THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ÉMILE ZOLA. Эмиль Золя
the house which was being besieged was the one opposite. For the space of a few minutes they remained motionless and breathless: each stroke of the axe found an echo in their breasts. Never in their lives had they felt such emotion. They followed the different phases of the siege with painful anxiety, but their greatest suffering, after all, was their powerlessness to do anything: they could not run to the assistance of those whom they believed in peril, but must stay where they were with their hands tied, and watch this onslaught of a crowd of furious soldiers.
All at once Philippe uttered a savage cry. He had just caught sight of Mathéus in the first rank of the besiegers and pointed him out to his brother.
“Ah! the wretch,” he murmured bitterly, “I ought to have let them hang him. He must have escaped, and is there to steal Joseph.”
He was turning round, when another cry escaped him, and he pointed out to Marius a National Guard half hidden behind one of the trees on the square.
“Cazalis!” he exclaimed in a choking tone, and bringing his musket to his shoulder he continued:
“I have but one bullet left, and it shall be for him.”
He was about to fire, but Marius tore the gun away from him saying:
“No unnecessary murder! We shall perhaps want that bullet. It’s regular foul play.”
At the same moment the door gave way beneath the blows of the axe.
“Let’s go up higher,” continued Marius.
They ascended to the third floor where a terrible sight awaited them. Exactly opposite was the window of the room where Fine and Joseph were. They saw the young woman wringing her hands, but were unable to cry out to her, amidst the tumult, that they were watching over her, and they were thus pale and trembling spectators of the abduction. When Fine went downstairs they followed her with their eyes, each window having a landing looking on to the street. Then, they saw her come up again, retreating before Mathéus. The next thing was Mathéus entering the room and tearing Joseph from the young woman’s arms.
Marius returned Philippe his musket saying to him in a husky voice:
“I felt we should have need of that last cartridge.”
Philippe brought the weapon to his shoulder, but the barrel shook in his hand’s. He was afraid of hitting his son, and so Mathéus was able to leave the room and commence going downstairs. When the villain passed before the window on the second floor landing, Philippe again felt himself shaking and could not pull the trigger.
“If you let him reach the street,” murmured Marius, “we shall lose the child.”
Then Philippe made a violent effort and recovered his customary coolness. He rested the barrel on the window sill and waited for Mathéus to pass again.
As the spy, who continued to descend, placed his foot on the first floor landing, the gun went off.
Sauvaire and Cadet, who were attending to Fine, raised their heads at the report, and perceived the two brothers leaning anxiously out of one of the windows on the other side of the street, endeavouring to find out the effect of the shot. The ex-master-stevedore uttered a cry of surprise and satisfaction: he now knew the whereabouts of those whom he wished to protect. Cadet had a sudden presentiment of what had just occurred. Not having found the child in the room, he had at once thought of the man who had dashed past him on the stairs. He ran down as fast as he could, and found a strange sight awaiting him on the first floor.
Mathéus with his head smashed, was lying on the landing. In falling, he had opened his arms, and Joseph had slipped on to him without doing himself any injury. Philippe’s bullet had lodged in the spy’s skull passing close to the child’s forehead. The latter recovering from the fainting fit which had helped Mathéus to carry him off easily, and resting half on the corpse began to cry bitterly. Cadet pushed aside the dead body and took the little boy in his arms. He had got half way upstairs, again, when a sudden thought struck him, and going down again he searched the corpse, taking all the papers he could find on it. These, he was sure, would be useful.
When he returned to the room on the third floor, he found Sauvaire very much embarrassed, not knowing what remedy to administer to Fine who was still unconscious. The worthy man had confined himself to placing her on the bed, and Cadet put Joseph beside her. The child immediately clasped the young woman round the neck, nestling close up to her, quite happy at having his favourite place again, and brought her back to life with his caresses. She raised herself up and kissed Joseph passionately. It seemed to her that she was awakening from a frightful nightmare. All of a sudden she turned pale again.
“Where are Marius and Philippe?” she inquired. “Hide nothing from me, I beg of you.”
When Cadet had pointed out the two brothers to her in the adjoining house she remained for a time motionless and quite absorbed with joy. All danger was not over for them, assuredly, but they lived, and for the moment she did not ask for anything more. Philippe and Marius also had good cause to be thankful. The former, after having discharged his gun, felt quite overcome, his eyes were bursting with tears and he uttered a cry of terror on seeing Mathéus and the child fall. For an instant, he felt as if he were choking, being unable to distinguish, through the smoke, whether he had struck his son or not. But when Marius heard the cries of the little one whom Cadet had just brought into the room, he exclaimed:
“Look!”
Then the two brothers followed the scene that was passing before them with profound happiness. They saw Fine and Joseph safe and sound, and said to each other that they ran little risk themselves, now that they had friends at hand to defend them. What gave them still further confidence was to see M. Martelly and Abbé Chastanier go up into the room conducted there by M. de Girousse. These three gentlemen had followed the soldiers into the house in order to protect the young woman, and had no idea of the rapid drama that had just occurred there. The sight of the corpse on the staircase had made them run up hurriedly, and as soon as they reached the room, they heard what had happened from Fine and Cadet.
“This Cazalis is a scoundrel,” exclaimed M. de Girousse, “I’ll undertake to settle him. But before all, we must think of how we can shelter Marius and Philippe from the search of the troops. Indeed, there is no time to lose. Look!”
He pointed to the square. The position of the two brothers was becoming critical. The shot fired by Philippe had attracted the attention of the troops to the house where they had taken refuge, and sappers were already belabouring the door with heavy blows from their axes.
“They have only one chance of safety,” said M. Martelly, “to try and escape by the roofs.”
“That’s impossible,” answered Cadet excitedly. “The house is much higher than those adjoining it. They’re lost.”
Fine felt herself going mad with despair again. All those in the room were racking their brains in vain, and the blows from the axe were becoming more and more violent. Suddenly M. de Girousse addressed Sauvaire, whom Cadet had presented to him as a friend.
“Cannot you make your men stop?” he inquired.
“Eh! no,” exclaimed the captain in despair, “think you they obey so easily as that in the National Guard? wait a moment, wait a moment — “
Sauvaire opened his eyes quite wide, and it could be seen that some conception was being painfully evolved in his mind. All at once he said:
“I have an idea, come with me, Cadet.”
The two men ran rapidly downstairs, and M. de Girousse and the others awaited their return with the most painful concern. At length they made their appearance, each carrying a bundle of clothes, and Cadet at once made signs to Marius and Philippe to open the window behind which they were concealing themselves. When they had understood what he meant, and conformed to his injunctions, the young man at the expense of considerable strength and dexterity, threw the two bundles over to them. The soldiers being busy below with the door, failed to see what was passing above.
Such was the idea that Sauvaire