At the back, fortunately, there were no windows, for the stead was but one room deep with passage running from the front to the back door, a distance of little over fifteen feet.
As soon as the guns were loaded I divided up the men, a man with a gun at each window.

The right-hand sitting-room window I took myself with two guns, Marie coming with me to load, which, like all girls in that wild country, she could do well enough.

So we arranged ourselves in a rough-and-ready fashion, and while we were doing it felt quite cheerful--that is, all except Monsieur Leblanc, who, I noticed, seemed very much disturbed.
I do not for one moment mean to suggest that he was afraid, as he might well have been, for he was an extremely brave and even rash man; but I think the knowledge that his drunken act had brought this terrible danger upon us all weighed on his mind.

Also there may have been more; some subtle fore-knowledge of the approaching end to a life that, when all allowances were made, could scarcely be called well spent.

At any rate he fidgeted at his window-place cursing beneath his breath, and soon, as I saw out of the corner of my eye, began to have recourse to his favourite bottle of peach brandy, which he fetched out of a cupboard.
The slaves, too, were gloomy, as all natives are when suddenly awakened in the night; but as the light grew they became more cheerful.