ng his
feet against the bar, he seated himself firmly, throwing his shoulders
well back, and it was only when he was sure of his position that he said
to the baron:

"I am here and firmly fixed, comrade; now let yourself down."

The sudden parting of the rope hurled the brave corporal rudely against
the tower wall, then he was thrown forward by the rebound.

His unalterable _sang-froid_ was all that saved him.

For more than a minute he hung suspended over the abyss into which the
baron had just fallen, and his hands clutched at the empty air.

A hasty movement, and he would have fallen.

But he possessed a marvellous power of will, which prevented him from
attempting any violent effort. Prudently, but with determined energy,
he screwed his feet and his knees into the crevices of the rock, feeling
with his hands for some point of support, and gradually sinking to one
side, he finally succeeded in dragging himself from the verge of the
precipice.

It was time, for a cramp seized him with such violence that he was
obliged to sit down and rest for a moment.

That the baron had been killed by his fall, Bavois did not doubt for an
instant. But this catastrophe did not produce much effect upon the old
soldier, who had seen so many comrades fall by his side on the field of
battle.

What did _amaze_ him was the breaking of the rope--a rope so large that
one would have supposed it capable of sustaining the weight of ten men
like the baron.

As he could not, by reason of the darkness, see the ruptured place,
Bavois felt it with his finger; and, to his inexpressible astonishment,
he found it smooth. No filaments, no rough bits of hemp, as usual after
a break; the surface was perfectly even.

The corporal comprehended what Maurice had comprehended below.

"The scoundrels have cut the rope!" he exclaimed, with a frightful oath.

And a recollection of what had happened three or four hours previous
arose in his mind.

"This," he thought, "explains the noise which the poor baron heard in
the next room! And I said to him: 'Nonsense! it is a rat!'"

Then he thought of a very simple method of verifying his conjectures. He
passed the cord about the crowbar and pulled it with all his strength.
It parted in three places.

This discovery appalled him.

A part of the rope had fallen with the unfortunate baron, and it was
evident that the remaining fragments tied together would not be long
enough to reach to the base of th