prayers debarred her.

At the volley of shot, Rosette was reduced to quiet by a swoon, but
Victorine, screaming that the wretches would have killed Laurent, would
have rushed on deck, had not her mistress forcibly withheld her. There
ensued a prodigious yelling and howling, trampling and scuffling, then
the sounds of strange languages in vituperation or command, steps
coming down the ladder, sounds of altercation, retreat, splashes in the
sea, the feeling that the ship was put about--and ever the trampling,
the wild cries of exultation, which over and over again made the
prisoners feel choked with the horror of some frightful crisis close at
hand. And all the time they were in ignorance, their little window in
the stern showed them nothing but sea; and even if Madame de Bourke's
determination had not hindered Victorine from peeping out of the cabin,
whether prison or fortress, the Moorish sentries outside kept the door
closed.

How long this continued was scarcely to be guessed. It was hours by
their own feelings; Ulysse began to cry from hunger, and his mother
gave him and Estelle some cakes that were within reach. Mademoiselle
Julienne begged her lady to share the repast, reminding her that she
would need all her strength. The Abbe, too, was hungry enough, and
some wine and preserved fruits coming to light all the prisoners made a
meal which heartened most of them considerably; although the heat was
becoming terrible, as the sun rose higher in the sky, and very little
air could be obtained through the window, so that poor Julienne could
not eat, and Rosette fell into a heavy sleep in the midst of her sighs.
Even Estelle, who had got out her Telemaque, like a sort of oracle in
the course of being verified, was asleep over it, when fresh noises and
grating sounds were board, new steps on deck, and there were steps and