"Have you decided? What is it to be,—life or death?"
He was in an evil humor. That battery in the hills had found its mark again when the sun was on the rise.
"Vive la France!" shouted Louis, raising his eye to heaven.
"vive la France!" almost screamed François.
"So be it!" roared the commander. His gaze was fixed on Louis. There was the one who would weaken. Not that little devil of a boy beside him. He uttered a short, sharp command to an aide.
The torturing of Louis began….
"End it!" commanded the Prussian general after a while. "The fool will not speak!"
And the little of life that was left to the shuddering, sightless Louis went out with a sigh—slipped out with the bayonet as it was withdrawn from his loyal breast.
Turning to François, who had been forced to witness the mutilation of his brother,—whose arms had been held and whose eyelids were drawn up by the cruel fingers of a soldier who stood behind him,—he said:
"Now YOU! You have seen what happened to him! It is your turn now. I was mistaken. I thought that he was the coward. Are you prepared to go through even more than—Ah! Good! I thought so! The little fire-eater weakens!"