The sight of this small number of defenders wrung the hearts of the besieged; so much the more that the Germans, seven or eight times superior in numbers, were beginning to form two columns of attack to regain the positions they had lost. Their general was sending horsemen in all directions carrying orders. Rows of bayonets were beginning to defile.
"It's all over!" said Hullin to Jerôme. "What can five or six hundred men do against four thousand in line of battle? The Phalsbourgians will return home, and say, 'We have done our duty!' And Piorette will be crushed."
All the others thought the same; but that which raised their despair to its height was to see all at once a long file of Cossacks debouch in the valley of Charmes at full gallop, and the fool Yégof at their head, galloping like the wind; his beard, the tail of his horse, his sheepskin, and his red hair all streaming in the wind. He looked at the rock, and brandished his lance above his head. At the bottom of the valley, he spurred straight up to where the major-general of the enemy's army stood. Arrived near him, he made some gestures indicating the other side of the plateau of Bois-des-Chênes.
"Ah! the wretch!" exclaimed Hullin. "See! he is telling him that Piorette has no barricades on that side of the mountain, and that it must be taken in the rear."
In effect a column immediately set itself on march in that direction, whilst another directed its movement towards the barricades to mask that of the first.
"Materne!" exclaimed Jean-Claude, "are there no means of sending a bullet after the fool?"
The old hunter shook his head. "No," said he, "it is impossible; he is out of reach."
At this moment, Catherine gave vent to a savage cry—a hawk's cry. "Let us crush them!—let us crush them as we did at the Blutfeld!"
And this old woman, a moment before so weak, rose and flung herself upon a mass of rock, which she lifted with her two hands; then, with her long scanty gray locks, her hooked nose drawn down to her compressed lips, lank cheeks, and bent back, she advanced with a firm step to the very edge of the abyss, and the rock cleft the air, tracing an immense curve.
A horrible noise was heard below. Splinters of fir-trees flew about in all directions, then an enormous stone was seen to rebound at a hundred paces with fresh impetus, roll down the steep descent, and, with a final bound, fall upon Yégof, and crush him at the very feet of the general of the enemy's forces. All this was accomplished in a few seconds.