But the duration of this silence soon came to an end. Whilst the ruffians and their associates were yet doubting what course they should pursue, they were startled by a dull, heavy knocking, repeated at slow intervals, and sounding in the immediate vicinity of the cross, to which Louise was clinging. It was first observed by Bras d’Acier, and he called the attention of Lachaussée to it, as a small piece of limestone, unsettled by the concussion, fell upon the rough floor of the vault. Louise, too, heard the noise; and, seeing that it appeared to alarm her persecutors, redoubled her cries.
‘Silence, woman!’ cried Bras d’Acier, although in a subdued voice, as the deadened blows still kept on. ‘Silence, I tell you; if you think your life worth keeping.’
‘Knock her on the head,’ said one of the ruffians.
‘Drag her from the cross,’ exclaimed the woman who had before spoken. ‘I will do it myself, if you are all so terror-stricken.’
‘Hold!’ shouted a third, as he raised his hand in an attitude of denunciation. It was the broken-down abbe whom Lachaussée
Louise Claiming Sanctuary
had before met with the students. ‘Such violation must not be. The crumbling walls would fall and crush you all beneath their ruins did you invade the sanctity of that altar. Back—and respect this holy emblem!’
Degraded as Camus was, there was something in his manner and attitude that awed the group about him. They had advanced at the instigation of the woman, but now once more fell back.
The noise still continued, but it came nearer and nearer; and now the sound of a voice could be heard shouting, but in the distance.