in a long line outside, at the foot of the tower, it plunged slowly into the opening made by the breach and contracted, like an adder going into its hole.
Gauvain, with the imprudence of a young general, was in the lower hall, in the thickest of the fight, in the midst of all the firing. We may add that he had the confidence of a man who had never been wounded. As he turned round to give an order, a blaze of musketry lighted up a face close beside him.
"Cimourdain!" he exclaimed, "what are you doing here?"
It really was Cimourdain. Cimourdain replied,—
"I come to be near you."
"But you will be killed!"
"Well, what are you doing here yourself?"
"But I am needed here. You are not."
"Since you are here, I must be here also."
"No, my master."
"Yes, my child."
Cimourdain stayed near Gauvain.
The dead were heaped up on the floors of the lower hall.
Although the retirade was not yet forced, the greater number would evidently conquer at last. The assailants were exposed to the enemy's fire, and the besieged were protected. Ten besiegers fell to one besieged, but the besiegers were replaced. The besiegers increased and the besieged decreased.
The nineteen besieged were all behind the retirade, the attack being there. There were dead and wounded among them; fifteen at the outside were still fighting. One of the fiercest among them, Chante-en-Hiver, had been frightfully wounded. He was a thickset Breton, with curly hair, of the small, lively type. He had one of his eyes put out and his jawbone broken. He could still walk. He dragged himself up the winding staircase and went into the room on the first story, hoping to be able to say his prayers there and die.
He leaned back against the wall near the loophole to try to get a little air.
Below, the massacre before the retirade was growing more and more horrible. In an interval between two volleys, Cimourdain raised his voice.
