If Judith had been an ordinary woman she would have been content with this result, would have executed the prisoner, and have awaited the submission of his disheartened followers; and she would have failed, defeated by the indomitable courage and resource of Haco.  But it was not in this clumsy fashion that her genius moulded the materials at her command.  She now controlled, as she believed, the mainspring of the resistance, which would probably cease with the death of Jean.  But her aim went far beyond the mere submission of her antagonists; she wished that the blow should be struck in such a manner as to stamp out the false creed which had held the islanders in thrall, to prove to all sceptics the powers of her own Gods and the impotence of those of her opponents, and to commit the recently reconverted islanders so irretrievably that they could not afterwards backslide.  She wished also, by making an example that would inspire terror, to establish the undisputed supremacy of her people in the whole island.  But, side by side with these political considerations, were the religious influences honestly and steadfastly working in her powerful intellect.  When she communed with her Gods she thought of no earthly good or ill:  she loved these strange conceptions, and fixed her whole soul on conciliating them.  It was now her conviction that they were displeased:  their displeasure, awful as she believed it to be, did not terrify her, but it vexed her to the inmost heart:  she feared that they had not been rightly propitiated, and resolved that the shortcoming must be remedied.

All her reflections pointed with unerring force to the same conclusion.  She held in her hands the strong frame, the stout heart, the ruling mind.  All were concentrated in Jean Letocq.  He, then, must be offered up as a fitting sacrifice.  By such an offering the deities could not fail to be appeased, and by the death of this man in this fashion all the natural exigencies of the situation would be satisfied.  She never allowed herself to dwell for one moment on the fact that the victim was beloved by Hilda.  On this point she had armed herself with bars of brass and triple steel.  He might have fooled the girl, but at the thought of love her heart was ice.

The sorceress communicated her resolution to Garthmund.  The chieftain exhibited no surprise:  he expressed a grim approval of the proposal, which seemed likely to give an excuse for revelry and to bring the campaign to a prompt conclusion, and proceeded to make the requisite arrangements.

The 30th of March was the day chosen.  The forces investing the two beleaguered positions were ordered to assemble, that on the western side on the low ground between L’Eree and Lihou, that on the northern under shelter of the woods of the Braye du Valle, facing the fortifications thrown up by the defenders.  At a given signal, the kindling of a beacon on the Rocque du Guet, the two hosts were to make simultaneously a determined assault.  The islanders not engaged in these operations, with the exception of those openly or secretly sympathizing with the Christians, poured into Vazon Forest, none remaining behind but those absolutely incapable of conveying themselves or of being conveyed.