"Ought a brother to be blood thirsty?" asked Edmond.
"He ought well be so," cried Ravanel turning angrily towards him: "Oh my friend, he, who has once tasted the pleasure of stretching an enemy at his feet, becomes like a lion after the palatable sweetness, scarcely able to spare his keeper. I am feeble and weak when I am long without seeing blood; it ascends like the smoke of a lamp in the mournful twilight, as the rosy dawn after the darkness of night."
Cavalier reprimanded the enthusiast for his cruelty, and Catinat led the remaining prisoners to the brink of a precipice, when they fell under the swords of the Camisards. Their leader the fiercest among them all, only remained alive. He now called out in a powerful voice: "Stay! far be it from me to beg for my life, I would not for once owe an obligation to such pitiable people, though, what I require, you may grant me without prejudice to yourselves."
"What dost thou require, knave?" asked Cavalier, while the others clustered still closer round him, "That you unbind my arms," said the fierce, wild man with an expression of the most profound contempt: "that I may once more, and for the last time, put my flask to my parched lips, which has been a friend and comforter to me in all my sorrows, and that you will afterwards be careful to deliver me speedily from such contemptible society as yours."
The Camisards murmured and would have cut him down, but at a sign from Catinat, they drew back, he himself unloosed the arms of the prisoner, and watched him with his drawn sword in his hand, lest despair, perhaps, might at the moment of his death, impel him to some fool-hardy attempt. But the powerful old man looked round him with the greatest composure, shook his arms and shoulders that he might feel his freedom after the restraint he had endured, then took a flask of wine from his bosom and emptying it jocosely, dashed it against the rock, where it broke in pieces, then turned to the bystanders, baring his neck as he said: "Now, if it please you!" Even Ravanel measured him with a look of surprise; and Edmond, who had watched all his movements, felt himself impelled by an inexplicable feeling to save the life of so ruthless a man. "Strange as I may appear to you, beloved brethren," cried he aloud advancing into the circle, "I entreat you nevertheless by the high esteem with which you honour me to make over this luckless man to me, that his fate may rest in my hands. Shall this lost creature, so unprepared, in all the nakedness of his crimes, go before his accusing Judge? shall we not try to moderate the fierce temperament and to lead the apostate closer to his Maker? Grant me this favour ye friends, do not refuse my petition and accept my own life as a pledge, that he will not repay this deliverance by treachery and falsehood?" Cavalier, from affection to Edmond, joined his entreaties to those of the youth, and after a short opposition from Ravanel and some murmurs from the troop, all unanimously consented to pardon the robber. Cavalier informed him that his sentence was remitted, that he might, added he, feel, that mercy which exists even in an enemy and that he might also seek for mercy at the throne of justice of the Eternal. The robber looked long and searchingly with his large fire-darting eyes on Edmond. He now bowed low to the little Cavalier, and said with a laughing countenance: "Ah! my little man! from whence derivest thou thy knowledge of Him on the throne of justice, that thou chatterest about him as if one had only to go round the corner there and knock at his house, and fee the doorkeeper for admission? You think, therefore, that I shall breathe the air within me, some time longer, and look upon this light which I have done for almost these seventy years past? Be it so. But I will not deceive you, you shall not give me this wretched life in order to rejoice at my conversion, for you have just pitched on the wrong one with all your atonement, godliness, and love. I will have nothing to do with your stories and fanaticism, with prayers and singing you shall also spare me, though I should have no objection to march out with you and fight valiantly, because I must do something, or other, and for the present I have nothing better to do."
Again a murmour arose, but now, there was no time to pass sentence, or to dispute, for the royal troops were already seen marching by. Each leader quickly betook himself to his troop, called to them, gave the word of command, and in a short time order was restored, and all in readiness to await the attack, Edmond and the robber, whose life he had solicited, stood in the ranks together. While each ranged himself in opposition to the other, several Camisards fell at the first salvo of the small cannon, but undismayed, they marched forward, singing their psalms aloud. They soon met hand to hand, and all appeared one confused mêleé, for Ravanel and his troop rushed like frantic upon the enemy, who soon gave way on that side; others tried to come to the help of the panic-striken men, and thus the mass fought confusedly on the limited space of ground. A stout officer seized Edmond, while a second raised his arm to hew down the youth, when the robber with gigantic strength, seized both the soldiers by the hair, and knocked their heads so forcibly together, that they fell senseless to the ground. But Edmond was rescued only for a moment, for he found himself directly afterwards engaged in a combat with several, and a heavy blow upon the arm disabled him. He was taken prisoner, while the king's troops were compelled by his friends to give way. They fled with their leaders, and carried him with them. He saw himself lost, without hope of deliverance.
In the wood Colonel Julien drew near and viewed his prisoners with surprise. He sent detachments hither and thither to reconnoitre the wood; he also sent a troop backwards, to see whether the rebels would turn, or if they intended to follow them.
"Leave this single prisoner to me," cried he to the last, which he also sent forward in some minutes. "I will soon dispose of this unarmed man. Is it needful?" turned he to Edmond, when he found himself quite alone with the latter; "So young man, must we see each other again? I would not believe the reports, nay, I can scarcely trust my own eyes now! Oh thou miserable father of so degenerate a son!"
"Apostate!" bitterly exclaimed Edmond, "hast thou indeed the right to use such language?"
"Go, fly," said Julien with an expression of the most contemptuous pity; "hasten into this thick underwood, I will pretend not to have seen you. Escape ignominy and execution, before my companions return and render it impossible."