Then, growing excited, she went on in almost an angry tone:
"You may say what you like, Jean-Claude; but a great danger threatens us. Yes, yes, all this, in your opinion, has not a shadow of common sense. Moreover, this was not a dream; it was all like an old story coming back to your mind; something that you see again in your sleep, and that you recognise again. Listen. We were, as to-day, after a great victory, somewhere, I don't know where, in a sort of great wooden barrack, with heavy rafters across, and palings round it. We were not in fear of anything; all the faces that I saw, I knew; you were there, and Marc Divès, and many others, old people dead long ago; my father, and old Hugh Rochart, of the Harberg, uncle of the one who has just died, all wearing gaberdines of thick grey cloth, long beards, and bare-necked. We had just won a similar victory, and we were drinking out of a large red earthen pot, when suddenly a cry was raised: "The enemy is returning!" and Yégof, on horseback, with his long beard, his pointed crown, a hatchet in his hand, his eyes glaring like those of a wolf, appeared before me in the darkness of the night. I rush upon him with a stake—he awaits me; and from that moment I see nothing more; only I feel a terrible pain in my neck, a gust of cold wind passes over my face, and it seems to me as if my head were dangling at the end of a cord. It was that miscreant Yégof who had hung my head at his saddle, and was galloping away!" continued the old farm-mistress, in such a tone of conviction that it made Hullin shudder.
"PASTOR SAUMAIZE READ THE PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD."
There was a few moments' silence; then Jean-Claude, recovering from his stupefied inaction, replied:
"It was a dream. I myself have such dreams sometimes. Yesterday you were disturbed, agitated—all that noise, those shouts."
"No," she retorted, in a firm tone, resuming her occupation—"no, it is not that. And to tell you the truth, during the whole of the battle, and even at the very moment when the cannon was roaring against us, I was not one bit afraid; I was certain beforehand that we could not be beaten: I had already seen that, but now I am afraid!"
"But the Germans have evacuated Schirmeck; all the line of the Vosges is defended; we have more people than we require; they keep on coming every minute."
"No matter!"
Hullin shrugged his shoulders.