"Holy Mother!" murmured the priest, quickening his steps, "will the evil passions of men never be stilled? It seems as if murder were being done here. Grant that I am not too late to avert the crime!"
Then came the terrific lightning-flash, followed immediately by Gautran's piercing scream as he was struck down by the tree.
"Who calls for help?" cried Father Capel, in a loud voice, but his words were lost in the peals of thunder which shook the earth and made it tremble beneath his feet. When comparative silence reigned, he shouted again:
"Who calls for help? I am a priest, and tender it."
Gautran's voice answered him:
"Here--here! I am crushed and dying!"
This appeal was not coherently made, but the groans which accompanied it guided Father Capel to the spot upon which Gautran lay. He felt amid the darkness and shuddered at the touch of blood, and then he clasped Gautran's right hand. The tree had fallen across the murderer's legs, and had so crushed them into the earth that he could not move the lower part of his body; his chest and arms were free. A heavy branch had inflicted a terrible gash on his forehead, and it was from this wound that he was bleeding to death.
"Who are you?" said Father Capel, kneeling by the dying man, "that lies here in this sad condition? I cannot see you. Is this Heaven's deed, or man's?"
"It is Heaven's," gasped Gautran, "and I am justly punished."
"I heard the sounds of a struggle between two men. Are you one of those who were fighting in the midst of this awful darkness?"