Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/258

 it was opened, and the miserable woman she had seen in the morning entered.

"Rise (exclaimed she in a whispering voice), and follow me."

"Whither?" said Madeline, without obeying her.

"To your father; he waits to conduct you from this detestable house. I released him from his chamber, in the door of which D'Alembert left the key when he dragged you from it. But ask me no farther questions; D'Alembert but deferred going for the officers of justice till it grew dark; a moment's delay may therefore be fatal, and cut off all opportunity of escaping."

"Oh! let us fly, let us fly then," said Madeline, starting from the ground.

Softly and silently they descended to the hall, and turned down a long passage, terminated by a flight of steep stone stairs; these they also descended, and Madeline then found herself in a subterraneous room; a faint light glimmered from a recess at the