"How!" he exclaimed in distress and alarm, encircling her with his arm as if to keep her with him. "Who will dare to separate us now?"
"My father. To-morrow I go from this; but whether to Paris or Galicia, I know not. O Luiz! his hatred is terrible. But for the intercession of the major, you would have been in eternity by this time." The challenge of a sentinel at the other angle of the bastion, and the tread of a foot, now alarmed them.
"Retire, Virginia, for a moment; 'tis only the patrol, or some affair of that sort. I would not have you discovered here for the world." She had only time to shrink into a corner, and conceal herself behind the carriage of a piece of ordnance, when a man approached the turret. It was the corporal of the guard, who usually came every night before the drums beat, to see that the prisoners were all right. The door was of massive oak, studded with iron nails, and while the corporal was undoing its ponderous fastenings, a sudden thought occurred to Lisle. "Be on the alert, Mulroony," said he; "I will now endeavour to escape, or die in the attempt!"
"Right, yer honner! I'm yer man. Lave me to dale wid that spalpeen ov a corporal, and by the holy Saint Peter! I won't lave a whole bone in his skin."
"Hush! let us only compel him to give up the watchword, and then we will gag and bind him hard and fast. I need keep faith no longer with those who doubt my parole."
The unsuspecting Frenchman opened the door and looked in, merely to assure himself that the prisoners were in their cage. "Come in, corporal dear," said Mulroony, grasping him by the throat, and dragging him into the chamber.
"Sacre—diable!" growled the astonished Gaul, struggling with his athletic adversary, who tripped up his heels, and in a twinkling laid him on his back, and pressed his knees upon his breast.
"Och, honey! don't be in such a divel ov a flustheration! Give but the smallest cry in life, and it's yer neck I'll be dhrawin' like a pullet's!"
"Merci, monsieur! Ah, miséricorde!" gasped the half-strangled soldier.
"Come, monsieur caporal!" said Louis fiercely; "surrender the countersign, or expect such treatment as desperate men may yield you. Mulroony, take your hand from his throat. Answer, Frenchman, at your peril!"