Then some one tapped him on the shoulder. A hand seized the revolver which he was holding; and Bernard said:
"Drop that, Paul. If you think that a soldier has the right to kill himself at the present time, I will leave you free to do so when you have heard what I have to say."
Paul made no protest. The temptation to die had come to him, but almost without his knowing it; and, though he would perhaps have yielded to it, in a moment of madness, he was still in the state of mind in which a man soon recovers his consciousness.
"Speak," he said.
"It will not take long. Three minutes will give me time to explain. Listen to me. I see, from the writing, that you have found a diary kept by Élisabeth. Does it confirm what you knew?"
"Yes."
"When Élisabeth wrote it, was she threatened with death as well as Jérôme and Rosalie?"
"Yes."
"And all three were shot on the day when you and I arrived at Corvigny, that is to say, on Wednesday, the sixteenth?"
"Yes."