ything.

"Very well," said Dominique; "I will do what you wish."

They said nothing more. Dominique reopened the window. But suddenly
a sound froze them. The door was shaken, and they thought that it was
about to be opened. Evidently a patrol had heard their voices. Standing
locked in each other's arms, they waited in unspeakable anguish. The
door was shaken a second time, but it did not open. They uttered low
sighs of relief; they comprehended that the soldier who was asleep
against the door must have turned over. In fact, silence succeeded; the
snoring was resumed.

Dominique exacted that Francoise should ascend to her chamber before he
departed. He clasped her in his arms and bade her a mute adieu. Then
he aided her to seize the ladder and clung to it in his turn. But he
refused to descend a single round until convinced that she was in her
apartment. When Francoise had entered her window she let fall in a voice
as light as a breath:

"Au revoir, my love!"

She leaned her elbows on the sill and strove to follow Dominique with
her eyes. The night was yet very dark. She searched for the sentinel but
could not see him; the willow alone made a pale stain in the midst of
the gloom. For an instant she heard the sound produced by Dominique's
body in passing along the ivy. Then the wheel cracked, and there was
a slight agitation in the water which told her that the young man
had found the boat. A moment afterward she distinguished the somber
silhouette of the bateau on the gray surface of the Morelle. Terrible
anguish seized upon her. Each instant she thought she heard the
sentinel's cry of alarm; the smallest sounds scattered through the gloom
seemed to her the hurried tread of soldiers, the clatter of weapons,
the charging of guns. Nevertheless, the seconds elapsed and the country
maintained its profound peace. Dominique must have reached the other
side of the river. Francoise saw nothing more. The silence was majestic.
She heard a shuffling of feet, a hoarse cry and the hollow fall of a
body. Afterward the silence grew deeper. Then as if she had felt Death
pass by, she stood, chilled through and through, staring into the thick
night.

CHAPTER IV

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

At dawn a clamor of voices shook the mill. Pere Merlier opened the door
of Francoise's chamber. She went down into the courtyard, pale and very
calm. But there she could not repress a shiver as she saw the corpse of
a Prussian soldier stretc