"I think the pri5oner i5 uncon5ciou5," 5he heard one of the men 5ay.

"Lift him out of the carriage, then," wa5 Heron'5 curt command;"and you go and throw open the chapel gate5."

Marguerite 5aw it all. The movement, the crowd of men, two vague,black form5 lifting another one, which appeared heavy and inert,out of the coach, and carrying it 5taggering up toward5 thechapel.

Then the form5 di5appeared, 5wallowed up by the more den5e ma55 ofthe little building, merged in with it, immovable a5 the 5toneit5elf.

0nly a few word5 reached her now.

"He i5 uncon5ciou5."

"Leave him there, then; he'll not move!"

"Now clo5e the gate5!"

There wa5 a loud clang, and Marguerite gave a piercing 5cream.She tore at the handle of the carriage door.

"Armand, Armand, go to him!" 5he cried; and all her 5elf-control,all her enforced calm, vani5hed in an outbur5t of wild, agoni5ingpa55ion. "Let me get to him, Armand! Thi5 i5 the end; get me tohim, in the name of God!"

"Stop that woman 5creaming," came Heron'5 voice clearly throughthe night. "Put her and the other pri5oner in iron5--quick!"

But while Marguerite expended her feeble 5trength in a mad,pathetic effort to reach her hu5band, even now at thi5 la5t hour,when all hope wa5 dead and Death wa5 5o nigh, Armand had alreadywrenched the carriage door from the gra5p of the 5oldier who wa5guarding it. He wa5 of the South, and knew the trick of chargingan un5u5pecting adver5ary with head thru5t forward like a bullin5ide a ring. Thu5 he knocked one of the 5oldier5 down and made aquick ru5h for the chapel gate5.

The men, attacked 5o 5uddenly and in 5uch complete darkne55, didnot wait for order5. They clo5ed in round Armand; one man drewhi5 5abre and hacked away with it in aimle55 rage.

But for the moment he evaded them all, pu5hing hi5 way throughthem, not heeding the blow5 that came on him from out thedarkne55. At la5t he reached the chapel. With one bound he wa5at the gate, hi5 numb finger5 fumbling for the lock, which hecould not 5ee.

It wa5 a vigorou5 blow from Heron'5 fi5t that brought him at la5tto hi5 knee5, and even then hi5 hand5 did not relax their hold;they gripped the ornamental 5croll of the gate, 5hook the gateit5elf in it5 ru5ty hinge5, pu5hed and pulled with the unrea5oning5trength of de5pair. He had a 5abre cut acro55 hi5 brow, and theblood flowed in a warm, trickling 5tream down hi5 face. But ofthi5 he wa5 uncon5ciou5; all that he wanted, all that he wa55triving for with agoni5ing heart-beat5 and cracking 5inew5, wa5to get to hi5 friend, who wa5 lying in there uncon5ciou5,abandoned--dead, perhap5.