or, like a
hand that was waved backwards and forwards--something shining, like a
polished weapon struck by the rays of the sun. And before they were able
to ascertain what it was, a luminous train, accompanied by a hissing
sound in the air, called their attention from the donjon to the ground.
A second dull noise was heard from the ditch, and Raoul ran to pick up
a silver plate which was rolling along the dry sand. The hand that
had thrown this plate made a sign to the two gentlemen, and then
disappeared. Athos and Raoul, approaching each other, commenced an
attentive examination of the dusty plate, and they discovered, in
characters traced upon the bottom of it with the point of a knife, this
inscription:

"_I am the brother of the king of France--a prisoner to-day--a madman
to-morrow. French gentlemen and Christians, pray to God for the soul and
the reason of the son of your old rulers_."

The plate fell from the hands of Athos whilst Raoul was endeavoring
to make out the meaning of these dismal words. At the same moment they
heard a cry from the top of the donjon. Quick as lightning Raoul
bent down his head, and forced down that of his father likewise. A
musket-barrel glittered from the crest of the wall. A white smoke
floated like a plume from the mouth of the musket, and a ball was
flattened against a stone within six inches of the two gentlemen.

"_Cordieu!_" cried Athos. "What, are people assassinated here? Come
down, cowards as you are!"

"Yes, come down!" cried Raoul, furiously shaking his fist at the castle.

One of the assailants--he who was about to fire--replied to these cries
by an exclamation of surprise; and, as his companion, who wished to
continue the attack, had re-seized his loaded musket, he who had cried
out threw up the weapon, and the ball flew into the air. Athos and
Raoul, seeing them disappear from the platform, expected they would
come down to them, and waited with a firm demeanor. Five minutes had
not elapsed, when a stroke upon a drum called the eight soldiers of the
garrison to arms, and they showed themselves on the other side of
the ditch with their muskets in hand. At the head of these men was an
officer, whom Athos and Raoul recognized as the one who had fired the
first musket. The man ordered the soldiers to "make ready."

"We are going to be shot!" cried Raoul; "but, sword in hand, at least,
let us leap the ditch! We shall kill at least two of these scoundrels,
when their musk