The night was terrible. During the first part Baby sobbed incessantly, tho his voice grew fainter and fainter. At last it died out altogether. She grew frantic and running to the windows, called aloud:
"Jean Vilon! Jean Vilon! Wretch! Is it thus you obey your master?"
Then, as silence followed:
"René! René!"
Then:
"Silvano! Silvano!"
But no answer came. Picmort, the grim giant, was silent. Again she ran to the door separating her from Dick. He was speaking to her but in a voice so faint that it was scarcely more than a murmur.
"He will die! he will die!" she wailed. "No child can resist such treatment. God have mercy on us both. What have I done to bring such suffering on this baby?—But I might save him; yes, if I renounce René forever. No, no! Rather perish the entire world. These fiends would defeat me through my sense of pity. Well, they shall not. I shall be stone. What is this child to me? Have I not once saved his life?—Perhaps my father was right. We have spilt blood—O no, no! My father you were weak and that weakness is my undoing—And now my pity for this child is making me also a weakling."
She broke into bitter weeping. Dick was calling:
"Mamma! Mamma!"