"Fear not for me, mademoiselle!" I cried, catching Montignac"s blade again with my dagger, and giving a thrust which he avoided by leaping backward.
"Good, Montignac!" cried La Chatre, looking on from the window. "He cannot reach you! If you cannot kill him, you may keep him engaged till the troops come back!"
"I shall kill him!" was Montignac"s reply, while he faced me with set teeth and relentless eyes.
"Listen, monsieur!" cried mademoiselle. "If you die, I shall die with you!" And she ran from behind me to the centre of the chamber, where I could see her.
"And if I live?" I shouted, narrowly stopping a terrible thrust, and stepping back between the table and the bed.
"If we live, I am yours forever! Ernanton, I love you!"
At last she had confessed it with her lips! For the first time, she had called me by my Christian name! My head swam with joy.
"You kill me with happiness, Julie!" I cried, overturning the table towards Montignac to gain a moment"s breath.
"I shall kill you with my sword!" Montignac hurled the words through clenched teeth. "For, by G.o.d, you shall have no happiness with her!"
His white face had an expression of demoniac hate, yet his thrusts became the more adroit and swift, his guard the more impenetrable and firm. His body was as sinuous as a wild beast"s, his eye as steady. The longer he fought, the more formidable he became as an adversary. He was worth a score of Vicomtes de Berquin.
"Ernanton," cried mademoiselle, "you know all my treachery!"
"I know that you would have saved your father," I answered, leaping backward upon the bed, to avoid the secretary"s impetuous rush; "and that I have saved him, and that, G.o.d willing, we shall soon meet him in Guienne!"
"If he meets you, it will be in h.e.l.l!" With this, Montignac jumped upon the bed after me, and there was some close dagger play while I turned to back out between the posts at the foot.
At this moment La Chatre gave a loud, jubilant cry, and mademoiselle, looking out of the window, uttered a scream of consternation.
"The troops at last!" shouted La Chatre. "Hold out but another minute, Montignac!"
So then I had heard aright. Alas, I thought, that the river road to Maury should be so much shorter than the forest road; alas, that the governor"s troops should have had time to return ere Blaise had reached the junction of the roads!
"My G.o.d, the soldiers have us in a trap!" cried mademoiselle, while I caught Montignac"s dagger-point with a bed-curtain, and stepped backward from the bed to the floor.
"And mademoiselle shall be mine!"
As he uttered these words with a fiendish kind of elation, Montignac leaped from the bed after me, releasing his dagger by pulling the curtain from its fastening, while at the same time his sword-point, directed at my neck, rang on my breast-plate.
"You shall not live to see the end of this, monsieur!" I replied, infuriated at his premature glee.
And, having given ground a little, I made so quick an onslaught that, in saving himself, he fell back against a chair, which overturned and took him to the floor with it.
"Help, monsieur!" he cried to La Chatre, raising his dagger just in time to ward off my sword.
The governor now perceived the sword that stood by the fireplace, took it up, and thrust at me. Mademoiselle, who, in her distress at the sight of the troops, had run to the _prie-dieu_ and fallen on her knees, saw La Chatre"s movement, and, rushing forward, caught the sword with both hands as he thrust. I expected to see her fingers torn by the blade, but it happened that the sword was still in its sheath, a fact which in our excitement none of us had observed; so that when La Chatre tried to pull the weapon from her grasp he merely drew it from the sheath, which remained in her hands. By this time I was ready for the governor.
"Come on!" I cried. "It is a better match, two against me!"
And I sent La Chatre"s sword flying from his hand, just in time to guard against a dagger stroke from Montignac, who had now risen. Julie s.n.a.t.c.hed up the sword and held the governor at bay with it.
For some moments the distant clatter of galloping horses had been rapidly increasing.
"Quick!" shouted La Chatre through the window to the approaching troops.
"To the rescue!"
And he stood wildly beckoning them on, but keeping his head turned towards Montignac and me, who both fought with the greatest fury. For I saw that I had found at last an antagonist requiring all my strength and skill, one with whom the outcome was not at all certain.
The tumult of hoofs grew louder and nearer.
"Ernanton, fly while we can! The soldiers are coming!"
Mademoiselle threw La Chatre"s sword to a far corner, ran to the door leading from the stairway landing, closed it, and pushed home the bolt.
"They are at the gate! They are entering!" cried the governor, joyously.
"Another minute, Montignac!"
There was the rushing clank of hoofs on the drawbridge, then from the courtyard rose a confused turbulence of horses, men, and arms.
Again my weapons clashed with Montignac"s. Julie looked swiftly around.
Her eye alighted on the dagger that lay on one of the chairs. She drew it from its sheath.
"If we die, it is together!" she cried, holding it aloft.
There came a deadened, thumping sound, growing swiftly to great volume.
It was that of men rushing up the stairs.
"To the rescue!" cried La Chatre. "But one more parry, Montignac!"
There was now a thunder of tramping in the hall outside the door.
"Ay, one more--the last!" It was I who spoke, and the speech was truth. I leaped upon my enemy, between his dagger and his sword, and buried my dagger in his neck. When I drew it out, he whirled around, clutched wildly at the air, caught the curtain at the window, and fell, with the quick, sharp cry:
"G.o.d have mercy on me!"
"Amen to that!" said I, wiping the blood from my dagger.
A terrible pounding shook the door, and from without came cries of "Open." Mademoiselle ran to my side, her dagger ready for her breast. I put my left arm around her.
"And now, G.o.d have mercy on _you_!" shouted La Chatre, triumphantly; for the door flew from its place, and armed men surged into the chamber, crowding the open doorway.
"Are we in time, my captain?" roared their leader, looking from the governor to me.
And La Chatre tottered back to the fireplace, dumbfounded, for the leader was Blaise and the men were my own.
Julie gave a glad little cry, and, dropping her dagger, sank to her knees exhausted.
"Good-night, monsieur!" I said to La Chatre. "We thank you for your hospitality!"