"Close the gates after you, Francois," said he, "and put the tressels
close against them. If you lose a minute in doing it, you will gain five
in delaying these devils. If you hear them following you in the
wood-road, draw the waggon across the track and leave it."
He was only delayed two minutes by going back to the yard gates, but
those two minutes were nearly fatal to him and Marie. Marian also
delayed him again as he returned to the house.
"Where am I to go, M. Henri," said she; "what am I to do? they will be
sure to kill me, for they saw me at Amaillou, and will know that I gave
the warning."
"Hide yourself, my girl," said Henri: "hide yourself, but not in the
house, for that will soon be a mass of ruins. Hide yourself in the
woods; there cannot be many of these devils here, and they will not
remain long."
He hurried into the house as he ceased speaking, and at the moment he
did so Westerman and his thirty men turned the corner of the avenue. He
rushed from the back door through the passages of the chateau into the
hall, where he seized hold of a large cloak belonging to de Lescure,
which he threw over his shoulder as he ran up stairs.
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