In fact, Madeleine rushed in, her eyes full of tears, out of breath; she could only articulate, 'Nicholas! quick, your father is dying;' and then, leaning her head on the back of a chair, gasp for air and sob. When she had recovered sufficiently she added, 'The corporal wants to see a priest. M. le Curé, will you follow me?'
'I am ready,' answered Lindet, catching up his hat.
'Come, Gabrielle, come too,' said Madeleine; 'he asked after you.'
'Where is he?' asked Nicholas, his breast heaving convulsedly.
'He is in the gardens,—the park,' answered the girl. 'I found him—he had dragged himself out upon the terrace, and he made me take him out of the way of the crowd to the side of one of the sheets of water, and lay him on the grass.'
She could speak no more, for her tears burst forth anew. 'Dear old corporal!' she said between her sobs, 'he never knew how I reverenced and loved him. I would have followed him over the world.'
She drew Gabrielle after her, the priest followed. Nicholas ran forward in the direction indicated by the girl,—to the large pond or lake called the Pièce aux Suisses, and when Madeleine came up she found Nicholas supporting his head.
'My boy,' said the old corporal, faintly, lying with his head propped against his son's shoulder, 'whilst I have been alone I have had such a beautiful vision. Look yonder!' He pointed to a mass of cloud lit with the brilliant beams of the morning sun, standing crisply against a blue sky. 'It is changed,' continued the Swiss soldier, 'but you may see what has been. There was the Jungfrau, as truly as I have seen it from Interlaken. A little to the right, where you can still distinguish an elevation in the cloud, was the dazzling Silber-horn, with its glacier flashing in the sun. There was the Mönch, and there the precipice of the Eiger. Is it not beautiful still? but the outline is not what it was. God be praised that I have been shown my dear Alps once more. God be praised!'
He folded his hands, and his eyes still watched the cloud mountains gradually changing their forms in the roseate morning light.
'Shall I fetch you a doctor, father?' asked Nicholas, bending over him.