She stepped
quickly back into the room; but there she stopped, stopped deliberately
to wrestle with the terror which had swooped so suddenly upon her. She
had maintained her self-control admirably a few hours before in the face
of frightful danger, but now in this awful silence it threatened to
desert her. Desperately, determinedly, she brought it back inch by inch,
till the panic in her vanished and her heart began to beat more bravely.
She went at length and opened the door that led into the long corridor
outside her apartments. The place was deserted. The silence hung like
death. She stood a moment, gathering her courage, then passed out. She
must ascertain if the Governor were in his room, and warn him--if he
would be warned.
She had nearly traversed the length of the corridor when again the
silence was rent suddenly and terribly by that sound that was like the
crack of a whip. She stopped short, all the blood racing back to her
heart. She knew it now beyond a doubt. She had known it before in her
secret soul. It was the report of a rifle in the palace square.
As she stood irresolute, listening with straining nerves, another sound
began to grow out of the night, gathering strength with every instant, a
long, fierce roar that resembled nothing that she had ever heard, yet
which she knew instinctively for what it was--the raging tumult of an
angry crowd.
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