No one having any objection to make, the sons of Materne slung their carbines over their shoulders, and withdrew beneath the winding archway. At the end of about ten minutes the two tall red hunters came up to the officer. There was a rapid conference between them, after which they all began to ascend the Falkenstein. As the little group came gradually nearer, they were better able to distinguish the uniform of the envoy, and even his physiognomy. He was a spare man, with rather light hair, a well-formed figure, and resolute movements. At the foot of the rock, Frantz and Kasper bandaged his eyes, and in a short time their footsteps were heard beneath the vault. Jean-Claude going himself to meet them, untied the handkerchief, saying: "You desire to communicate something to me, sir; I am ready to listen to you." Tho mountaineers were about fifteen paces from this group. Catherine Lefévre, who was the foremost, was knitting her brows. Her bony figure, her long and hooked nose, the three or four locks of her gray hair straggling over her flat temples, and the bones of her hollow cheeks, the compression of her lips, and the fixity of her look, seemed at first to attract the attention of the German officer; then the gentle and pale face of Louise behind her; then Jerôme, with his long sandy beard, draped in his tunic of coarse cloth; then old Materne, leaning upon his short carbine; then the others; and, finally, the high red vault, the colossal masses of which, built up of flint and granite, hung over the precipice with some withered brambles. Hexe-Baizel, behind Materne, her long besom of green broom in her hand, outstretched neck, and heel on the very edge of the rock, seemed to astonish him for a second. He himself was the object of marked attention. You recognised in his attitude, in his long face, with its sharp outline and brown skin, in his clear grey eyes, in his slender moustache, in the delicacy of his limbs hardened by the toils of war, the marks of an aristocratic race. He had about him a mixture of the old campaigner and the man of the world--the swordsman and the diplomatist. This reciprocal inspection terminating in the twinkling of an eye, the envoy said, in good French-- "Is it to Commander Hullin that I have the honour to address myself?" "Yes, sir," replied Jean-Claude; and as the other was casting an undecided look around the circle: "Speak out, sir," he exclaimed, "that every one may hear you! When the question is one of honour and country there is no one in France that may not hear what we have to say--the women are as much concerned in the affair as we are. You have propositions to make to me; and, in the first place, on the part of whom?" "On the part of the General commanding-in-chief. Here is my commission." "Good! We will hear you, sir." Then the officer, raising his voice, said in a firm tone: