Drew it, gave one look to the priming and his flint--fired, and ignited the heap. And as the powder leapt up a mass of green and yellow flames, as the kindlings and the logs caught, even as the report rang through the house of the De Bois-Vallées, so, too, there rang cheer after cheer, howl after howl, as though hell itself had let loose all its fiends. Also they danced and capered round and round that pyre, Andrew seeing two men clasp hands and waists and execute a grim fantastic dance about the hall! They stirred, too, with pikes and halberds wrenched from off the walls, the logs; some even thrust the swords they carried into the flames to make the fire burn more fiercely. Then, all stood away from the great open doorway, from which the door had long since been torn, so that the breeze of morning--for the day was nigh at hand--might blow in and fan those flames. The great door itself as well was lifted up upon their shoulders, carried in, and flung upon them.
"To the leads! To the leads!" Clemence muttered. "To the leads. Better die there than here, as we must if we stay longer. See! See!" and she pointed down. "The lower stairs are on fire; already the way--that way--is cut off. We are trapped. To the leads."
"Ay," said Andrew, "to the leads. After that--death, unless some portions of the house stand firm. How is it with her?"
"She is insensible--not dead. Not yet."
"Not yet, I pray God. Give her to me. Come--if we can find the opening to the roof the air may revive her." Whereon, stooping down, he lifted the girl once more to his shoulder.
267
"Go carefully," he said to Clemence, "carefully--beware the oubliette. For God's sake, avoid that."
Thus they returned to the garret, groping their way in the dense blackness.
"Give me your hand," she answered, putting out her own and finding his. "I have been here in the dark before, and know where the exit is. Now come."
And, following her, with his burden clasped to his breast with one arm, he let her guide him slowly and step by step--each one made sure of ere another was taken--through the darkness and the ever-increasing atmosphere of suffocation, towards where stood the ladder leading to the roof.