At these two blows the marquise
rushed towards the door, of the room into which the ladies had retired,
crying, "Help! He is killing me!"

But during the time that she took to cross the room the chevalier stabbed
her five times in the back with his sword, and would no doubt have done
more, if at the last blow his sword had not broken; indeed, he had struck
with such force that the fragment remained embedded in her shoulder, and
the marquise fell forward on the floor, in a pool of her blood, which was
flowing all round her and spreading through the room.

The chevalier thought he had killed her, and hearing the women running to
her assistance, he rushed from the room. The abbe was still at the door,
pistol in hand; the chevalier took him by the arm to drag him away, and
as the abbe hesitated to follow, he said:--

"Let us go, abbe; the business is done."

The chevalier and the abbe had taken a few steps in the street when a
window opened and the women who had found the marquise expiring called
out for help: at these cries the abbe stopped short, and holding back the
chevalier by the arm, demanded--

"What was it you said, chevalier? If they are calling help, is she not
dead, after all?"

"'Ma foi', go and see for yourself," returned the chevalier. "I have
done enough for my share; it is your turn now."

"'Pardieu', that is quite my opinion," cried the abbe; and rushing back
to the house, he flung himself into the room at the moment when the
women, lifting the marquise with great difficulty, for she was so weak
that she could no longer help herself, were attempting to carry her to
bed. The abbe pushed them away, and arriving at the marquise, put his
pistol to her heart; but Madame Brunel, the same who had previously given
the marquise a box of orvietan, lifted up the barrel with her hand, so
that the shot went off into the air, and the bullet instead of striking
the marquise lodged in the cornice of the ceiling. The abbe then took
the pistol by the barrel and gave Madame Brunet so violent a blow upon
the head with the butt that she staggered and almost fell; he was about
to strike her again, but all the women uniting against him, pushed him,
with thousands of maledictions, out of the room, and locked the door
behind him. The two assassins, taking advantage of the darkness, fled
from Ganges, and reached Aubenas, which is a full league away, about ten
in the evening.

Meanwhile the women were doing all the