teyr--drenched with blood, his sabre flashing above his head.
They pulled him from his horse, but he still raged, his bloodshot
eyes flaring, his teeth gleaming under shrunken lips. They beat
him with musket-stocks, they hurled stones at him, they struck
him terrible blows with clubbed lances, and he yelped like a mad
cur and snapped at them, even when they had him down, even when
they shot into his twisting body. And at last they exterminated
the rabid thing that ran among them.

But the butchery was not ended; around the bend of the road
galloped more Uhlans, halted, wheeled, and galloped back with
harsh cries. The cries were echoed from above and below; the
franc-tireurs were surrounded.

Then Tricasse raised his smeared sabre, and, bending, took the
dead woman by the wrist, lifting her limp, trampled body from the
dust. He began to mutter, holding his sabre above his head, and
the men took up the savage chant, standing close together in the
road:

"'Ca ira! Ca ira!'"

It was the horrible song of the Terror.

"'Que faut-il au Republicain?
Du fer, du plomb, et puis du pain!

"'Du fer pour travailler,
Du plomb pour nous venger,
Et du pain pour nos freres!'"

And the fierce voices sang:

"'Dansons la Carmagnole!
Dansons la Carmagnole!
Ca ira! Ca ira!
Tous les cochons a la lanterne!
Ca ira! Ca ira!
Tous les Prussiens, on les pendra!'"

The road trembled under the advancing cavalry; they surged around
the bend, a chaos of rearing horses and levelled lances; a ring
of fire around the little group of franc-tireurs, a cry from the
whirl of flame and smoke:

"France!"

So they died.

XXVIII

THE BRACONNIER

Lorraine had turned ghastly white; Jack's shocked face was
colourless as he drew her away from the ridge with him into the
forest. The appalling horror had stunned her; her knees gave way,
she stumbled, but Jack held her up by main force, pushing the
undergrowth aside and plunging straight on towards the thickest
depths of the woods. He had not the faintest idea where he was;
he only knew that for the moment it was absolutely necessary for
them to get as far away as possible from the Uhlans and their
butcher's work. Lorraine knew it, too; she tried to recover her
coolness and her strength.

"Here is another road," she said, faintly; "Jack--I--I am not
strong--I am--a--little--faint--" Tears were running over her
cheeks.

Jack