s of iron. At the close of her prayer, which had exactly
coincided with the moment when Hilda stepped from her cell, the bosom of
the sea heaved and rose: a wave, ten feet high, glided, stole as it
were, so gently did it move, into the forest; but so rapidly, that in
one minute every human being except herself and Jean was engulphed. They
were gone, the high-couraged and the craven, the frenzied priest and the
laughing child, with their passions, their hopes, and their fears,
without the faintest note of warning of coming danger! Judith glanced at
Jean, almost contemptuously; he, not having seen what had happened, was
still momentarily expecting the application of the torch. A second wave
crept in, smaller than the former, but overwhelming the pyre. The dazed
warrior on the Guet reported that after this second wave had passed he
saw the tall form still towering on the peak, but that when he looked
again the rock, though still above water, was tenantless; a little later
the granite mass, together with the tops of the tallest trees, lay under
an unruffled surface.

When the pyre was submerged the litter, to which Jean was attached,
floated off and formed a tolerably secure raft. His life was safe for a
time; but he would have been exposed to a still more ghastly fate from
the swooping sea-birds had he not been able by a supreme effort to
wrest one of his arms from its bands. In speechless wonderment he was
carried seaward by the slowly receding tide. Suddenly his raft was
hailed by a well-known voice. Friendly hands cut the ropes that bound
him, and he was lifted into a boat. The occupant was Haco who, attracted
to the spot when hurrying to the Vale, by the cries of the clustering
gulls, had thus again saved his life.

The giant pulled vigorously to the point which, now known as the Hommet,
terminates the northern arm of Vazon Bay; there he landed the youth, to
enable him to stretch his cramped limbs, and to clothe him in such
articles as he could spare from his own equipment. A rapid explanation
passed between them. Haco told him how the force investing Lihou had,
when apparently waiting for a signal to move, been overwhelmed by a wave
which cut off the promontory from L'Eree, and had perished to a man.
Jean could tell of nothing but the sudden cessation of the tumult and
the floating of his litter. The minds of both were wandering, burningly
anxious as they were to know what had passed at the Vale. Scaling the
Hommet,