"Father, there must be an end put to these things! We must rouse the country." "We must pay the ransom first, or all those poor fellows will be sent back to us like as is Rossignol." "Let us go into the house," said Jean, and threw open the door. "We must do something for these unhappy creatures." "Aye," said his father, "and something must be done to save seven other houses from being put in the same condition. Where shall we get the money?" "We will consider that presently--first to this man." A strange spectacle met their eyes when they re-entered the house of the Rossignols. The woman had suspended something dark to a crook in the ceiling, had brought glowing ashes from the hearth, and had placed them in a circle on the floor below this dark object, and had spilled tallow over the red cinders, and the tallow having melted, had become ignited, so that a flicker of blue flame shot about the ring, and now and then sent up a jet of yellow flame like a long tongue that licked the suspended object. The woman held back her children, and in one hand she had a long steel pin or skewer, with a silver head to it, wherewith she had been wont to fasten up her hair. She had withdrawn this from her head, and all her black hair was flowing about her face and shoulders. "See!" yelled she, and the glitter of her eyes was terrible. "See! it is the heart of Le Gros Guillem. I will punish him for all he has done to me. This for my man's nerves that he has cut." She made a stab with her pin at the suspended object, which Jean and his father now saw was a bullock's heart. "This for all the woe he has brought on me!" She stabbed again. "See, see, my children, how he twists and tosses! Ha! ha! Gros Guillem, am I paining you? Do you turn to escape me? Do I strike spasms of terror into your heart? Ha! ha! the Rossignol is a song-bird, but her beak is sharp." Jean caught the woman's hand. "Stand back!" he cried, "this is devilry. This will bring you to the stake." "What care I--so long as I torture and stab and burn Le Gros Guillem! And who will denounce me for harming him? Will the Church--which he has pillaged? Will you--whom he has robbed? Let me alone--see--see how the flames burn him! Ha! ha! Le Gros Guillem! Am I swinging you! Dance, dance in fire! Swing, swing in anguish! For my children this!" and she stabbed at the heart again. The woman was mad with despair and hate and terror. Jean stood back, put his hand to his mouth, and said with a groan-- "My God! would Noémi were here!" "In Nomine Beelzebub!" shrieked the woman, and struck the heart down into the melted flaming fat on the floor. CHAPTER V. RAISING THE RANSOM. A HEAVY sum of money had to be raised, and that within a fortnight.