'Take her away, Pierre,' said one more ruffianly than the rest, 'or you may repent it.'
'Go, girl, go,' whispered Pierre faintly, while the wreckers moved in a body to the shore, where the boats were about to strike.
'Never!' shrieked Madeleine, clinging franticly to her father's clothes.
'Let me go!' cried Pierre, dragging her with him.
At that moment a terrible event interrupted their struggle. A man stood upright in the foremost boat, guiding their progress. Just as they were within two yards of the shore, this man saw the wreckers coming down in a body.
'As I expected!' he cried in a loud ringing voice. 'Fire!—shoot every one of the villains!'
A volley of small arms, within pistol-shot of the body of wreckers, was the unexpected greeting which these men received. A loud and terrible yell shewed the way in which the discharge had told. One-half of the pillagers fell on the stony beach, the other half fled.
Among those who remained was Madeleine. She was kneeling by her father, who had received several shots, and lay on the ground in agony.
'You were right, girl,' he groaned; 'I see it now, when it is too late, and I feel I have deserved it.'
'Better,' sobbed Madeleine, 'better be here, than have imbrued your hands in the blood of one of those miraculously-delivered sailors.'