"You will soon see, madame," cried Hubert, turning towards his men. "You will soon see."
"Be firm, Laura! be firm!" shouted Monsieur de Villardin; "on your duty, on your honour, yield not a step!"
The moment was now come--I could wait for aid no longer; and I trusted that, previous to my own death, which seemed inevitable, I should be able to give the villains sufficient occupation to enable Jerome and the rest to come up in time to save Laura and her father. Hubert turned towards his men; and I could see by the knitting of his brows, and the setting of his teeth, that his determination was taken. What Laura's final reply might be, of course I could not tell. I thought that, sooner than see her father's blood spilt before her eyes, she would say "Yes," at any risk. But I dared not trust to circumstances, and as the chief of the robbers was giving his orders to his men, and while Monsieur de Villardin was exhorting his daughter to die herself and see them all die sooner than yield to the degradation proposed, I drew a pistol from my belt, and gliding from behind the brushwood, was standing at Hubert's side ere any one noticed me but Laura herself.
An exclamation of surprise, not unmingled with joy, broke from her lips; and the villain, startled by the sound, turned full round upon me. I paused not--I uttered not a word--but levelling the pistol at his head, pulled the trigger. The sharp, ringing report satisfied me that nothing had gone wrong, and scarcely pausing to see the dead man fall, I threw away the discharged weapon, caught the other from my belt, and, with one spring forward, seized Gaspard de Belleville by the collar and put the pistol to his ear. Thinking that his death would be immediate, he crouched down in terror; but I had other views, and seeing all the musqueteers presenting their weapons towards me, I exclaimed aloud, as if I had been giving the command to my own troop, "Ground your arms!"
The effect was electric. Every musquet was grounded at once, and at the same moment the jingling sound of bridles and stirrups coming up at the full gallop struck my ear, and was certainly the gladdest sound I had heard for many a long day.
The robbers caught it too, and easily divining what it meant, I could see them waver with the uncertainty of surprise. The man, however, who stood behind Gaspard de Belleville, set the example of flight, and plunged into the brush-wood which had served me as a place of concealment. The others paused a moment, but the sounds of approaching horsemen becoming louder and louder, determined them to fly, and passing round on the other side of the chapel, they were for a moment lost to my sight. One of them, indeed, before he went, twice raised his musquet to his shoulder and took aim at me, as I stood grasping the collar of Gaspard de Belleville; but each time he again withdrew his piece, and then ran after the rest as fast as he could go. Anxious to liberate Monsieur de Villardin and his servants, and yet not able to effect it myself, I besought Laura, and commanded the priest, to untie their hands, and both immediately turned to do so.
Ere she had taken a step, Laura, overcome by a variety of mingled emotions which may well be conceived, fainted away, and fell across the step of the chapel. The priest, however, ran forward and slipped the knot from the hands of Monsieur de Villardin; but just as he had done so, and while he was proceeding to execute the same good office in favour of the rest, the marauders, who had been met, in their attempt to escape, by a party of the guards, were driven back into the open space before the chapel, while a large body of Monsieur de Villardin's servants, guided by Suzette, came round by the path which I had followed. The guards from Rennes appeared on the other side at nearly the same moment, and finding themselves hemmed in, the robbers, who were most of them old soldiers, stood to their arms, and showed their determination to sell their lives dearly. Facing about at the chapel, they received the guards, who pursued them closely, with a steady fire. A number of the horses went over, all became hurry and confusion; and, fearful that the marauders would be driven back over my poor Laura, I thrust Gaspard de Belleville into the hands of some of the servants, and ordering him to be tied tightly, hand and foot, rushed forward to extricate her.
The guards had, by this time, betaken themselves to their fire-arms, with very little discrimination between friends and enemies; shots were flying in every direction: and, through the smoke which now gathered quickly round us, I saw Suzette, who had guided the servants, fall at the feet of her dastardly husband. Monsieur de Villardin, as soon as he found himself at liberty, had snatched the sword of Hubert from its sheath, and, like myself, was rushing on towards the spot where Laura lay. But at that moment, the marauders gave the guards another volley; and while a ball grazed my cheek and struck off my hat, Monsieur de Villardin fell with his face to the ground. Waving the guards and servants up to close with our adversaries, I cut down one of the men who was again charging his musquet; the soldiers rushed on, and the little phalanx of marauders was broken, but not conquered, for each individual fought to the last with desperate courage.
It was with difficulty that I carried Laura out of the mêlée, terrified every moment that some random shot might strike her as I bore her in my arms. The Count de Laval was, by this time, unbound, and rushing up to the affray; but, as he was unarmed, I gave Laura over to his care, though I could scarcely even now master my repugnance to see him render her the slightest assistance. Whether he remembered me or not, I cannot tell, but he exclaimed, as he saw me turning back towards the strife that was going on, "Nay, nay, sir, you have had enough for one day; you take care of the lady; let me have my share."
"You are unarmed, sir, you are unarmed," I replied, "and only risking your life for no purpose. Carry her behind the turn of the rock, and guard her there from danger, for God's sake!"