I had fought bravely; I had done what I called my duty.  There was a long lull.  It was impossible to judge the distance of the enemy, and we dared not fire at random into the darkness, for our ammunition was too precious.  All my uncles remained riveted on the ramparts, in case of fresh attack.  My Uncle Louis was dangerously wounded.  Thoughts of my prisoner returned to my mind.  At the beginning of the fight I had heard John Mauprat saying, that if our defeat seemed imminent, we must offer to hand her over to the enemy, on condition that they should raise the seige; that if they refused, we must hang her before their eyes.  I had no longer any doubts about the truth of what she had told me.  When victory appeared to declare for us they forgot the captive.  But I noticed the crafty John quitting the culverin which he so loved to fire, and creeping away like a cat into the darkness.  A feeling of ungovernable jealousy seized me.  I threw down my gun and dashed after him, knife in hand, resolved, I believe, to stab him if he attempted to touch what I considered my booty.  I saw him approach the door, try to open it, peer attentively through the keyhole, to assure himself that his prey had not escaped him.  Suddenly shots were heard again.  He sprang to his maimed feet with that marvellous agility of his, and limped off to the ramparts.  For myself, hidden as I was by the darkness, I let him pass and did not follow.  A passion other than the love of slaughter had just taken possession of me.  A flash of jealousy had fired my senses.  The smell of powder, the sight of blood, the noise, the danger, and the many bumpers of brandy we had passed round to keep up our strength had strangely heated my brain.  I took the key from my belt and opened the door noisily.  And now, as I stood before my captive again, I was no longer the suspicious and clumsy novice she had so easily moved to pity:  I was the wild outlaw of Roche-Mauprat, a hundred times more dangerous than at first.  She rushed towards me eagerly.  I opened my arms to catch her; instead of being frightened she threw herself into them, exclaiming: 

“Well! and my father?”

“Your father,” I said, kissing her, “is not there.  At the present moment there is no question either of him or of you.  We have brought down a dozen gendarmes, that is all.  Victory, as usual, is declaring for us.  So, don’t trouble yourself any more about your father; and I, I won’t trouble myself further about the King’s men.  Let us live in peace and rejoice in love.”

With these words I raised to my lips a goblet of wine which had been left on the table.  But she took it out of my hands with an air of authority that made me all the bolder.

“Don’t drink any more,” she said; “think seriously of what you are saying.  Is what you tell me true?  Will you answer for it on your honour, on the soul of your mother?”

“Every word is true; I swear it by your pretty rosy lips,” I replied, trying to kiss her again.