Louis made one or two convulsive movements, and then, with a long shuddering sigh, lay still, his arms spread wide and the rain falling on his upturned face.
A peasant began to crawl very slowly forward from the little heap by the gun. A red foam hung on his lips, and as he dragged himself along he left a dark track on the damp leaves. Twice in his difficult progression he sank down, gasping, but in the end he reached the body which he sought, and peered into its ashen face. As he bent over it his own blood mingled with the stream which still soaked through Louis’ ragged blue and scarlet, and which, joining with the trickle creeping slowly from beneath him, was forming a little pool at his side. With shaking hands the wounded man tried to unfasten the Vicomte’s uniform; he got it open a little way at the throat, and then the uselessness of his action seemed to overcome him, and, groaning, he looked wildly round for something to staunch the steady red rivulet within. His eyes fell on the white scarf which encircled his young leader’s body; but it was worn under the sword-belt, and Toussaint Lelièvre, with but a few seconds to live himself, knew that he could not unfasten the clasp and unwind the scarf in time. . . . He carried his hands to the sash round his own waist, and, coughing, crouched on his heels, fumbled with the end. He got it unfastened . . . but it was a long woollen strip wound round many times. . . . In a supreme gesture of despair and farewell he tore his rosary from his buttonhole, and, with heaven knows what vague idea of its efficacy, tried to put it into Saint-Ermay’s slack, out-flung hand—the last and only office in his power. Even that he could scarcely do. The chaplet dropped waveringly into Louis’ palm, and Toussaint Lelièvre fell dead across him.
CHAPTER XLVI
WRECKAGE
“Yea, I am passed away, I think, from this;
Nor helps me herb, nor any leechcraft here,
But lift me hither the sweet cross to kiss,
And witness ye, I go without a fear.”
—Austin Dobson, The Dying of Tanneguy du Bois.
The door opened a little way, heavy sabots clattered over the high stone sill on to the floor of beaten earth within, and the door closed again.