The partisans gazed at each other with angry looks.
At the same moment, Doctor Lorquin, who had remained without to unharness his horse, pushed open the door, crying:
"The battle is lost! Here are our men from Donon. I have heard Lagarmitte's horn."
It is easy to imagine the feelings with which this news was received. Every one thought of parent, friends, whom perhaps he was never more to see, and all who were in the kitchen and the barn rushed at once to the fields. Then Robin and Dubourg, posted as sentries, cried:
"Who goes there?"
"France!" replied a voice.
And despite the distance, Louise, recognizing her father's voice, would have fallen had not Catherine supported her.
Presently a great number of steps echoed upon the frozen snow, and Louise, no longer able to contain herself, cried in a trembling voice:
"Father Jean-Claude!"