“Do your best, Croquemitaine; it shall never be said that I turned back, when I had got so close to you.”
She was now compelled to continue her progress on her hands and knees. “Yu will get nothing by it; I will pay you for this when I meet you.”
The ceiling was now so low, that she was obliged to drag herself along the ground. “If there be room for a mouse, I’ll get through, never trust me!”
At last, she saw with joy a gleam of light, a few paces further on. This feeble ray gave her fresh courage, and she struggled on by dint of nails, knees, and feet so well, that in a few seconds she had reached the outlet. She was about to breathe again, to live again, to move freely! one more effort, and she would be at liberty! She perceived that the opening at the end of the passage was guarded by a strange sort of grating.
“Well, this complicates the situation! I should be curious to know what my long-bearded godsire would do, if he found himself on all fours in this mole-run before these bars. Assist me to get out of this, St. J ames, and I will offer up to you a prayer of gratitude.”
Mitaine made another movement to approach still nearer to the grating; she was about to take the bars in her hand, when she perceived there was nothing before her but a spider’s web.
“Thanks, St. James! you have saved me from a terrible danger.”
But now the spider came down into the middle of his web to defend his stronghold, and it was with no common insect that she had to deal.
Picture to yourselves a body as big as your two fists, bloated and hairy; legs by the dozen, vying with each other in agility and flexibility, with two pinchers like those of a scorpion, and eyes that gleamed in the dark.
If Mitaine had had the free use of her limbs she would not have taken much notice of such a trifle; but you must remember that she was lying flat upon the ground, hedged in on all sides as close as if in a coffin, and that she could only fight the creature by butting at it with her head. The spider, taking advantage of her hesitation, set about repairing its net, adding thread to thread with frightful rapidity.