he ought to interpret the
friendliness which the Marquis had unceasingly shown him, and how the
tranquillity of the country could be reconciled with his general's
uneasiness. But in one moment these thoughts were driven from his mind by
a feeling of caution and well-grounded curiosity.

He had just perceived a considerable number of lights in the town. In
spite of the day being the Feast of St. James, he had given orders, that
very morning, that all lights should be extinguished at the hour
prescribed by his regulations; the castle alone being excepted from this
order.

He could plainly see, here and there, the gleam of his soldiers' bayonets
at their accustomed posts; but there was a solemnity in the silence, and
nothing to suggest that the Spaniards were a prey to the excitement of a
festival.

After having sought to explain the offense of which the inhabitants were
guilty, the mystery appeared all the more unaccountable to him, because he
had left officers in charge of the night police and the rounds. With all
the impetuosity of youth, he was just about to leap through a breach and
descend the rocks in haste, and thus arrive more quickly than by the
ordinary road at a small outpost placed at the entrance of the town
nearest to the castle, when a faint sound stopped him.

He thought he heard the light footfall of a woman upon the gravel walk. He
turned his head and saw nothing; but his gaze was arrested by the
extraordinary brightness of the sea. All of a sudden he beheld a sight so
portentous that he stood dumfounded; he thought that his senses deceived
him. In the far distance he could distinguish sails gleaming white in the
moonlight.

He trembled and tried to convince himself that this vision was an optical
illusion, merely the fantastic effect of the moon on the waves.

At this moment a hoarse voice pronounced his name.

He looked toward the breach, and saw slowly rising above it the head of
the soldier whom he had ordered to accompany him to the castle.

"Is that you, commandant?"

"Yes; what do you want?" replied the young man in a low voice. A sort of
presentiment warned him to be cautious.

"Those rascals down there are stirring like worms. I have hurried, with
your leave, to tell you of my own little observations."

"Go on," said Victor Marchand.

"I have just followed a man from the castle who came in this direction
with a lantern in his hand. A lantern's a frightfully suspicious thing. I
do