ry, which
contained her lover's letters from first to last, unfastened from the
mirror above her bed the white and virginal chaplet that hung there;
put into her belt a watch her father had given her, and passed into her
mother's bedchamber. There she stooped and kissed the pillow where her
mother's head had lain, knelt before the Christ at the foot of the bed,
began a thanksgiving she dared not finish, changed it to a prayer, and
then suddenly stopped--she fancied she heard Charles calling her.

She listened and heard her name a second time, uttered in a tone of
agony she could not understand. She quivered, sprang to her feet, and
ran rapidly down the stairs.

"What is it?" cried Amelie, seizing the young man's hand.

"Listen, listen!" said he.

Amelie strained her ears to catch the sound which seemed to her like
musketry. It came from the direction of Ceyzeriat.

"Oh!" cried Morgan, "I was right in doubting my happiness to the last.
My friends are attacked. Adieu, Amelie, adieu!"

"Adieu!" cried Amelie, turning pale. "What, will you leave me?"

The sound of the firing grew more distinct.

"Don't you hear them? They are fighting, and I am not there to fight
with them."

Daughter and sister of a soldier, Amelie understood him and she made no
resistance.

"Go!" she said, letting her hands drop beside her. "You were right, we
are lost."

The young man uttered a cry of rage, caught her to his breast, and
pressed her to him as though he would smother her. Then, bounding from
the portico, he rushed in the direction of the firing with the speed of
a deer pursued by hunters.

"I come! I come, my friends!" he cried. And he disappeared like a shadow
beneath the tall trees of the park.

Amelie fell upon her knees, her hands stretched toward him without the
strength to recall him, or, if she did so, it was in so faint a voice
that Morgan did not stop or even check his speed to answer her.

CHAPTER XLIX. ROLAND'S REVENGE

It is easy to guess what had happened. Roland had not wasted his time
with the captain of gendarmerie and the colonel of dragoons. They on
their side did not forget that they had their own revenge to take.

Roland had informed them of the subterranean passage that led from the
church of Brou to the grotto of Ceyzeriat. At nine in the evening the
captain and the eighteen men under his command were to go to the church,
descend into the burial vault of the Dukes of Savoy, and prevent with
t