Then Lasvène stooped to the ground, and with the aid of an iron ring lifted a trap door.
"Down with you!" said the old man. "It is a subterranean passage, and leads to the Fongereues estate. You have a league to go. God guard you!"
Another deafening discharge of musketry. The mother sank on her knees.
"Save Francinette!" she moaned.
"They have killed my mother!" sobbed the boy.
"Go!" cried Lasvène, "they are coming in!"
He seized the little girl and put her in her brother's arms, and thrusting a pistol into the hands of the little fellow, he pushed him toward the trap door.
"Mother! Mother!" cried the boy.
There was no time to lose. Lasvène lifted him by the collar and dropped him into the dark hole, and closed the cover. Françoise extended her arms to the old man. "Thanks!" she said.
"We are caught like rats in a hole!" he growled.