the streets at this epoch extended very little beyond the barrier, and Jottrat concluded, from this illumination, that, contrary to his first conjectures, he had been shut up in the interior of Paris Ho thought but little of the problem that had so fully occupied him in the prison ; for the moment the question was to find a safe place to land, and it was not an easy enterprise. Jottrat thought ho saw at hi 3 right a steop bank not very far off, but tho current was so rapid that it would have been difficult to gain a footing, even if ho had had strength to cross the river obliquely, and besido, far from taking him near the land, the current drew him into the middle of the stream. All that the swimmer could do was to sustain himself, and although the plank was a great aid, ho felt extreme fatigue, and, above all, suffered from an icy coldness, as the long time ho had been in the water in the subterranean cave had benumbed his limb?, and he began to fear his strength would fail him ontirely. The book al?o that wa=i fastened to his back weighed on him very heavily ; not that it embarrassed hid motions, but seemed to bear him down aa an enormous load. Suddenly Jottrat saw just before him a black mas?, and at the same time the rapidity of the current redoubling, the water engulfed him in a narrow arch with the violence of an open mill-dam, and before the wretched man had time to think what bridge he was passing under, a rough shock made him let go his plank, and, carried away liko a straw by this formidable current, Jottrat shut his eyes and let himself go where the waves pushed him, and three seconds aftor, receiving a terrible concussion on the bead, fainted. The current had thrown him on an t iron barricade that masked the mouth of the sewer, his body, fixed between the iron bar«, having just touched the shore at the moment of loosing consciousness, and he would have been inveitably drowned, when a man seized him by his clothing, drew him in, and disappeared with him in the vault of the sewer.