I'll bring you to life, I will!"
"Stop! my life is sacred," cried Merle, seeing his danger. "There's
the glove of your Gars," and he held it out.
"Ghosts' lives are not sacred," replied the Chouan, "and I sha'n't
give you yours. Ave Maria!"
He fired, and the ball passed through his victim's head. The captain
fell. When Francine reached him she heard him mutter the words, "I'd
rather die with them than return without them."
The Chouan sprang upon the body to strip it, saying, "There's one good
thing about ghosts, they come to life in their clothes." Then,
recognizing the Gars' glove, that sacred safeguard, in the captain's
hand, he stopped short, terrified. "I wish I wasn't in the skin of my
mother's son!" he exclaimed, as he turned and disappeared with the
rapidity of a bird.
To understand this scene, so fatal to poor Merle, we must follow
Mademoiselle de Verneuil after the marquis, in his fury and despair,
had abandoned her to Pille-Miche. Francine had caught Marche-a-Terre
by the arm and reminded him, with sobs, of the promise he had made
her. Pille-Miche was already dragging away his victim like a heavy
bundle. Marie, her head and hair hanging back, turned her eyes to the
lake; but held as she was in a grasp of iron she was forced to follow
the Chouan, who turned now and then to hasten her steps, and each time
that he did so a jovial thought brought a hideous smile upon his face.
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