1L PRISONLERS.

The two women went to the upper floor, They were heard to lock their door and to walk about for a Iittle while, then they made no further sound.

‘T'he Prussians stretehed themscelves on the stone floor, their feet to the fire, their heads on their rolled-up cloaks, and soon all six were snoring on six different notes, sharp or deep, but all sustamed and alarming,

They had certaanly been asleep for a con- siderable time when a shot sounded, and so loud that 1t scemed to be fired close against the walls of the house. The soldiers sat up instantly. "There were two more shots, and then three more.

The door of the stairease opened hastily, and the keeper’s wife appeared, barclooted, a short petticoat over her nightdress, a candle i her hand, and a face of terror. She whispereda : ““Here are the Iirench — two hundred of them at least. 1f they find you here, they will burn the house. Go down, quick, mnto the ecllar; and don’t make a noisc. If you make a noise, we are lost.” The officer, scarced, murmured: “T will, T will. Which way do we go down?”

The young woman hurriedly raised the narrow square trap-door, and the men dis- appeared by the winding stair, once after another going underground, backwards, so as

Y N R a 4

o) e 1o iy s 7 7 77 - 50 7 1 7 .o Y

% e

LS 4 7 ’

F o o,

“CIHE MEN DISAPPEARED BY THE WINDING STAIR.”

311

to feel the steps with their feet. But when the point of the last helmet had disappeared, Berthine, shutting down the heavy oaken plank, thick as a wall, and hard as steel, kept in place by clamps and a padlock, turned the key twice, slowly, and then began to laugh with a laugh of silent rapture, and with a wild desire to dance over the heads of her prisoners.

T'hey made no noise, shut in as if they were inastone box, only getting air through a grating.

Berthine at once re-lighted her fire, put on her saucepan onee more, and made more soup, murmuring : ‘““ Iather will be tired to-night.” '

Then she sat down and waited. Nothing but the deep-toned pendulum of the clock went to and fro with 1ts regular tick in the silence. Irom time to time, the young woman cast a look at the dial-—an impatient look, which scemed to say: “ How slowly it cgoes !

Presently she thought she heard a murmur under her feet ; low, confused words reached her through the vaulted masonry of the cellar. “The Prussians were beginning to guess her trick, and soon the officer came up the little stair, and thumped the trap-door with his fist. Once more he cried : “Open the door.”

She rose, drew near, and imitating his accent, asked: “What doyou want?”

“Open the door !”

“I shall not open 1t.”

The angry.

“Open the door, or I’ll break it in.”

Shebegan to laugh.

“ Break away, my man ; break away.”

Then he began to beat, with the butt cnd of his gun, upon the oaken trap-door closed over his head but 1t would have resisted a battering- ram,

The keeper’s wife heard him go down

man grew

agamn. Then, one after another, the

soldiers came up to try their strength and inspect the fastenings.