All the people gathered in the place, save those who had carried out the affair, fled with cries of terror.
Then Jean and his party dashed forward towards the shattered gates and entered the prison, and shot or cut down the frightened warders as these came running out, dazed and bewildered at the sound of the explosion.

Jean seized one of them by the throat.
[Illustration: Jean seized one of them by the throat.] "Where are the keys kept?
Answer, or I will blow out your brains!" The frightened ruffian at once led the way to the chief warder's room.

He had already fallen, being one of the first to run down.
There were two bunches of keys.
"These are of the doors of the corridors," the man said, taking down one bunch.

"The others are of the cells." "Now, go before us and open them all--every one, mind." They were soon joined by Leigh with his party, who had made short work of the few guards who remained at their post outside the prison.
"Set your men to blow in the doors," Jean said; "It would take half an hour to unlock them all, at this rate." Pistols were at once applied to the keyholes, and the locks destroyed.

There were a few separate cells, but the prisoners were for the most part crowded, twenty or thirty together, in the larger rooms.