ou must swear to be my mistress, and to allow none other near
you until I have had my rights; otherwise, for my part, I swear that
you shall be chastised, even as my spotted dog Flora was chastised this
morning. If, on the other hand, you are Edmee, and I swear to intervene
between your father and those who would kill him, what promise will you
make me, what will you swear?"

"If you save my father," she cried, "I swear to you that I will marry
you, I swear it."

"Ho! ho! indeed!" I said, emboldened by her enthusiasm, the sublimity of
which I did not understand. "Give me a pledge, then, so that in any case
I do not go out from here like a fool."

I took her in my arms and kissed her. She did not attempt to resist. Her
cheeks were like ice. Mechanically she began to follow me as I moved to
the door. I was obliged to push her back. I did so without roughness;
but she fell as one in a faint. I began to grasp the gravity of my
position; for there was nobody in the corridor and the tumult outside
was becoming more and more alarming. I was about to run and get my
weapons, when a last feeling of distrust, or it may have been another
sentiment, prompted me to go back and double-lock the door of the hall
where I was leaving Edmee. I put the key into my belt and hastened to
the ramparts, armed with a gun, which I loaded as I ran.

It was simply an attack made by the mounted police, and had nothing
whatever to do with Mademoiselle de Mauprat. A little while before our
creditors had obtained a writ of arrest against us. The law officers,
beaten and otherwise severely handled, had demanded of the King's
advocate at the provincial court of Bourges another warrant of arrest.
This the armed police were now doing their best to execute. They had
hoped to effect an easy capture by means of a night surprise. But we
were in a better state of defence than they had anticipated. Our men
were brave and well armed; and then we were fighting for our very
existence; we had the courage of despair, and this was an immense
advantage. Our band amounted to twenty-four all told; theirs to more
than fifty soldiers, in addition to a score or more of peasants, who
were slinging stones from the flanks. These, however, did more harm to
their allies than they did to us.

For half an hour the fighting was most desperate. At the end of this
time the enemy had become so dismayed by our resistance that they fell
back, and hostilities were suspended. However,