It was far to Challans, farther to Lege--more than one day, and many a weary league to Ponts de Ce and the Loire.

The men who had ridden gaily southwards on the scent of spoil and revenge turned their backs on the castle with many a sullen oath and word.

They burned a hovel or two, and stripped such as they spared, after the fashion of the day; and it had gone ill with the peasant woman who fell into their hands.

Fortunately, under cover of the previous night every soul had escaped from the village, some to sea, and the rest to take shelter among the sand-dunes; and as the troopers rode up the path from the beach, and through the green valley, where their horses shied from the bodies of the men they had slain, there was not an eye to see them go.
Or to mark the man who rode last, the man of the white face--scarred on the temple--and the burning eyes, who paused on the brow of the hill, and, before he passed beyond, cursed with quivering lips the foe who had escaped him.

The words were lost, as soon as spoken, in the murmur of the sea on the causeway; the sea, fit emblem of the Eternal, which rolled its tide regardless of blessing or cursing, good or ill will, nor spared one jot of ebb or flow because a puny creature had spoken to the night.
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COUNT HANNIBAL*** ******* This file should be named 15763.txt or 15763.zip ******* This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/7/6/15763 Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties.