“Wait a moment,” I said, turning towards her; “I am by no means certain that this is not a joke at my expense.  I have a suspicion that my uncles are there, behind that door, and that, while our whippers-in are firing off guns in the courtyard, they are waiting with a blanket to toss me.  Now, either you are my cousin, or you are a . . .  You must make me a solemn promise, and I will make you one in return.  If you are one of these wandering charmers and I quit this room the dupe of your pretty acting, you must swear to be my mistress, and to allow none other near you until I have had my rights; otherwise, for my part, I swear that you shall be chastised, even as my spotted dog Flora was chastised this morning.  If, on the other hand, you are Edmee, and I swear to intervene between your father and those who would kill him, what promise will you make me, what will you swear?”

“If you save my father,” she cried, “I swear to you that I will marry you, I swear it.”

“Ho! ho! indeed!” I said, emboldened by her enthusiasm, the sublimity of which I did not understand.  “Give me a pledge, then, so that in any case I do not go out from here like a fool.”

I took her in my arms and kissed her.  She did not attempt to resist.  Her cheeks were like ice.  Mechanically she began to follow me as I moved to the door.  I was obliged to push her back.  I did so without roughness; but she fell as one in a faint.  I began to grasp the gravity of my position; for there was nobody in the corridor and the tumult outside was becoming more and more alarming.  I was about to run and get my weapons, when a last feeling of distrust, or it may have been another sentiment, prompted me to go back and double-lock the door of the hall where I was leaving Edmee.  I put the key into my belt and hastened to the ramparts, armed with a gun, which I loaded as I ran.

It was simply an attack made by the mounted police, and had nothing whatever to do with Mademoiselle de Mauprat.  A little while before our creditors had obtained a writ of arrest against us.  The law officers, beaten and otherwise severely handled, had demanded of the King’s advocate at the provincial court of Bourges another warrant of arrest.  This the armed police were now doing their best to execute.  They had hoped to effect an easy capture by means of a night surprise.  But we were in a better state of defence than they had anticipated.  Our men were brave and well armed; and then we were fighting for our very existence; we had the courage of despair, and this was an immense advantage.  Our band amounted to twenty-four all told; theirs to more than fifty soldiers, in addition to a score or more of peasants, who were slinging stones from the flanks.  These, however, did more harm to their allies than they did to us.

For half an hour the fighting was most desperate.  At the end of this time the enemy had become so dismayed by our resistance that they fell back, and hostilities were suspended.  However, they soon returned to the attack, and again were repulsed with loss.  Hostilities were once more suspended.  They then, for the third time, called upon us to surrender, promising that our lives should be spared.  Antony Mauprat replied with an obscene jest.  They remained undecided, but did not withdraw.