"For my part, Jerôme, I only wish to ask you one thing: I know already that the men under your command fought well."
"We did our duty," replied the shoemaker; "there are sixty men lying dead on the side of the Grosmann, who will be able to say as much at the last judgment."
"Yes; but who, then, was it that acted as guide to the Germans? They could not of themselves have found out the passage of the Blutfeld."
"It is Yégof, the fool Yégof," said Jerôme, whose gray eyes, circled by deep wrinkles, and overhung by thick white eyebrows, seemed really to flash with fire as he spoke.
"Ah! You are quite sure of it?"
"Labarbe's men saw him in the act—he was leading the others."
The mountaineers regarded each other with looks of indignation.
At this moment Doctor Lorquin, who had stayed outside to unharness the horse, opened the door, exclaiming:
"The pass is lost! Here are our men from the Donon; I have just heard Lagarmitte's horn."
It is easy to imagine the emotion of the bystanders. Every one began to think of the relations, the friends, whom he might perhaps never see again, and all, including those in the kitchen and the barn, rushed out to learn the news. At the same moment, Robin and Dubourg, who were placed as sentinels on the Bois-des-Chênes, exclaimed: