,
that his fair locks were smeared with blood, and the youth without
drawing another breath, fell to the ground. When Anton, the shoemaker
saw this, he fell furiously upon Caspar: "Tear the cruel idolaters to
pieces!" screamed he, and struck Caspar with his short sword, who was
on the point of using his weapons on the neck, so that in a moment he
was red with a stream of blood. Louison, who saw that her beloved was
lost, uttered a piercing shriek of woe, tore the short, stumpy Anton by
the hair to the ground, and battered his brains out with the bar of the
crucifix, which Caliper had now let fall. A murderous shout of
bloodthirstiness rang fearfully through the troops of exasperated
rebels, and Francois was the first to cut down the beautiful Louison,
whereupon an indiscriminate massacre raged in every cottage, in every
street, upon every little bridge, and in the already burning church, so
that the gurgling brook soon rolled in blood-red waves.

In the meanwhile Edmond stood gloomy and despairingly above on the
steep rock, and saw now distinctly, now obscured by the smoke the
streets and houses of the village beneath him. The smoke now rolled
away, the royalists had all fled, a short cry and wailing, the
inhabitants were all slain, cottages burned right and left, the fire
shone through all the trees, and now the flames arose in the church and
the peaceful dwelling under his feet, which had hospitably sheltered
him that very night, already rolled in columns of smoke, the fire
shortly raised the roof, and below was a universal glow of destruction
and death, reflected in the bloody, splashing brook, all like a fiery
river of hell, where yesterday an Eden had bloomed. The green trees
defended themselves from the fiery streams, but they were compelled to
bend and yield to its force. The glowing waves burst up to the heavens
over the church tower, and as a child, unconsciously smiling, plays
even in death, the clock struck the hour once more, and for the last
time, and then fell with the tower and the beams of the roof with a
loud crash into the abyss of fire and smoke.

Edmond sat down indifferent to all, and incapable of further thought.
After a while he saw a troop of his brethren ascending the heights by
different routes. Bertrand appeared soon afterwards on another road
mounted with several horsemen. "Are you defeated?" asked Edmond, as
they assembled near him. "No," cried Bertrand, "God has given us
compete victory,