The frontier lay but a league away.

Conceivably they might lower themselves from the wall by night; conceivably his strength might avail to carry her mother to the frontier.

But, alas! the crime of witchcraft knew no frontier; the reputation of a witch once thrown abroad, flew fast as the swiftest horse.

Before they had been three days in Savoy, the women would be reported, seized and examined; and their fate at Faucigny or Bonneville would be no less tragic than in the Bourg du Four of Geneva.
Yet, something must be done, something could surely be done.

But what?
The bravest caught in a net struggles the most desperately, and involves himself the most hopelessly.