"No, I saw no more than François did."
"And the attack was quite unexpected?"
"Yes, quite. M. d'Hergemont had that morning received two important letters on the subject of the investigation which he was making into all these facts. One of the letters, written by an old Breton nobleman well-known for his royalist leanings, was accompanied by a curious document which he had found among his great-grandfather's papers, a plan of some underground cells which the Chouans used to occupy in Sarek. It was evidently the same Druid dwellings of which the legends tell us. The plan showed the entrance on the Black Heath and marked two stories, each ending in a torture-chamber. François and I went out exploring together; and we were attacked on our way back."
"And you have made no discovery since?"
"No, none at all."
"But François spoke of a rescue which he was expecting, some one who had promised his assistance."
"Oh, a piece of boyish nonsense, an idea of François', which, as it happened, was connected with the second letter which M. d'Hergemont received that morning!"
"And what was it about?"
Stéphane did not reply at once. Something made him think that they were being spied on through the door. But, on going to the wicket, he saw no one in the passage outside.
"Ah," he said, "if we are to be rescued, the sooner it happens the better. They may come at any moment now."