Amelie stretched out her hand.

"Wait for me there," she said.

Charlotte obeyed. Amelie closed the door behind her, and went up to
Roland's room.

Roland's room was veritably that of a soldier and a huntsman, and its
chief adornments were trophies and weapons. Arms of all kinds were here,
French and foreign, from the blue-barrelled pistol of Versailles to the
silver-handled pistol of Cairo, from the tempered blade of Catalonia to
the Turkish cimeter.

Amelie took down from this arsenal four daggers, sharp-edged and
pointed, and eight pistols of different shapes. She put balls in a bag
and powder in a horn. Thus supplied she returned to her own room. There
Charlotte assisted her in putting on the peasant gown. Then she waited
for the night.

Night comes late in June. Amelie stood motionless, mute, leaning against
the chimney-piece, and looking through the open window at the village
of Ceyzeriat, which was slowly disappearing in the gathering shades
of night. When she could no longer distinguish anything but the lights
which were being lighted one by one, she said:

"Come, it is time to go."

The two young girls went out. Michel paid no attention to Amelie,
supposing her to be some friend of Charlotte's, who had called to see
her and whom the jailer's daughter was now escorting home.

Ten o'clock was striking as they passed the church of Brou. It was
quarter past when Charlotte knocked at the prison door. Old Courtois
opened it.

We have already shown the political opinions of the worthy jailer. He
was a royalist. He therefore felt the deepest sympathy for the four
condemned men, and had hoped, like nearly every one in Bourg--like
Madame de Montrevel, whose despair at what she had done was known to
him--that the First Consul would pardon them. He had therefore mitigated
their captivity as much as possible, without failing in his duty, by
relieving them of all needless restrictions. On the other hand, it is
true that he had refused a gift of sixty thousand francs (a sum which
in those days was worth nearly treble what it is now) to allow them to
escape.

We have seen how, being taken into confidence by his daughter, he had
allowed Amelie, disguised as a Bressan peasant, to be present at the
trial. The reader will also remember the kindness the worthy man had
shown to Amelie and her mother when they themselves were prisoners.
This time, as he was still ignorant of the rejection of the appeal, he
allowed his