Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 1).djvu/203

Rh A serene summer morning shed its light over the mountains, when Edmond with hasty steps took his way towards the secret wilds, where there was neither track nor footpath, and which was only known to him from representation. He felt as if his wonderful gift of inward sight was conducting him in the direct way, for he discovered the most secret directing signs by which the rebels alone could find a clue to the hiding—places, without straying among the windings of the rocks, or being stopped by the appearance of unexpected precipices. He left the fortress of St. Hyppolite on one side and came in a short time after having climbed steep mountains, into another rocky district, to which only small stony paths led, and which far around was torn asunder by spacious crevices and caverns. Here did the Camisards keep their severely wounded that had been able to escape from the fight; if this was impossible, they shot them themselves, in order to deliver them from the