The violence of the shock had severed the rope which fastened him to his companion.

Silvere fell on his knees before the tombstone.
It was to make his vengeance the more terrible that Rengade had killed Mourgue first.

He played with his second pistol, raising it slowly in order to relish Silvere's agony.

But the latter looked at him quietly.
Then again the sight of this man, with the one fierce, scorching eye, made him feel uneasy.

He averted his glance, fearing that he might die cowardly if he continued to look at that feverishly quivering gendarme, with blood-stained bandage and bleeding moustache.