“You lying, humped toad!� he said, “how dared you do this?�
He made a move as if to strike him dead, and then a sudden thought checked him.
“Bah!� he ejaculated, “soil my sword with the blood of such vermin? I am a fool. Where is the girl?� he added fiercely. “Pardieu, I will wring your neck!�
“I do not know where she is,� replied le Bossu, truthfully enough, for he did not know where they were then.
“And you led us here to cheat us, slave?� said de Baudri. “A fine scheme—as you will learn to your cost. If I thought you knew where she was, I’d torture it out of you with hot irons.�
The cobbler did not look at him; his brown eyes dwelt on the distance, and his soul was uplifted by the approaching joy of self-sacrifice. He did not hear the abuse that M. de Baudri continued to pour upon him; his life was passing before his eyes, his wretched, abused childhood, his sharp mortification over his physical infirmity, his silent, intense longing for friendship and love, his despised solitude, his hard, thankless labor; and now it was over, and not in vain! “Mother of God,� he prayed, “comfort the wretched.� He awoke to hear M. de Baudri ordering his soldiers to bring a rope.
A dragoon went for a piece that was coiled on the back of one of the horses. The troopers never hunted heretics without rope. He returned promptly, and approaching le Bossu was slipping the noose over his head, but another scheme had occurred to the leader.
“Hang him by the feet,� he said coolly, pointing with his white hand to a tree. “Sacrebleu! ’twill hurt more so.�
They secured the rope about the hunchback’s feet while their victim watched them with calm eyes.
“What matter,� he thought, “if I have saved her? May the bon Dieu make my sacrifice complete!�