prang from the cottage. Her coolness came back to her, and she thought
of the situation.
"He might have accepted me and scorned me," she reflected. "Ah! if I
could think that, I would kill him. But not yet!" she added, catching
sight of Beau-Pied, to whom she made a sign which the soldier was quick
to understand. He turned on his heel, pretending to have seen nothing.
Mademoiselle de Verneuil re-entered the cottage, putting her finger to
her lips to enjoin silence.
"They are there!" she whispered in a frightened voice.
"Who?"
"The Blues."
"Ah! must I die without one kiss!"
"Take it," she said.
He caught her to him, cold and unresisting, and gathered from her lips a
kiss of horror and of joy, for while it was the first, it might also be
the last. Then they went together to the door and looked cautiously
out. The marquis saw Gudin and his men holding the paths leading to the
valley. Then he turned to the line of gates where the first rotten trunk
was guarded by five men. Without an instant's pause he jumped on the
barrel of cider and struck a hole through the thatch of the roof, from
which to spring upon the rocks behind the house; but he drew his head
hastily back through the gap he had made, for Hulot was on the height;
his retreat was cut off in that direction. The marquis turned and looked
at his mistress, who uttered a cry of despair; for she heard the tramp
of the three detachments near the house.
"Go out first," he said; "you shall save me."
Hearing the words, to her all-glorious, she went out and stood before
the door. The marquis loaded his musket. Measuring with his eye the
space between the door of the hut and the old rotten trunk where seven
men stood, the Gars fired into their midst and sprang forward instantly,
forcing a passage through them. The three troops rushed towards the
opening through which he had passed, and saw him running across the
field with incredible celerity.
"Fire! fire! a thousand devils! You're not Frenchmen! Fire, I say!"
called Hulot.
As he shouted these words from the height above, his men and Gudin's
fired a volley, which was fortunately ill-aimed. The marquis reached the
gate of the next field, but as he did so he was almost caught by
Gudin, who was close upon his heels. The Gars redoubled his speed.
Nevertheless, he and his pursuer reached the next barrier together; but
the marquis dashed his musket at Gudin's head with so good an aim that
he stopped his ru
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