"They are there!" she whispered in a frightened voice.
"Who?"
"The Blues."
"Ah! must I die without one kiss!"
"Take it," she said.
He caught her to him, cold and unresisting, and gathered from her lips
a kiss of horror and of joy, for while it was the first, it might also
be the last. Then they went together to the door and looked cautiously
out. The marquis saw Gudin and his men holding the paths leading to
the valley. Then he turned to the line of gates where the first rotten
trunk was guarded by five men. Without an instant's pause he jumped on
the barrel of cider and struck a hole through the thatch of the roof,
from which to spring upon the rocks behind the house; but he drew his
head hastily back through the gap he had made, for Hulot was on the
height; his retreat was cut off in that direction. The marquis turned
and looked at his mistress, who uttered a cry of despair; for she
heard the tramp of the three detachments near the house.
"Go out first," he said; "you shall save me."
Hearing the words, to her all-glorious, she went out and stood before
the door. The marquis loaded his musket. Measuring with his eye the
space between the door of the hut and the old rotten trunk where seven
men stood, the Gars fired into their midst and sprang forward
instantly, forcing a passage through them. The three troops rushed
towards the opening through which he had passed, and saw him running
across the field with incredible celerity.
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