"Cried the Duke, ’Stay there.’ This was to me. ’Be still, all of you.’ Indeed, I had no mind to move; one dead man above and one below were guards enough. The Duke went by the municipal without more than a look, saying, as he set foot on the upper stair, ’I have shot that man and the wine-barrel too. _Sacré bleu_, what a waste!’ So it was good Bordeaux, and not blood. This reassured me. In a minute more I heard the Duke say cheerfully: ’All goes well. A lantern, quick! There is no one else.’ "Our thief was ready in a moment, and the two, with my small person in the rear, turned to consider the Jacobin. ’Dead, I think,’ said the Duke. ’And if not, it were wise to attend to his case,’ said our thief. ’No, no,’ I heard my mother cry from the top of the staircase; ’we will have no more bloodshed.’ "Neither Duke nor thief said anything in reply, but laid the man in as easy a posture as could be found for one with an ounce of lead clean through him. After this they went down to look at the other officer. He was past doubt, and dead enough. ’And now,’ said the Duke, ’even if we bury these two, which Madame makes impossible, other devils will infest the house, and in a few hours we shall be one and all lost to hope.’ "’There are the catacombs,’ said the thief, ’and nothing else. The sooner we leave, the better our chances. No one will follow us, Monsieur.’ "’But shall we ever get out of these caves?’ said my mother. "’To stay is certain death,’ returned Duke Philip. "’And to fly by that great opening uncertain death,’ said the thief. ’I like better the uncertain.’ "’We will go,’ said my mother. "Upon this the Duke bade us carry the utmost loads of wine and eatables we could support. The thief packed baskets, and strung bottles of wine and milk on cords so as to let them hang from our shoulders. Each had also a blanket, and we were thus pretty heavily loaded, but the thief carried nearly as much as all the rest together. The Duke sat down a little while to reload his own arms and those taken from the dead guard, and soon we followed one another through the great black hole in mournful procession. With one dim lantern flashing cones of light here and there on the dripping, moldy walls, we went down a slope and along a tunnel not broad enough for two to walk abreast. At the first halt I saw my mother whisper to Duke Philip, and soon after he gave to our thief the sword and pistol of the dead guard. Before and behind us was darkness. We may have gone two hundred yards, the Duke urging haste, when we came to a sharp turn in the tunnel, and stopped as if of one accord.