Christian taking hold of the tree near him, leaned over and raised Lambernier up, for he really was incapable of doing so himself; fright and the sight of the water had given him vertigo.  When he was upon his legs again, he reeled like a drunken man and his feet nearly gave way beneath him.  The Baron looked at him a moment in silence, but at last he said: 

“Go away, leave the country at once; you have time to fly before there will be any pursuit.  But remember that if I ever hear one word of what has passed between us from your lips, I shall know how to find you and you will die by my hand.”

“I swear by the Holy Virgin and by all the saints—­” stammered Lambernier, who had suddenly become a very fervent Catholic.

Christian pointed with his finger to the stone steps beneath them.

“There is your road; pass over the rock, through the woods, and reach Alsace.  If you conduct yourself well, I will assure your living.  But remember; one single indiscreet word, and you are a dead man.”

At these words he pushed him into the path with one of those quick movements which very powerful men can not always calculate the effect of.  Lambernier, whose strength was almost exhausted by the struggles he had undergone, had not vigor enough left to stand, and he lost his balance at this violent as well as unexpected push.  He stumbled over the first step, reeled as he tried to regain his footing, and fell head first down the almost vertical declivity.  A ledge of the cliff, against which he first struck, threw him upon the loose rocks.  He slowly glided downward, uttering lamentable cries; he clutched, for a moment, a little bush which had grown in a crevice of the rocks but he did not have strength enough to hold on to it, his arm having been broken in three places by his fall.  He let go of it suddenly, and dropped farther and farther down uttering a last terrible shriek of despair; he rolled over twice again-and then fell into the torrent below, that swallowed him up like a mass already deprived of life.

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GERFAUT

By Charles de Bernard

BOOK 4.

CHAPTER XX

MARILLAC TELLS A STORY