the gallery when a door at the further end
opened, and three figures, the tallest carrying a lamp, appeared.
The girls, too, had been keeping watch with their father and
mother. They were dressed in the attire of respectable peasant
girls. Virginie was weeping loudly, but the elder girls, although
their cheeks bore traces of many tears they had shed during the
night, restrained them now. When they reached Harry, the lad,
without a word, took the lamp from Marie's hand, and led the way
along the corridor and down the stairs towards the back of the
house.

Everything was quiet. The knocking, loud as it was, had not yet
aroused the servants, and, drawing the bolt quietly, and blowing
out the lamp, Harry led the way into the garden behind the house.
Then for a moment he paused. There was a sound of axes hewing down
the gate which led from the garden into the street behind.

"Quick, mesdemoiselles!" he said. "There is no time to lose."

He took they key out of the door, and closed and locked it after
him. Then throwing the key among the shrubs he took Virginie's hand,
and led the way rapidly towards the gate, which was fortunately a
strong one.

"In here, mesdemoiselles," he said to Marie, pointing to some shrubs
close to the gate. "They will rush straight to the house when the
gate gives way, and we will slip out quietly."

For nearly five minutes the gate, which was strongly bound with iron,
resisted the attack upon it. Then there was a crash, and a number
of men with torches, and armed with muskets and pikes, poured in.
Virginie was clinging to Marie, who, whispering to her to be calm
and brave, pressed the child closely to her, while Jeanne stood
quiet and still by the side of Harry, looking through the bushes.

Some twenty men entered, and a minute later there was the sound of
battering at the door through which the fugitives had sallied out.

"Now," Harry said, "let us be going." Emerging from the shelter, a
few steps took them to the gate, and stepping over the door, which
lay prostrate on the ground, they turned into the lane.

"Let us run," Harry said; "we must get out of this lane as soon as
possible. We are sure to have the mob here before long, and should
certainly be questioned."

They hurried down the lane, took the first turning away from the
house, and then slackened their pace. Presently they heard a number
of footsteps clattering on the pavement; but fortunately they
reached another turning be