“Is it all over?” they asked. “Is there any hope?”
The priest sadly shook his head, and pointing to heaven:
“My hope is in God!” he said, reverently.
The hour, the place, the terrible catastrophe, the present danger, the threatening future, all combined to lend a deep solemnity to the words of the priest.
So profound was the impression that, for more than a minute, these men, familiar with peril and scenes of horror, stood in awed silence.
Maurice, who approached, followed by Corporal Bavois, brought them back to the exigencies of the present.
“Ought we not to make haste and carry away my father?” he asked. “Must we not be in Piedmont before evening?”
“Yes!” exclaimed the officers, “let us start at once.”
But the priest did not move, and in a despondent voice, he said:
“To make any attempt to carry Monsieur d’Escorval across the frontier in his present condition would cost him his life.”