A heavy fire met them, but the general's automobile kept in front puffing along the main road. General Vaugirard puffed with it, but now and then he ceased his puffing to whistle. John knew that he was pleased and that all was going well. The battle increased in volume, and their whole front blazed with fire. The dark was thinning away in the east and dawn was coming.
"The château! The château!" cried John as a dark shape rose on the horizon. Even as he looked a shell burst over it and it leaped into flames. He cried aloud in fear, not for himself, but for those who were there. But General Vaugirard was calmly examining the field and the house through powerful glasses.
"They're pouring from the building," he said, "and it's full time. Look how the fire gains! What a pity that we should destroy the home of some good Frenchman in order to drive out the enemy."
"Faster, sir! Faster! Ah, I pray you go faster!" exclaimed John, whose heart was eaten up with anxiety as he saw the château roaring with flames. But he did not need the general's glasses now to see the people stream from it, and then rush for refuge from the fire of the French. The surprise had been so thorough that at this point the enemy was able to offer little resistance, and, in a few moments more, the automobile reached the grounds surrounding the burning château.
John, reckless of commands and of everything else, leaped out of the machine and ran forward. A gigantic man bearing a slender figure in his arms emerged from the shrubbery. Behind him came a stalwart young woman, grim of face. John shouted with joy. It was Picard, carrying Julie, and the woman who followed was the faithful Suzanne.
Picard put Julie down. She stood erect, pale as death. But the color flooded into her face when she saw John, and uttering a cry of joy she ran forward to meet him. She put her hands in his and said:
"I knew that you would save me!"
Time and place were extraordinary, and war, the great leveler, was once more at work.
"The château was set on fire by shells, Monsieur Scott," Picard said, "and when the enemy saw the French force appearing across the fields they took to flight. That dog of a prince, the Auersperg, tried to carry off Mademoiselle Julie in his automobile, but the young prince interfered and while they were quarreling I seized her and took her away. All the other women have escaped too."
"Thank God, Picard," exclaimed John, wringing the huge hand of the peasant, who was at once a peasant and a prince too.