The Long Night

The Long Night, by Stanley Weyman

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Title: The Long Night
Author: Stanley Weyman
Release Date: October 7, 2006 [EBook #19485]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE LONG NIGHT
BY STANLEY WEYMAN
AUTHOR OF "A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," ETC.
SECOND IMPRESSION
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON AND BOMBAY 1903

WORKS BY STANLEY WEYMAN.
The House of the Wolf.
The New Rector.
The Story of Francis Cludde.
A Gentleman of France.
The Man in Black.
Under the Red Robe.
My Lady Rotha.
The Red Cockade.
Shrewsbury.
Sophia.
The Castle Inn.
From the Memoirs of a Minister of France.
Count Hannibal.
In Kings' Byways.
The Long Night.

CONTENTS
I. A Student of Theology 1
II. The House on the Ramparts 16
III. The Quintessential Stone 31
IV. C?sar Basterga 45
V. The Elixir Vit? 59
VI. To Take or Leave 74
VII. A Second Tissot 88
VIII. On the Threshold 102
IX. Melusina 116
X. Auctio Fit: Venit Vita 129
XI. By This or That 143
XII. The Cup and the Lip 157
XIII. A Mystery Solved 172
XIV. "And Only One Dose in all the World!" 185
XV. On the Bridge 200
XVI. A Glove and What Came of It 215
XVII. The Remedium 227
XVIII. The Bargain Struck 242
XIX. The Departure of the Rats 257
XX. In the Darkened Room 271
XXI. The Remedium 285
XXII. Two Nails in the Wall 301
XXIII. In Two Characters 318
XXIV. Armes! Armes! 335
XXV. Basterga at Argos 350
XXVI. The Dawn 365
CHAPTER I.
A STUDENT OF THEOLOGY.
They were about to shut the Porte St. Gervais, the north gate of Geneva. The sergeant of the gate had given his men the word to close; but at the last moment, shading his eyes from the low light of the sun, he happened to look along the dusty road which led to the Pays de Gex, and he bade the men wait. Afar off a traveller could be seen hurrying two donkeys towards the gate, with now a blow on this side, and now on that, and now a shrill cry. The sergeant knew him for Jehan Brosse, the bandy-legged tailor of the passage off the Corraterie, a sound burgher and a good man whom it were a shame to exclude. Jehan had gone out that morning to fetch his grapes from M?ens; and the sergeant had pity on him.
He waited, therefore; and presently he was sorry that he had waited. Behind Jehan, a long way behind him, appeared a second wayfarer; a young man covered with dust who approached rapidly on long legs, a bundle jumping and bumping at his shoulders as he ran. The favour of the gate was not for such as he--a stranger; and the sergeant anxious to bar, yet unwilling to shut out Jehan, watched his progress with disgust. As he feared, too, it turned out. Young legs caught up old ones: the stranger overtook Jehan, overtook the donkeys. A moment, and he passed under the arch abreast of them, a broad smile of acknowledgment on his heated face. He appeared to think that the gate had been kept open out of kindness to him.
And to be grateful. The war with Savoy--Italian Savoy which, like an octopus, wreathed clutching arms about the free city of Geneva--had come to an end some months before. But a State so small that the frontier of its inveterate enemy lies but two short leagues from its gates, has need of watch and ward, and curfews and the like, so that he was fortunate who found the gates of Geneva open after sunset in that year, 1602; and the stranger seemed to know this.
As the great doors clanged together and two of the watch wound up the creaking drawbridge, he turned to the sergeant, the smile still on his face. "I feared that you would shut me out!" he panted, still holding his sides. "I would not have given much for my chance of a bed a minute ago."
The sergeant answered only by a grunt.
"If this good fellow had not been in front----"
This time the sergeant cut him short with an imperious gesture, and the young man seeing that the guard also had fallen stiffly into rank, turned to the tailor. He was overflowing with good nature: he must speak to some one. "If you had not been in front," he began, "I----"
But the tailor also cut him short--frowning and laying his finger to his lip and pointing mysteriously to the ground. The stranger stooped to look more closely, but saw nothing: and it was only when the others dropped on their knees that he understood the hint