The suspicions of the pursuers seemed to have been awakened by the
signs which they had seen at the last halting-place. They rode on
more slowly. At length they divided, half of them riding rapidly
ahead, and the other half moving forward at a walk, and scanning
every foot of ground in the open and in the woods.

At last a cry escaped one of them. Claude heard it. The next moment
he heard footsteps. The enemy were upon him; their cries rang in his
ears. In all the fury of despair, he started to his feet with only
one thought, and that was, to sell his life as dearly as possible.
But Mimi flung herself in his arms, and the priest held his hands.

"Yield," said the priest. "You can do nothing. There is yet hope."

The next moment Claude was disarmed, and in the hands of his enemies.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ZAC AND MARGOT.

Seizing Margot in his arms at the first alarm, Zac had fled to the
woods. Being stronger than Claude, he was fortunate in having a less
unwieldy burden; for Margot did not lie like a heavyweight in his
arms, but was able to dispose herself in a way which rendered her
more easy to be carried. On reaching the woods, Zac did not at once
plunge in among the trees, but continued along the trail for some
distance, asking Margot to tell him the moment she saw one of the
pursuing party. As Margot's face was turned back, she was in a
position to watch. It was Zac's intention to find some better place
for flight than the stony and swampy ground at the outer edge of the
forest; and as he hurried along, he watched narrowly for a good
opportunity to leave the path. At length he reached a place where the
ground descended on the other side of the hill, and here he came to
some pine trees. There was but little underbrush, the surface of the
ground was comparatively smooth, and good progress could be made here
without much difficulty. Here, then, Zac turned in. As he hurried
onward, he found the pine forest continuing along the whole slope,
and but few obstacles in his way. Occasionally a fallen tree lay
before him, and this he could easily avoid. Hurrying on, then, under
these favorable circumstances, Zac was soon lost in the vast forest,
and out of sight as well as out of hearing of all his purposes. Here
he might have rested; but still he kept on. He was not one to do
things by halves, and chose rather to make assurance doubly sure; and
although even Margot begged him to put her down, yet he would not.

"