No warning was given of their intended departure, and their friends were at a loss to account for it. Gradually the secret leaked out, and a conspiracy was formed to follow the fugitives to the very bowels of the earth.
Mrs. Harden was the prime leader of the enterprise, and the party included Philip Rondelet. Feuardent was not invited. Meanwhile Margaret, quite unconscious of the plot for her pursuit, was working steadily. The days flew by as only working days do, when each hour sees something accomplished, each day a step hewn out of the mountain road at whose summit Fame sits. To some men it is an easy ascent; they reach the top without suspecting it. It is told of Rossini (whose early operas had been hissed from the stage) that on the night when that masterpiece, "The Barber of Seville," was first produced, he dared not go to the theatre, but sat at home shivering in his poor room. Presently he heard the sound of a great throng of people in the street below—on the stair—at his very door. "They have come to mob me!" cried the great composer; and as no other escape was possible, he beat a hasty retreat up the chimney. They came and bade him stand forth to receive the homage of the whole city assembled to do him honor.
I knew a man once, a famous writer to-day,
