The trap door closed on the two children, leaving them in totaldarkness. Lasvene had not thought of that.
The boy hesitated. His mother had bidden him save Francinette--here wassafety, even if there were also darkness. He kissed his little sistertenderly.
"Can you walk, dear?" he said.
"No--I am afraid!"
Jacques remembered that he was ten, and that Francinette, who was onlysix, had a right to be afraid.
"Afraid!" he repeated, "what is there to fear? I am not afraid!"
He was not speaking the truth, but he had a vague idea that it was notwrong to tell a falsehood on this occasion. He placed Francinette on theground, and she clung to his legs. He passed his hand over the wall, andthey slowly crept on. The ground was slippery and the air foul. SuddenlyJacques tripped and fell. The little girl began to cry. Her brother hadlost his hold on the wall, and when he gathered himself up, he missedthe touch of those little hands.
"Cinette! Cinette!" he cried.
She replied with sobs, and he suddenly realized that these sobs werebecoming fainter and fainter. Where was she?
"Cinette! stand still."
The voice replied:
"Jacques! Oh! mamma! I want mamma!"
It was plain that the child was lost, and that several paths ran fromthe point where he stood. He called to his sister again--no reply. Hebegan to run, and came up against the wall. He started again, thenstopped. He saw a red light at the end of a long gallery. This lightcame from the funeral pyre of Francoise and the old man.
The boy smiled--he fancied that aid was coming. He called: "Mamma!Mamma!" Suddenly his hurrying feet encountered an obstacle, and he fellfrom a height. His head struck a rock, and he felt the blood stream overhis face. Then he fainted.
How long he lay there he never knew. After a while he struggled to hisfeet, and then hurried on, always away from the red light, not towardit. Suddenly he felt the air strike his face, and he saw the sunshine.The subterranean passage ended. He emerged upon a plain. An old chateaustood on the brow of a hill opposite.
"If I go there," he said to himself, "I can find people who will lookfor Francinette with me."
He tried to run; his foot slipped. He looked down and beheld a pool ofblood. A dead body lay near, and then another, and another--death andslaughter everywhere!
These were French soldiers who had been surprised and shot. Three gunswere fastened together, holding a pot over a fire not yet entirely goneout.
Jacques was now wild with terror; he wished he were back in the darknessof the subterranean passage, but still he struggled on for his littlesister's sake. Suddenly he started. Around the neck of a soldier he sawa cord to which hung a bugle. Jacques made his way to the body. Heextended his arm, then pulled it back, but impelled by the hope ofsafety, he at last succeeded in reaching the bugle without touching thebody, but he could not take it away because of the cord. Then Jacquesclosed his eyes, and supporting himself on one hand, he placed his lipsto the mouth of the bugle. His face was very near that of the deadsoldier. He remembered the lessons he had received from Simon.
"Tarara! Tarara!"
The sound came rich and full, but the exertion had been too great.
Jacques fainted, and his pale face lay on the stiff, outstretched arm ofthe dead soldier.