Nevertheless, the seconds elapsed and the country
maintained its profound peace. Dominique must have reached the other
side of the river. Francoise saw nothing more. The silence was majestic.
She heard a shuffling of feet, a hoarse cry and the hollow fall of a
body. Afterward the silence grew deeper. Then as if she had felt Death
pass by, she stood, chilled through and through, staring into the thick
night.
CHAPTER IV
A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE
At dawn a clamor of voices shook the mill. Pere Merlier opened the door
of Francoise's chamber. She went down into the courtyard, pale and very
calm. But there she could not repress a shiver as she saw the corpse of
a Prussian soldier stretched out on a cloak beside the well.
Around the body troops gesticulated, uttering cries of fury. Many
of them shook their fists at the village. Meanwhile the officer had
summoned Pere Merlier as the mayor of the commune.
"Look!" he said to him in a voice almost choking with anger. "There lies
one of our men who was found assassinated upon the bank of the river.
We must make a terrible example, and I count on you to aid us in
discovering the murderer."
"As you choose," answered the miller with his usual stoicism, "but you
will find it no easy task.
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