'Had I but sufficient proof,' he muttered in an undertone of doubt and perplexity.
"Maurice caught eagerly at the word.

'Proof, general! would Odetti, would Brianza have warned us, were the danger not imminent?
And do not the annals of your own Switzerland furnish examples of similar plots ?' "'True, too true! yet--' "But at this moment the sixteenth courier came panting up to pour out, in an agony of haste and fear, the same tale of contemplated wholesale massacre, and the story reaching the ears of the Vaudois troops they gathered about the general, imploring, _demanding_ to be sent instantly to the aid of their menaced wives and children.
"General Godin's mind had been filled with conflicting emotions while Maurice spoke; his humanity, his honor as a soldier, his duty to the government, were struggling for the mastery.
"'Ought he to march without orders or even the knowledge of his superiors?
and that too with no more certain proof of the illegal assembling of those who were said to be plotting against the peace and safety of the Vaudois families ?' "Yet there was no time to reconnoitre ere the dire mischief might be done.

His humanity at last prevailed over more prudential considerations.

He commanded the brigade of Waldenses to march instantly, and himself followed with another division.
"Bianca Vittoria had been carried to an upper room, where all the family were now gathered about her bed.
"With unutterable anguish the mother looked upon her two lovely daughters in the early bloom of womanhood, the babe sleeping upon her breast, the little ones clinging to her skirts, her aged and infirm parents, all apparently doomed to a speedy, violent death--and worse than death.

Her own danger was well-nigh forgotten in theirs.
"Utter silence reigned in that room and the adjoining one, at this time occupied by Magdalen and the mother and sisters of Maurice; every ear was strained to catch the sound of the approaching footsteps of the assassins, or of the longed-for deliverers; a very short season would now decide their fate.