But not our Frenchman. He's a law to himself, I reckon.
Will you have another glass, doctor?"
"Thank you, my man," said William. Dona could hear the sound of the ale as it was poured into the tankard, and she wondered, for the first time, how strong a head William had, and whether it was altogether wise to accept the jailer's invitation with so good a grace.
William coughed, dry and hard, a little signal to herself.
"I should be interested to see the man," he said, "after what I have heard.
A very desperate person, by all accounts.
The country will be well rid of him.
He's asleep now, I suppose, if a man can sleep on his last night?"
"Asleep?
Bless you, no, sir.
He's had two glasses of ale, and he said you'd pay me for them, and that if you did turn up at the keep here before midnight he'd join you in another glass, and drink to the son and heir."
The jailer laughed, and then lowering his voice he added,
"It's irregular, sir, of course, but then, when a man is going to be hanged in the morning, even if he is a pirate and a Frenchman. You can't exactly wish them ill, can you, sir?"
Dona could not catch William's reply, but she heard the chink of coins, and the scrape of feet.
The jailer laughed again and said,
"Thank you, sir, you're a true gentleman, and when my wife's expecting again, I shall think of you."
Now she could hear their feet climbing the stairs to the room above, and she swallowed, her nails digging into the palms of her hands.
For this was the moment now she feared above all others, when a slip might cause disaster, when recognition might come and all be lost.
She waited until she judged them outside his cell above, and going close to the door she listened, and heard the sound of voices and the turning of a key in the lock. Then, when she heard the heavy clanging of the door upon them, she ventured to the entrance of the keep and stepped inside, and saw the two remaining guards with their backs towards her.
One was sitting on a bench against the wall, yawning and stretching himself, and the other stood looking up the stairs.
The light was dim, for only one lantern swung from the beam.
Keeping in the shadow of the door she knocked, and said,
"Is Doctor Williams within?"
The men turned at the sound of her voice, and the one on the bench blinked at her and said,
"What do you want with him?"
"They've sent word from the house," she answered.
"Her ladyship's been taken worse."
"Small wonder," said the man by the stair, "after carrying sixteen pounds.
All right, lad, I'll tell him."
He began to mount the stairs, calling as he did so.
"Zachariah, they want the doctor up at the house yonder."
Dona watched him turn the corner of the stairs, and beat upon the door, and as he did so she kicked the door of the entrance with her foot, and slammed it, and shot the bolt and closed the grill, before the guard on the bench could rise to his feet and shout,
"Hi, there, what the devil are you doing?"
The table was between them, and as he came towards her she leant against it, putting all her weight upon it, and the table crashed on the floor with him sprawling upon it, and as he fell she heard a stifled cry from the stair above, and the sound of a blow.
Then, seizing the jug of ale beside her, she threw it at the lantern and the light was extinguished.
The man on the floor scrambled from beneath the table, shouting for Zachariah, and as he raised his voice, cursing and stumbling in the darkness Dona heard the Frenchman call to her from the stairs,
"Are you there, Dona?" and
"Yes," she panted, half dazed with laughter and excitement and fear, and he sprang over the rail of the stone stairs to the ground beneath, and found the man in the darkness.
She heard them fighting there, close to the steps.
He was using the butt end of the pistol; she could hear the blow.
The man fell against the table, groaning, and
"Give me your handkerchief, Dona, for a gag," said the Frenchman, and she tore it from her head.
In a moment he had done what he wished.
"Watch him," he said swiftly, "he cannot move," and Dona heard the Frenchman slip away from her in the darkness, and climb the stairs again to the cell above.
"Have you got him, William?" he said, and there was a funny strangled sob from the room above, and the sound of something heavy being dragged along the floor.
She could hear the gagged man gasping for breath beside her, and all the while the heavy dragging sound from above, and a sudden desire to laugh rose in her throat, a terrible strained feeling of hysteria, and she knew if she gave way to it she would never stop, it would swell up within her like a scream.
Then the Frenchman called to her from above,
"Open the door, Dona, and see if the road is clear," and she felt her way to it in the darkness, her hands fumbling with the heavy bolts. She wrenched it open, and looked out, and from the direction of the house she heard the sound of wheels, and down the drive towards the keep came the physician's carriage; she could hear the driver crack his whip and call to his horse.
She turned back inside the keep to warn them, but already the Frenchman was at her side, and she looked up into his face, and in his eyes she saw the reckless laughter that she had seen before when he had pricked the curled wig from Godolphin's head, and
"By heaven," he said softly, "it's the physician going home at last."