“Where?”
“Near Ralph’s lodge. Don’t talk any more.”
All of them were lost to sight in the priest’s staircase. Once in it, Josephine lit a bull’s-eye lantern she had brought with her. They mounted the staircase, in silence.
On the top of the cliff the mist was much thinner. At intervals there were gaps in it through which they could see the stars. Therefore Josephine was at once able to point out to them La Haie d’Etigues, many of the front windows of which were lit up. The clock of Benouville church struck ten. Josephine shivered.
“Oh, the striking of that clock! How well I recognize it! Ten strokes like the last time I heard it—ten strokes—one after the other! I counted them as I was going to my death.”
“Well, you avenged yourself all right,” said Leonard.
“On Beaumagnan, yes. But the others——”
“On the others too. The two cousins are half mad.”
“It’s true,” she said. “But I shall not feel myself fully avenged for an hour. Then I shall be able to rest.”
They waited for the mist to drift over again in order that their figures might not stand out against the bare plain they had to traverse. Then Josephine led the way along the path, along which Godfrey and his friends had carried her to the priest’s staircase. The others followed in single file without saying a word. The grass had been cut; here and there stood large haycocks.