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‘I know, but I can’t leave her, Harry, I simply can’t.’
‘She means that much to you?’
‘She does. She is not like Marianne, is she, Harry?’
‘Not a bit,’ his friend agreed cheerfully. ‘But there is no need for anyone to die. Do not despair, we will think of something, but we might have to wait until the trial. Michel Giradet will be brought up for that, provided, of course, his accusers do not tumble to the ruse before that. Shall we take a stroll? I want to be able to find my way round this building.’
They walked unhurriedly through the public rooms where there was no ban on who entered and poked their noses into private rooms, noting their function and apologising in a mixture of French and English when they were challenged. They went down some of the stairs to the prison itself, which struck cold and airless. On one landing between one floor and the next, they were stopped by a turnkey. ‘Your business, gentlemen.’
Harry put his handkerchief to his nose, for the stench was overpowering. ‘No business,’ he said in execrable French. ‘We have become lost.’
The man laughed. ‘You will be even more lost, Anglais, if you try to go any further, lost to the world.’
‘How many prisoners are you holding here?’ Jay asked him, going along with Harry’s pretence of being two bumbling English sightseers.
‘A thousand, give or take a score or so.’
‘As many as that? How many are due for trial tomorrow?’
‘Sixty, I am told.’
‘Methinks we will come and listen,’ Harry said. ‘Will we find seats, do you think?’
‘If you come early enough.’
‘Do you have lists of who is to go when and what they are being charged with?’ Jay asked, producing assignats from his pocket and holding them where the warder could see them.
‘What do you want to know that for?’
‘We want to choose the most interesting to witness,’ Harry put in. ‘Something melodramatic and juicy. We are not interested in run-of-the-mill thieves and harlots.’
‘Do they go up one by one when they are called?’ Jay asked.
The man took the assignats from Jay’s unresisting fingers. ‘No, I send a dozen up together, under armed guard of course. Here, take a look.’ He turned away from them to open a cupboard behind him. Jay raised both hands above his head, ready to strike while the man’s back was turned, but Harry grabbed his arm and shook his head, just as the warder faced them again with a sheaf of papers in his hand.
Jay took them and scanned the list until he came to the name Giradet. ‘Who is this?’ he said, pointing. ‘I think I have heard the name.’
‘Oh, He is just another aristo who thinks he can overthrow the republic and take us back to the dark ages. He will die.’
Jay handed the papers back. It was plain Lisette’s real identity had not been discovered and probably would not be until the following day. The two men returned to the cleaner air of the foyer.
‘I could have knocked him out and seized his keys,’ Jay said. ‘Why did you stop me?’
‘If they have a thousand prisoners and more, those dungeons must fill the whole of the lower floors and there would be other turnkeys guarding them. How could we be sure which of them holds Lisette? While we were trying to find her, the man would have come to his senses and the alarm been raised. I know how impatient you must be, but we must wait until tomorrow when she is brought up for trial.’
‘My God, Portman, you are not suggesting we leave her in that stink hole overnight?’
‘That is exactly what I am thinking. She might, by then, realise that she has to trust you.’
‘You mean to grab her while she waits for her turn to go into the dock?’
‘Yes, the place will be crowded. We will stage a diversion, start a rumour, and while everyone is milling about we can spirit her away.’
‘But if they have already realised it is not Michel, but Lisette?’
‘I have no doubt they will try her in his place. One Giradet is as good as another in their eyes.’
‘You may be right, but then they will be searching for the boy and—’ Jay stopped speaking and grabbed Harry’s arm to pull him behind a pillar. ‘There’s Wentworth. And he’s with Danton.’ He peered out at the two men. ‘They seem to be arguing.’
‘No doubt Wentworth is at the receiving end of a drubbing for letting Lisette slip through his fingers.’
‘I hope they do not send for the prisoner.’
His fears were groundless, at least for the moment. The two men parted and Wentworth hurried past the pillar without looking either to right or left. ‘If he goes to the Embassy, there will be trouble,’ Jay said. ‘Lisette left him a blank sheet of paper instead of the names.’
