But no, his breath came and went, though inaudibly, and had he been allowed to finish his sleep in peace it might have been for his healing.
Instead of this, I heard the dragoons come stamping upstairs, producing a muffled roll on their drums that sounded like muttering thunder.

They went into one room after another, and speedily reached that of my uncle, on catching sight of whom they triumphantly exclaimed, "Hah! ha! v'la notre ami! Here is he whom we seek, and for whom we prepare the reveille." And ranging themselves round his bed in a moment of time, in spite of a warning gesture from me, it being impossible for my voice to be heard, they simultaneously beat their drums with a clangor that might have waked the dead.

No wonder, therefore, that my poor uncle started from his sleep bewildered, terrified, and looking as if he believed himself in some horrid dream.

In vain he moved his lips, in vain he raised his clasped hands to one and another, as if in supplication; the more distress he showed the more noise they made, till it seemed to me as if my eardrums would split.

In the midst of it all up came my aunt, whose fortitude and presence of mind at that moment I can never sufficiently admire; and with forced smiles and courteous gestures made them to understand, in dumb show, that the first course of their meal was served.