a messenger from God.

Little by little the town awoke. To Amelie the noise seemed louder than
ever before. Soon the vaulted ceiling of the church shook with the tramp
of a troop of horsemen. This troop was on its way to the prison.

A little before nine the young girl heard a great noise, and it seemed
to her that the whole town must be rushing in the same direction.
She strove to lose herself in prayer, that she might not hear these
different sounds that spoke to her in an unknown language of which her
anguish told her she understood every word.

In truth, a terrible thing was happening at the prison. It was no wonder
that the whole town had rushed thither.

At nine o'clock Pere Courtois entered the jail to tell the prisoners at
one and the same time that their appeal had been rejected and that they
must prepare for immediate death. He found the four prisoners armed to
the teeth.

The jailer, taken unawares, was pulled into the cell and the door locked
behind him. Then the young men, without any defence on his part,
so astonished was he, seized his keys, and passing through the door
opposite to the one by which he had entered they locked it on him.
Leaving him in their cell, they found themselves in the adjoining one,
in which he had placed three of them during Amelie's interview with
Morgan.

One of the keys on the jailer's bunch opened the other door of this
cell, and that door led to the inner courtyard of the prison. This
courtyard was closed by three massive doors, all of which led to a sort
of lobby, opening upon the porter's lodge, which in turn adjoined the
law-courts. From this lodge fifteen steps led down into a vast courtyard
closed by an iron gate and railing. Usually this gate was only locked at
night. If it should happen to be open on this occasion it would offer a
possibility of escape.

Morgan found the key of the prisoners' court, opened the door, and
rushed with his companions to the porter's lodge and to the portico,
from which the fifteen steps led down into the courtyard. From there the
three young men could see that all hope was lost.

The iron gate was closed, and eighty men, dragoons and gendarmes, were
drawn up in front of it.

When the four prisoners, free and armed to the teeth, sprang from the
porter's lodge to the portico, a great cry, a cry of astonishment and
terror, burst from the crowd in the street beyond the railing.

Their aspect was formidable, indeed; for to preserve