The entire French force was pouring back toward the gates of the city, their leaders vainly trying to rally the soldiers.

The skirmishers fell back with them.

A figure, darting from a bush, turned to pull trigger on Robert, and then uttered a cry of terror.
"A ghost! It is a ghost!" he exclaimed in French.
But a second look told Achille Garay that it was no ghost.

It may have been a miracle, but it was Robert Lennox come back in the flesh, and his finger returned to the trigger.

Another was quicker.