At last the hands marked the time which she had fixed for their coming.
She opened the door once more to listen for them. She perceived a shadow moving cautiously. She was frightened and screamed.
It was her father.
He said: "They sent me to see if there's any change."
"No, nothing."
Then he in his turn gave a long, strident whistle into the darkness. And soon, something brown was seen coming slowly through the trees—the advance guard composed of ten men.
The old man kept repeating: "Don't pass before the grating."
And the first comers pointed out the formidable grating to those who followed.
Finally, the main body appeared, two hundred men in all, each with two hundred cartridges.
M. Lavigne, trembling with excitement, posted them so as to surround the house on all sides, leaving, however, a wide, free space round the little black hole, level with the earth, which admitted air to the cellar.