“Scoundrels! cowards!” he shouted.  “I will bet that they have set fire to the two houses on the marketplace, in order to have their revenge, and then they will scuttle off without saying a word.  They will be satisfied with having killed a man and set fire to two houses.  All right.  It shall not pass over like that.  We must go for them; they will not like to leave their illuminations in order to fight.”

“It would be a great stroke of luck if we could set Piedelot free at the same time,” some one said.

The five of us set off, full of rage and hope.  In twenty minutes we had got to the bottom of the coulee, and had not yet seen any one when we were within a hundred yards of the inn.  The fire was behind the house, and all we saw of it was the reflection above the roof.  However, we were walking rather slowly, as we were afraid of an ambush, when suddenly we heard Piedelot’s well-known voice.  It had a strange sound, however; for it was at the same time—­dull and vibrating, stifled and clear, as if he were calling out as loud as he could with a bit of rag stuffed into his mouth.  He seemed to be hoarse and gasping, and the unlucky fellow kept exclaiming:  “Help!  Help!”

We sent all thoughts of prudence to the devil, and in two bounds we were at the back of the inn, where a terrible sight met our eyes.

IV

Piedelot was being burned alive.  He was writhing in the midst of a heap of fagots, tied to a stake, and the flames were licking him with their burning tongues.  When he saw us, his tongue seemed to stick in his throat; he drooped his head, and seemed as if he were going to die.  It was only the affair of a moment to upset the burning pile, to scatter the embers, and to cut the ropes that fastened him.

Poor fellow!  In what a terrible state we found him.  The evening before he had had his left arm broken, and it seemed as if he had been badly beaten since then, for his whole body was covered with wounds, bruises and blood.  The flames had also begun their work on him, and he had two large burns, one on his loins and the other on his right thigh, and his beard and hair were scorched.  Poor Piedelot!

No one knows the terrible rage we felt at this sight!  We would have rushed headlong at a hundred thousand Prussians; our thirst for vengeance was intense.  But the cowards had run away, leaving their crime behind them.  Where could we find them now?  Meanwhile, however, the captain’s wife was looking after Piedelot, and dressing his wounds as best she could, while the captain himself shook hands with him excitedly, and in a few minutes he came to himself.

“Good-morning, captain; good-morning, all of you,” he said.  “Ah! the scoundrels, the wretches!  Why, twenty of them came to surprise us.”

“Twenty, do you say?”

“Yes; there was a whole band of them, and that is why I disobeyed orders, captain, and fired on them, for they would have killed you all, and I preferred to stop them.  That frightened them, and they did not venture to go farther than the crossroads.  They were such cowards.  Four of them shot at me at twenty yards, as if I had been a target, and then they slashed me with their swords.  My arm was broken, so that I could only use my bayonet with one hand.”