“I thought you many a mile away,” said Kate, in a whisper.
“So I should have been,” replied he, in the same tone, “but I was n't going to lose this. I knew it was to come off to-day, and I thought it would have been a thousand pities to be absent.”
“And are your wishes, then, with these gallant fellows?” said she, eagerly. “Do I hear you aright, that it was to aid them you remained? There! see how they bear down on the soldiery; they will not be restrained; they are crossing the barricade, and charging with the bayonet. It is only for liberty that men can fight thus. Oh that I were a man, to be amongst them!”
A stray shot from beneath here struck the architrave above their heads, and sent down a mass of plaster over them.
“Come, Dora, this is needless peril,” said Martin, drawing her within the room. “If you will not leave this, at least do not expose yourself unnecessarily.”
“But it is exactly to get away—to escape while there is time—that I came for,” said the Captain. “They tell me that the mob are getting the best of it, and, worse again, that the troops are joining them; so, to make sure, I 've sent off Fenton to the post for horses, and I 'm expecting him every moment. But here he is. Well, have you got the horses?”
“No, sir: the horses have all been taken by the people to mount orderlies; the postmaster, too, has fled, and everything is in confusion. But if we had horses the streets are impassable; from here to the Boulevard there are no less than five barricades.”
“Then what is to be done?” cried Martin.
“They say, sir,” replied Fenton, “that by gaining the outer Boulevard on foot, carriages and horses are easily found there, to reach Belleville, St. Germain, or Versailles.”
“He is right,” said the Captain; “there is nothing else to be done. What do you think?” said he, addressing Kate, who stood intently watching the movements in the Place beneath.