When the fury of the cloudburst had passed over, and the lightning no longer flickered in their faces, and the thunder growled away in the southeast, the risen water began to show its rolling surface. A little moonlight leaked abroad through cloudy crevices. Angelique was bathing her mother's face with camphor; for Madame Saucier sat down and fainted comfortably, when nothing else could be done. Something bumped against the side of the house, and crept crunching and bumping along, and a voice hailed them. "That is Colonel Menard!" cried Angelique. Her father opened one of the dormer windows and held the lantern out of it. Below the steep roof a boat was dashed by the swell, and Colonel Menard and his oarsman were trying to hold it off from the eaves. A lantern was fastened in the prow. "How do you make a landing at this port?" "The saints know, colonel. But we will land you. How dared you venture out in the trail of such a storm?" "I do not like to wait on weather, Captain Saucier. Besides, I am a good swimmer. Are you all safe?" "Safe, thank Heaven," called Madame Saucier, reviving at the hint of such early rescue, and pressing to the window beside her husband. "But here are twenty people, counting our slaves, driven to the roof almost without warning; and who can say where the water will stop?" "On that account, madame, I came out with the boat as soon as I could. But we shall be stove in here. Monsieur the captain, can you let the family down the roof to me?" Captain Saucier thought he could, and he saw it would have to be done quickly. By dim lantern light the Saucier children were hurried into their clothing, and Wachique brought a wrap of fur and wool for tante-gra'mere. Three of the slave men were called in, and they rigged a rope around their master's waist, by which they could hold and guide him in his attempt to carry living freight down the slippery roof. "How many can you carry?" he inquired. "Six at a time," answered Colonel Menard. "To try to do more would hardly be safe, in this rough water." "Were the boats at the wharf swept away?" "It is not now easy to tell where the wharf was. But some of the large craft seem wedged among trees along the bluff. By daylight we shall get some out. And I have sent to the governor for all the boats he can muster for us." Angelique came to the dormer window and touched her father's shoulder. "Are you all ready?" he asked. "Tante-gra'mere will not go into the boat." "But she must. There will be six of you, with Peggy; and Colonel Menard cannot much longer hang by the eaves." "Perhaps if you pick her up and run with her, papa, as you did from the danger below, she may allow it." "She must go into the boat directly," said Captain Saucier; and the negroes paid out the rope as he stalked to the screened corner.