"You bore yourself well and bravely," said the old woman. "Jean-Claude, Gaspard, and I may well be proud of you."
Louise trembled from head to foot. The danger passed, her gentle nature asserted itself, and she could not understand her courage of a few moments before.
Then, finding themselves more composed, they tried to reach the road, when they saw the doctor and five or six partisans coming to meet them.
"Ah! you needn't cry, Louise," said Lorquin; "you are a dragoon, a little Amazon. Your heart seems now in your throat, but we saw all. And, by the by, where are my pistols?"
As he spoke, the thicket separated, and tall Marc-Dives, his sabre hanging from his wrist, appeared, crying,
"Ha! Mother Catherine! What a time? What luck that I happened to be on hand! How those beggars would have plundered you!"
"Yes," returned the old woman, pushing her gray hair beneath her hood, "it was indeed fortunate."
"I believe you. Not more than ten minutes ago I reached Father Cuny's with my wagon. 'Do not go to Donon,' said he; 'for the last hour the sky above it has been red; they are fighting there!' 'Do you think so?' said I. 'Ma foi! yes,' he replied. 'Then Joson will go ahead as a scout, and we will empty a glass while we wait for his return.' Scarcely had Joson started, when I heard shouts as if the fiends had broken loose. 'What is the matter, Cuny?' I cried. He did not know, so we pushed open the door and there saw the fight. Ha! we did not wait long. I was on Fox at a bound, and then, 'Forward!' was the word. What luck!"
"Ah!" said Catherine, "if we were only sure that matters were going as well on Donon, we might indeed rejoice."