rd of La Tournoire!"

I could have shouted for joy, but that it was now worth while postponing
death by minutes.

The noise of clashing swords increased and came nearer, as if the
guardsmen were pouring in through the gateway and driving the defenders
back toward the house. Now and then came the sound of a pike or reversed
musket meeting steel armour, and all the time fierce exclamations rose
from both parties. There was no more firing; doubtless the melee was too
close and general for anybody to reload.

The men in the passage, as the tumult grew and approached, became as
restless as dogs in leash that whine and jump to be in the fray. At last
one of them ran into my room and looked out of the window.

"Death of the devil, how they are at it!" he cried, for the information
of his comrades outside my door. "I think we shall be wanted in a minute
or two. These cursed intruders have forced the gateway. Our fellows are
twice as many as they, but their heads and bodies are in steel,--all but
one, a middle-aged man with gray in his beard. He has no armour on, but
he leads the others. Body of Satan! you should see him clear the ground
about him. He thrusts in all directions at once: his sword is as long as
a man, and it darts as quickly as the tongue of a snake. Ha! it has just
cut down old Cricharde.--And now it has stung Galparoux.--Holy
Beelzebub, what a man! He fights like a fiend, and all the time with a
gay face as if he were at his sport.--Ah! there he has let daylight into
poor Boirac.--But now--good!--at last our Captain has planted himself in
front of this devil: it was high time: he will find his match now. By
God, it will be worth looking at, the fight between the red Captain and
this stranger,--there aren't two such men in France. They are taking
each other's measure now,--each one sees what sort of stuff he has run
against. Ah!"

What the last exclamation meant, I could not know. The man's attention
had become too close for further speech. But I supposed that a pass had
been made between my father and the red Captain, and that it had been
nothing decisive, for the watcher's interest continued at the extreme
tension: he kept his face against the iron bars of the window, and made
no sound beyond frequent short ejaculations. The men in the passage
called to him for further news, but he did not heed them. To my ears the
fighting continued as general as before, with the shouts of many throats
and the clash of ma