“Go!” he said hoarsely. “Pasdeloup, I charge you with those two. Save them! I can hold this mob back.” Pasdeloup looked down at them. They were very near and climbing steadily upward. With a strength almost superhuman he caught up a huge boulder and sent it bounding toward them down the slope. They saw it coming and scattered; then, when a second followed it, fled wildly. Their advance had been checked for the moment. Pasdeloup turned back to his master. “Come,” he said again. M. le Comte laid his wife’s body gently down and stood erect. “I tell you I die here,” he said, a great calmness in his eyes. “Will you obey me, or will you not? I command you to guide these two to the hiding-place you spoke of.” For an instant Pasdeloup’s eyes blazed defiance; then he glanced down at the enemy, and his lips curved into a smile. He bent his head and set off up the stream. “Follow him, Tavernay,” commanded M. le Comte, seeing that I hesitated. “I would not save my life if I could--it is loathsome to me. I commend Charlotte to you. Go straight west to the Bocage; there you will find friends. God bless you!” “I cannot go,” I faltered. “I cannot leave you here. That would be too cowardly!” “Cowardly?” he echoed, facing around upon me. “It is I who have chosen the coward’s part! To you I give a duty far more difficult. Ah, here they come!” he added, and raised his pistols. “Go--I beg of you. Be brave enough to go.” I could do nothing but obey--no other path lay open. With sinking heart I passed my arm again about the waist of my companion, who had seemingly lapsed into a sort of stupor, and followed Pasdeloup who was awaiting us impatiently at a little distance. “This way,” he said; and turned from the bed of the torrent up the steep hillside. I paused for one backward glance at the friend I had abandoned. He was standing erect, pistols in hand. The tears blinded me, and I hastened on. In a moment Pasdeloup stopped. “Do you see that ledge of rock up yonder overgrown with vines?” he asked. “Put the vines aside and you will find behind them a very comfortable cavern. Enter it and you are safe.” “And you?” I asked, seeing that he turned away. “I? Oh, I return to my master;” and he was off in an instant. I gazed after him, touched anew by that dog-like devotion, until he disappeared from sight down the bed of the torrent. In the distance I heard a rattle of muskets. They were attacking him, then; and I pictured to myself that gallant figure defying them, his eyes gleaming, a smile upon his lips. Ah, if I were only there beside him! Then suddenly I became conscious of a dead weight on my arm, and glanced down to see that Charlotte was lying there unconscious. CHAPTER XVII. I TAKE A VOW.