THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER
CHAPTER V
THE RETURN OF THE FRENCH
It was three o'clock in the afternoon. Great black clouds, the trail of some
neighboring storm, had slowly filled the sky. The yellow heavens, the brass
covered uniforms, had changed the valley of Rocreuse, so gay in the sunlight,
into a den of cutthroats full of sinister gloom. The Prussian officer had
contented himself with causing Dominique to be imprisoned without announcing
what fate he reserved for him. Since noon Francoise had been torn by terrible
anguish. Despite her father's entreaties she would not quit the courtyard. She
was awaiting the French. But the hours sped on; night was approaching, and she
suffered the more as all the time gained did not seem to be likely to change the
frightful denouement.
About three o'clock the Prussians made their preparations for departure. For
an instant past the officer had, as on the previous day, shut himself up with
Dominique. Francoise realized that the young man's life was in balance. She
clasped her hands; she prayed. Pere Merlier, beside her, maintained silence and
the rigid attitude of an old peasant who does not struggle against fate.
"Oh, MON DIEU! Oh, MON DIEU!" murmured Francoise. "They are going to kill
him!"
The miller drew her to him and took her on his knees as if she had been a
child.
At that moment the officer came out, while behind him two men brought
Dominique.
"Never! Never!" cried the latter. "I am ready to die!"
"Think well," resumed the officer. "The service you refuse me another will
render us. I am generous: I offer you your life. I want you simply to guide us
through the forest to Montredon. There must be pathways leading there."
Dominique was silent.
"So you persist in your infatuation, do you?"
"Kill me and end all this!" replied the young man.
Francoise, her hands clasped, supplicated him from afar. She had forgotten
everything; she would have advised him to commit an act of cowardice. But Pere
Merlier seized her hands that the Prussians might not see her wild gestures.
"He is right," he whispered: "it is better to die!"
The platoon of execution was there. The officer awaited a sign of weakness on
Dominique's part. He still expected to conquer him. No one spoke. In the
distance violent crashes of thunder were heard. Oppressive heat weighed upon the
country. But suddenly, amid the silence, a cry broke forth:
"The French! The French!"
Yes, the French were at hand. Upon the Sauval highway, at the edge of the
wood, the line of red pantaloons could be distinguished. In the mill there was
an extraordinary agitation. The Prussian soldiers ran hither and thither with
guttural exclamations. Not a shot had yet been fired.
"The French! The French!" cried Francoise, clapping her hands.
She was wild with joy. She escaped from her father's grasp; she laughed and
tossed her arms in the air. At last they had come and come in time, since
Dominique was still alive!
A terrible platoon fire, which burst upon her ears like a clap of thunder,
caused her to turn. The officer muttered between his teeth:
"Before everything, let us settle this affair!"
And with his own hand pushing Dominique against the wall of a shed he ordered
his men to fire. When Francoise looked Dominique lay upon the ground with blood
streaming from his neck and shoulders.
She did not weep; she stood stupefied. Her eyes grew fixed, and she sat down
under the shed, a few paces from the body. She stared at it, wringing her hands.
The Prussians had seized Pere Merlier as a hostage.
It was a stirring combat. The officer had rapidly posted his men,
comprehending that he could not beat a retreat without being cut to pieces.
Hence he would fight to the last. Now the Prussians defended the mill, and the
French attacked it. The fusillade began with unusual violence. For half an hour
it did not cease. Then a hollow sound was heard, and a ball broke a main branch
of the old elm. The French had cannon. A battery, stationed just above the ditch
in which Dominique had hidden himself, swept the wide street of Rocreuse. The
struggle could not last long.
Ah, the poor mill! Balls pierced it in every part. Half of the roof was
carried away. Two walls were battered down. But it was on the side of the
Morelle that the destruction was most lamentable. The ivy, torn from the
tottering edifice, hung like rags; the river was encumbered with wrecks of all
kinds, and through a breach was visible Francoise's chamber with its bed, the
white curtains of which were carefully closed. Shot followed shot; the old wheel
received two balls and gave vent to an agonizing groan; the buckets were borne
off by the current; the framework was crushed. The soul of the gay mill had left
it!
Then the French began the assault. There was a furious fight with swords and
bayonets. Beneath the rust-colored sky the valley was choked with the dead. The
broad meadows had a wild look with their tall, isolated trees and their hedges
of poplars which stained them with shade. To the right and to the left the
forests were like the walls of an ancient ampitheater which enclosed the
fighting gladiators, while the springs, the fountains and the flowing brooks
seemed to sob amid the panic of the country.
Beneath the shed Francoise still sat near Dominique's body; she had not
moved. Pere Merlier had received a slight wound. The Prussians were
exterminated, but the ruined mill was on fire in a dozen places. The French
rushed into the courtyard, headed by their captain. It was his first success of
the war. His face beamed with triumph. He waved his sword, shouting:
"Victory! Victory!"
On seeing the wounded miller, who was endeavoring to comfort Francoise, and
noticing the body of Dominique, his joyous look changed to one of sadness. Then
he knelt beside the young man and, tearing open his blouse, put his hand to his
heart.
"Thank God!" he cried. "It is yet beating! Send for the surgeon!"
At the captain's words Francoise leaped to her feet.
"There is hope!" she cried. "Oh, tell me there is hope!"
At that moment the surgeon appeared. He made a hasty examination and said:
"The young man is severely hurt, but life is not extinct; he can be saved!"
By the surgeon's orders Dominique was transported to a neighboring cottage,
where he was placed in bed. His wounds were dressed; restoratives were
administered, and he soon recovered consciousness. When he opened his eyes he
saw Francoise sitting beside him and through the open window caught sight of
Pere Merlier talking with the French captain. He passed his hand over his
forehead with a bewildered air and said:
"They did not kill me after all!"
"No," replied Francoise. "The French came, and their surgeon saved you."
Pere Merlier turned and said through the window:
"No talking yet, my young ones!"
In due time Dominique was entirely restored, and when peace again blessed the
land he wedded his beloved Francoise.
The mill was rebuilt, and Pere Merlier had a new wheel upon which to bestow
whatever tenderness was not engrossed by his daughter and her husband.