"Quick, then! Lower your cord, and draw up the rope, for we have not a moment to lose. If the rounds pass, they will fire, and I would not run the risk of being shot for all the women between the Elbe and the Oder."
Gabrielle lowered the silver cord, by which she had received Ernestine's letter, and thereby towed in the end of a stout rope.
"Oh, to what shall I fasten this?" she asked.
"How should I know?" growled Bernhard; "to any thing—but be quick—any thing that will cross the narrow window and sustain your weight."
The long iron tongs by which the turf was placed on the hearth now met the eye of Gabrielle; she tied the rope with her pretty and trembling hands to the centre of them, and placed them across the aperture of the narrow window, thus forming a double bar, strong enough to sustain the weight of a cuirassier armed cap-à-pee—horse and all.
"Hist!" said Bernhard, as he steadied the end of the rope; "be sure, that you have knotted it well, and fixed it crosswise, for I have no wish that you should slip and break my neck, to say nothing of your own bones. Now then, descend, if you please."
"But I must cover my poor hands, or the rope will fret them."
"Bravo! get a pair of gloves, a handkerchief, or any thing," said Bernhard, who—vagabond as he was—began to be quite charmed by the courage and foresight of this noble girl; and he felt a satisfaction in serving her. Never before had such an honest glow spread through his savage heart.
Gabrielle placed a soft handkerchief over each of her tender hands, and by the assistance of a chair, passed over the window-sole; then the night wind blew her light dress and her fair hair about, for, in her haste, hood and mantle were alike forgotten. Merodé still slept like a dormouse, and it was evident that he would continue to do so until morning; but the foreboding thought flashed upon the mind of the fugitive, that she might only be flying from one danger to fall into another.
"My God!" sighed Gabrielle; "thou wilt be kind, and protect a poor girl who cannot protect herself. Oh yes—I will confide in Thee!"