‘Comrades,’ he said, ‘you are about to suffer a furious discharge; but after that you will make short work with those fellows.’ There was such dead silence that friends and enemies could have heard these words; then raising his sword, ‘Sound trumpets!’ he cried.”
“Well, very good; you will do as much when the opportunity occurs, will you, Raoul?”
“I know not, sir, but I thought it really very fine and grand!”
“Were you afraid, Raoul?” asked the count.
“Yes, sir,” replied the young man naively; “I felt a great chill at my heart, and at the word ‘fire,’ which resounded in Spanish from the enemy’s ranks, I closed my eyes and thought of you.”