In effect a column immediately set itself on march in that direction, whilst another directed its movement towards the barricades to mask that of the first. "Materne!" exclaimed Jean-Claude, "are there no means of sending a bullet after the fool?" The old hunter shook his head. "No," said he, "it is impossible; he is out of reach." At this moment, Catherine gave vent to a savage cry--a hawk's cry. "Let us crush them!--let us crush them as we did at the Blutfeld!" And this old woman, a moment before so weak, rose and flung herself upon a mass of rock, which she lifted with her two hands; then, with her long scanty gray locks, her hooked nose drawn down to her compressed lips, lank cheeks, and bent back, she advanced with a firm step to the very edge of the abyss, and the rock cleft the air, tracing an immense curve. A horrible noise was heard below. Splinters of fir-trees flew about in all directions, then an enormous stone was seen to rebound at a hundred paces with fresh impetus, roll down the steep descent, and, with a final bound, fall upon Yégof, and crush him at the very feet of the general of the enemy's forces. All this was accomplished in a few seconds. Catherine, standing on the edge of the rock, laughed a laugh that sounded more like a rattle, and that seemed as if it would never come to an end. And all the others, all those phantoms, as if inspired with a new life, threw themselves upon the crumbling ruins of the old _burg_, exclaiming--"Death! death! Let us crush them as at the Blutfeld!" Never was a more horrible scene beheld. Those beings, at the very gates of the tomb, lean and squalid as skeletons, found fresh strength for carnage. They stumbled no more; they tottered no more. They lifted each one his stone, and ran to hurl it down the precipice; then returned to take another, without even looking at what was passing below. Now figure to yourselves the stupor of the _kaiserlicks_ at this deluge of ruins and rocks. They had all turned round at the first sound of the stones crashing down one after another over the shrubs and the clumps of trees, and at first they remained as if petrified; but raising their eyes still higher, and seeing other stones descending and descending still, and, above all that, spectres running hither and thither, lifting up their arms, emptying them, and beginning again; seeing their comrades crushed--rows of fifteen and twenty men overthrown at a single blow--an immense cry resounded from the valley of the Charmes, as far as the Falkenstein, and in spite of the voice of the leaders, in spite of the firing, which recommenced right and left, all the Germans fled in disorder to escape this horrible death.