‘I must go,’ he said hurriedly. ‘At our noonday halt I shall find thee. My father and mother and thee—keep together, keep with the troops. Farewell for a short while, dear one; and may God grant us each a braver faith, and then a larger heart of thankfulness!’
CHAPTER XV.
THE two women could give Arnaud very full and important information as to the whereabouts of the enemy. Madeleine, who knew every yard of the ground, could explain just where a passage was possible, exactly where the best hope lay of forcing or outflanking the Savoy guard. In their hurried escape at daybreak they had seen the spot chosen for the defence of the pass, and they could guess at the number of men entrenched behind the giant boulders, and the means they had taken to render the natural defences of the place impregnable.
The Vaudois halted about three or four miles from the crest of the gorge, well on the Prali side, and out of sight of the duke’s men. There was not one amongst them all but knew the enormous importance of the next few hours. If they were repulsed and beaten back, the Marquis de Larrey, who was in command of the French troops beyond the Doire, or the Marquis de Parelle, who held the Valley of St. Martino, would be on their track, and
