"How many should you say there were, MacIntosh?"

"I should put them at four or five thousand."

"Yes, they are certainly not short of four thousand. What wild
looking figures! They are just the same in appearance as those
who attacked Madame de Blenfoix's chateau. See, they are lighting
torches, and I expect they mean to make an attack at once. Their
guns are with that group in the rear of the others; at any rate
they will not be of any use in assisting them to make their way
up this road. They are evidently working themselves up to a state
of madness. There are half a dozen fellows addressing them from
various points."

The men who had been brought down to guard the intrenchments
at the head of the road were all armed with muskets, and carried
in addition long pikes. Presently a roar of shouts and yells was
heard, and then there was a rush on the part of the crowd towards
the foot of the long ascent.

Hector moved to the place where the tenants were posted.

"Do not hurl a single stone down until I give you the word, nor
light the cressets; the torches they carry will be quite sufficient
for us to make them out, and the attack will be all the more
successful if it comes as a surprise."

Then he returned to the breastwork. The men here had been posted by
MacIntosh eight abreast. When the head of the column of insurgents