"Draw him up!" ordered Jean, and watched with great anxiety as the ropes were strained and the old Seigneur's feet left the ground. Then Ogier was carried up, and passed with head, then shoulders through the orifice in the vault. It seemed to Jean as though half an hour elapsed before the ropes descended again. When he saw them fall, then he eagerly blew out the candle, and committed himself to the cords. In three minutes he was above ground. He saw his father standing in the doorway, looking out over the terrace at the clear evening sky, drawing in long breaths of the sweet pure air of evening into his lungs. Jean turned to the two men. "I thank you," he said. "Here is gold. If I can do aught to repay you, in the many troubles and changes of affairs that occur, it shall be done. Your name?" "I am Peyrot le Fort." "And I, Heliot Prebost." "Enough! I shall not forget. We must away. Lead me once more to the Captain." Jean took his father under the arm. The old man walked along with tolerable steadiness, but said nothing. He was as one stupefied. He did not seem to realise that he had been released, but to be labouring under uncertainty whether he were dreaming that he was at liberty or not, and was oppressed with the dread of waking to find himself in the abyss. Jean and his father were introduced into the hall where lay Le Gros Guillem. The Captain had not allowed lights to be introduced, as his eyes were somewhat inflamed by the irritation which pervaded him. "Captain," said Jean. "You must remember that this is not all. The day is spent. We must travel all night, and I have a horse awaiting my father. But you have despoiled him of his coat. He cannot leave in his shirt." "I have not his coat," said Guillem, roughly. "I restore the man, that suffices." "It does not suffice. Give him back his jerkin." "The executioner--the jailer has it. It is his perquisite." "I cannot go after him. Send for it yourself. Consider what you are apt to forget, that time is all-important." "Here!" ordered the Captain. "Bring the old fellow one of mine--any worn one will suffice." A moment later a leather coat was given to Jean, brought by a serving-man. It was dark in the hall. Le Gros Guillem did not concern himself to look at what was produced. Probably the serving-man himself had taken the garment in a hurry without regarding it. As Jean threw the jerkin over his father's shoulders, he felt that it was lined throughout with metal rings, and was impervious to a sword-blow or a pike-thrust. As Ogier, invested in this garment, prepared to depart, the Captain, with brutal insolence, shouted-- "Seigneur! was it cold and black below?" The old man did not reply.