Oh, if they would come, if they would deliver
them all?
"Listen, monsieur," she said: "an hour, another hour; you can grant us
another hour!"
But the officer remained inflexible. He even ordered two men to
seize her and take her away, that they might quietly proceed with
the execution of the old man. Then a frightful struggle took place
in Francoise's heart. She could not allow her father to be thus
assassinated. No, no; she would die rather with Dominique. She was
running toward her chamber when Dominique himself entered the courtyard.
The officer and the soldiers uttered a shout of triumph. But the young
man, calmly, with a somewhat severe look, went up to Francoise, as if
she had been the only person present.
"You did wrong," he said. "Why did you not bring me back? It remained
for Pere Bontemps to tell me everything. But I am here!"
CHAPTER V
THE RETURN OF THE FRENCH
It was three o'clock in the afternoon. Great black clouds, the trail of
some neighboring storm, had slowly filled the sky. The yellow heavens,
the brass covered uniforms, had changed the valley of Rocreuse, so gay
in the sunlight, into a den of cutthroats full of sinister gloom. The
Prussian officer had contented himself with causing Dominique to be
imprisoned without announcing what fate he reserved for him.
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