Page 180 - A Jacobite Exile

Chapter 10

: In Evil Plight.

When Charlie recovered his senses, he found himself lying bound in a room
lighted by a dim lamp, which sufficed only to show that the beams were

blackened by smoke and age, and the walls constructed of rough stone
work. There was, so far as he could see, no furniture whatever in it, and he

imagined that it was an underground cellar, used perhaps, at some time or
other, as a storeroom. It was some time before his brain was clear enough
to understand what had happened, or how he had got into his present

position. Gradually the facts came back to him, and he was able to think
coherently, in spite of a splitting headache, and a dull, throbbing pain at the

back of his head.

"I was knocked down and stunned," he said to himself, at last. "I wonder

what became of Stanislas. I hope he got away.

"This does not look like a prison. I should say that it was a cellar, in the
house of one of the gang that set upon me. It is evident that someone has
betrayed me, probably that Jew, Ben Soloman. What have they brought me

here for? I wonder what are they going to do with me."

His head, however, hurt him too much for him to continue the strain of
thought, and, after a while, he dozed off to sleep. When he awoke, a faint
light was streaming in through a slit, two or three inches wide, high up on

the wall. He still felt faint and dizzy, from the effects of the blow. Parched
with thirst, he tried to call out for water, but scarce a sound came from his

lips.

Gradually, the room seemed to darken and become indistinct, and he again

lapsed into insensibility. When he again became conscious, someone was
pouring water between his lips, and he heard a voice speaking loudly and

angrily. He had picked up a few words of Polish from Stanislas--the names
of common things, the words to use in case he lost his way, how to ask for
food and for stabling for a horse, but he was unable to understand what was