"They are going to surround the mountain, that is clear. How many are there, dost thou think?"
"From three to four thousand men, without counting those who are walking over the country. Well, what can Piorette do against this pack of vagabonds with three hundred men? I ask thee frankly, Hullin."
"He can do nothing," replied the worthy man, simply. "The Germans know that our ammunition is on the Falkenstein; they dread an insurrection after they enter Lorraine, and wish to insure their rear. The enemy"s general knows that we cannot be taken by mere force, he is deciding to reduce us by hunger. All that is true, Marc; but we are men: we will do our duty--we will die here!"
There was a short silence; Marc Dives frowned, and did not seem at all convinced.
"We will die!" he replied, scratching his head. "I do not see why we should die at all; it is not our intention to die: too many people would be gratified by it."
"What wouldst thou do?" said Hullin, dryly. "Wouldst thou surrender?"
"Surrender!" exclaimed the smuggler. "Dost thou take me for a coward?"
"Then explain thyself."
"This evening I start for Phalsbourg. I risk my skin in crossing the enemy"s lines; but I like that better than folding my arms here, and perishing with hunger. I will enter the town on the first "sortie," or I will endeavor to climb one of the gates. The commandant, Meunier, knows me. I have sold him tobacco for three years. Like thyself, he has gone through the campaigns of Italy and Egypt. Well, I will explain everything to him. I shall see Gaspard Lefevre. I will so arrange that they will give us, perhaps, a company. Dost thou see, Jean-Claude, that the uniform alone would save us? All the brave men who remain will join Piorette; and in any case we shall be delivered, That is my idea. What dost thou think of it?"
He looked at Hullin, whose gloomy, fixed expression made him uneasy.
"Dost thou not think that a chance?"
"It is an idea," said Jean-Claude at last. "I do not oppose it." And, looking full in the smuggler"s face, "Swear to me to do thy best to enter the town."
"I will swear nothing," replied Marc, whose brown cheeks were covered with a flush. "I leave all my possessions here, my wife, my comrades, Catherine Lefevre, and thee, my oldest friend! If I do not return, I shall be a traitor; but if I return, Jean-Claude, thou shalt explain what thou meanest by thy demand: we will settle this little affair between us."
"Marc," said Hullin, "forgive me! I have suffered much these last days. I was wrong. Misfortune makes one distrustful. Give me thy hand. Go! Save us, save Catherine, save my child! I say so now: our only resource is in thee."
Hullin"s voice faltered. Dives relented; but he rejoined: "All the same, Hullin, thou shouldst not have said that to me at such a time.
Never let us speak of it again. I will leave my skin on the way, or return to deliver you. This evening, when darkness sets in, I will leave. The "kaiserlichs" surround the mountain already; but no matter, I have a good horse, and, besides, I have always been lucky."
By six o"clock the highest peaks were hid in darkness. Hundreds of fires, sparkling in the depths of the gorges, announced that the Germans were preparing their repasts.
Marc Dives felt his way down the narrow path. Hullin listened for a few seconds to the retreating steps of his comrade, then walked anxiously toward the old tower, where their head-quarters were established. He lifted the thick woollen covering which closed the owl"s-nest, and perceived Catherine, Louise, and the others crouching round a small fire. The old farm-mistress sat on an oak log, her hands clasped round her knees, watching the flames fixedly, with compressed lips. Louise leant dreamily against the wall. Jerome stood behind Catherine, his hands crossed on his stick, his otter-skin cap touching the mouldy roof. All were sad and discouraged. Hexe-Baizel, who was lifting the lid of a kettle, and Doctor Lorquin, who was scratching the softer parts of the old wall with the point of his sabre, alone preserved their usual expression.
"Here we are," said the doctor, "returned to the days of the Triboques.
These walls are more than two thousand years old. A great deal of water must have flowed from the heights of the Falkenstein and Grosmann to the Sarre and Rhine since a fire was last kindled in this tower."
"Yes," replied Catherine, as though awaking from a dream; "and many besides ourselves have suffered cold, hunger, and misery here. Who knew of it? No one. And one, or two, or three hundred years hence, others, perhaps, will again come for shelter to this place. They will find, as we have, the wall cold, and the earth damp; they will make a fire; they will look as we look; and they will say, like us, "Who suffered here before ourselves? Why did they suffer? They must have been pursued and hunted, like ourselves, to be obliged to come and hide in this wretched hole." And they will think of past times; and no one will reply."
Jean-Claude came up to them. The old dame, raising her head, and looking at him, said, "Well! we are blockaded; the enemy wants to subdue us by famine."
"True, Catherine," replied Hullin; "but I did not expect that. I felt certain of a sudden attack; but the "kaiserlichs" have not gained all yet. Dives has just left for Phalsbourg. He knows the commandant of the place; and if they will only send a few hundred men to our help----"
"Do not count on that," interrupted the old woman. "Marc may be taken or killed by the Germans: and, if not, and suppose he manages to cross their lines, how will he be able to enter Phalsbourg? You well know that the town is besieged by the Russians."
Then everybody relapsed into silence. Hexe-Baizel brought up the soup, and they sat in a circle round the smoking bowl.
CHAPTER XXIV
A FLAG OF TRUCE
Catherine Lefevre came out of the ancient ruin about seven in the morning; Louise and Hexe-Baizel were still asleep; but broad daylight, the clear light of the high regions, was already penetrating the abysses. In the depths, through the azure, the woods, valleys, and rocks could be clearly traced, like the mosses and pebbles of a lake beneath the blue crystal water. Not a breath disturbed the air; and Catherine, gazing over this grand spectacle, felt a calmness and tranquillity beyond even that which comes of sleep. "What are our miseries of a day," thought she, "our uneasinesses and our sufferings?
Why pester heaven with our moans? why fear the future? All this lasts but a second; our sighs are of no more avail than the chirp of the gra.s.shopper in autumn; and do its cries prevent winter from coming?
Must not time pursue its course, and everything die to be renewed?"
Thus thought the old dame, and she had no longer any fears for the future. She had been thus musing for a few instants, when suddenly a hum of voices struck her ears: she turned, and saw Hullin with the three smugglers, talking seriously together on the other side of the plateau. They were engaged in a grave discussion, and had not noticed her. Catherine approached closer to them, and heard the following conversation:--
"Then you do not think it possible for any one to get down either side?"
"No, Jean-Claude, it is quite impossible," replied Brenn; "those brigands know the country thoroughly well: all the paths are guarded.
Hold, look along the paths of that stream: we never dreamt of observing it even; well! they are defending that now. And over there, on the pa.s.sage of the Rothstein, a path only for a goat, which is not trodden once in ten years--thou canst see a bayonet sparkle behind the rock, canst thou not? And that nearer path along which I have slipped with my bags for these eight years past without meeting a single gendarme, they occupy that also: the devil certainly must have showed them all the defiles."
"Yes," exclaimed Joubac, "if the devil has nothing to do with it, at least Yegof has!"
"But," continued Hullin, "it seems to me that three or four men might, if they liked, push through one of those posts."
"No, those posts lean one on the other; at the first shot one would have a whole regiment upon one"s shoulders," replied Brenn. "Besides, supposing one had the luck to get through, how could one return with provisions? My opinion is, that it is impossible."
There was a pause.
"After that," said Joubac, "if Hullin likes we will try all the same."
"We will try what?" said Brenn. "To break our legs in escaping ourselves, and leave the others in the trap. I don"t mind; if any others go, I will too. But as for pretending to return with provisions, it is impossible. Come, Joubac, by which way art thou going, and by which way wilt thou return? If thou knowest of a pa.s.sage, tell me. For twenty years I have scoured the mountain with Marc. I know all the paths and roads ten leagues round, and I see no other way but through the sky!"
Hullin turned round at that moment and saw Mother Lefevre, close behind, listening attentively.
"What! were you there, Catherine?" said he. "Our affairs are taking a bad turn."
"Yes, I heard; there is no means of renewing our provisions."
"Our provisions!" said Brenn with a queer laugh. "Are you aware, Mother Lefevre, for how long we have them?"
"Why, for a fortnight," replied the old dame.
"For a week," said the smuggler, shaking out the ashes from his pipe.
"It is true," said Hullin, "Marc Dives and myself thought they would attack the Falkenstein; we never imagined the enemy would blockade it like a fortress. We have been deceived!"
"And what is to be done?" said Catherine, turning pale.
"We are going to put everybody on half rations. If, in a fortnight, Marc does not return we shall have nothing left--then we shall see."
So saying, Hullin, Catherine, and the smugglers, with bowed heads, took the path to the breach again. As they were coming down the slope, thirty feet below them they perceived Materne. He was climbing breathlessly among the ruins, and clutched hold of the bushes to help him along faster.
"Well," shouted Jean-Claude to him; "what is the matter, old fellow?"