"I wish to say one word to you."
"Speak quickly, and be off."
"I offer you and your comrades your lives, if you will surrender."
The Count burst into a laugh.
"Nonsense," he said, with a shrug of his shoulders; "do you take us for fools? We were the guests of your companions, and they have impudently violated the law of nations."
"That is your last word, then?"
"The last, by Jove! You must have lived a long time among the Indians to have forgotten that Frenchmen would sooner die than be cowards."
"Your blood be on your own heads, then."
"So be it, odious renegade, who fight with savages against your brothers."
This insult struck the old man to the heart; he bent a fearful glance on the young man, turned pale as death and withdrew, tottering like a drunkard, and muttering, in a low voice,—