Then a torch was brought, and a man seizing it jumped down the steps holding the torch above his head, and came face to face with Diane. Half a dozen men and women followed him, and, catching sight of the wine bin, flew toward it with shouts of devilish joy, and began to hand out the bottles to those above them.
The man with the torch stuck it into an empty bottle, and the light revealed, not only Diane, but old Marie and Jean and François. The invader wore the uniform of a colonel of the National Guard, and was he who had once been known as the Marquis Egmont de St. Angel.
CHAPTER VI
THE DAY OF GLORY HAS ARRIVED
“Well now,” said he who had once been the Marquis Egmont de St. Angel, but who now called himself Colonel Egmont, addressing Diane, “here I find you, my very proper young lady, in bad company. How long have you been down here living with these two men?”
“Nineteen days,” answered Diane, coming a little closer to Egmont and fixing her eyes, sparkling with rage, upon him. “Nineteen days ago these two men came here wounded. I have lived in this place with them ever since—do you understand?”
“Perfectly well,” responded Egmont with an elaborate bow. “Now they and you shall share the fate of the enemies of the Commune. Come with me, all of you.”
He turned and climbed the narrow stone steps again, followed by Diane and Jean and François and old Marie. The mob in the garden had already begun to drink the champagne, and they were so keen to get into the cellar that they scarcely allowed their commander to come up with his prisoners.
“Here,” said Egmont, calling to some National Guards already drunk and trying to get drunker, “find a cart to take these prisoners to the Mazas prison.”