"I shall fall,"--"I am falling,"--"Push off! push off!--Forward!"
resounded on all sides.

The major looked with haggard eyes at Stephanie, who lifted hers to
heaven with a feeling of sublime resignation.

"To die with thee!" she said.

There was something even comical in the position of the men in
possession of the raft. Though they were uttering awful groans and
imprecations, they dared not resist the grenadier, for in truth they
were so closely packed together, that a push to one man might send
half of them overboard. This danger was so pressing that a cavalry
captain endeavored to get rid of the grenadier; but the latter, seeing
the hostile movement of the officer, seized him round the waist and
flung him into the water, crying out,--

"Ha! ha! my duck, do you want to drink? Well, then, drink!-- Here are
two places," he cried. "Come, major, toss me the little woman and
follow yourself. Leave that old fossil, who'll be dead by to-morrow."

"Make haste!" cried the voice of all, as one man.

"Come, major, they are grumbling, and they have a right to do so."

The Comte de Vandieres threw off his wrappings and showed himself in
his general's uniform.

"Let us save the count," said Philippe.