“The fourteenth courier had just returned in sadness; the commandant was still incredulous; still firm in his refusal to render aid.

“‘We are then given up to the sword of the assassin!’ groaned his hearers.

“‘No, no, never! it must not be!’ cried Maurice with sudden stern determination, though there was a quiver of pain in his voice; and sending a glance of mingled love and anguish toward the cottage that sheltered those dearer to him than life, he set off at a brisk pace up the valley.

“Love moved him to the task, and spite of weakness and pain, never before had he trodden those steep and dangerous mountain paths with such celerity.

“Arrived and admitted to Godin’s presence, he poured out his petition with the vehemence of one who can take no denial, urging his suit with all the eloquence of intense anxiety and deep conviction of the terrible extremity of the feeble folk in the valley.

“Doubt began to creep into the mind of the brave officer.  ’Might there not be some truth in the story after all?’ Yet he answered as before.  ’A mere panic.  I cannot believe in a plot so atrocious.  What! murder in cold blood the innocent, helpless wives and children of the brave men who are defending theirs from a common foe?  No, no; human nature is not so depraved!’”

“’So it was thought on the eve of the Sicilian Vespers; on the eve of St. Bartholomew; at the time when Castracaro, when De La Trinite, when Pianeza—­’

“‘Ah,’ interrupted the general with a frown, ’but those were deeds of days long gone by, and men are not now what they then were.’

“‘Sir,’ returned Maurice earnestly, ’for twelve hundred years the she-wolf of Rome has ravaged our fold, slaying sheep and lambs alike—­sparing neither age nor sex; and, sir, it is her boast that she never changes.

“’Nor are men incapable of the grossest injustice and cruelty even in these days.  Look at the fearful scenes of blood enacted even now in France!  General, the lives of thousands of his majesty’s evangelical subjects are trembling in the balance, and I do most solemnly assure you that unless saved by your speedy interposition, or a direct miracle from Heaven, they will this night fall victims to a sanguinary plot.

“’Ah, sir, what more can I say to convince, to move you?  The assassins are already assembling, the time wanes fast, and will you stretch forth no hand to save their innocent, helpless victims?’

“The general was evidently moved by the appeal.  ’Had I but sufficient proof,’ he muttered in an undertone of doubt and perplexity.

“Maurice caught eagerly at the word.  ’Proof, general! would Odetti, would Brianza have warned us, were the danger not imminent?  And do not the annals of your own Switzerland furnish examples of similar plots?’

“‘True, too true! yet—­’

“But at this moment the sixteenth courier came panting up to pour out, in an agony of haste and fear, the same tale of contemplated wholesale massacre, and the story reaching the ears of the Vaudois troops they gathered about the general, imploring, demanding to be sent instantly to the aid of their menaced wives and children.