Chapter 5
All the entrances to the Voreux had been closed, and the sixty soldiers, with grounded arms, were barring the only door left free, that leading to the receiving-room by a narrow staircase into which opened the captains' room and the shed. The men had been drawn up in two lines against the brick wall, so that they could not be attacked from behind.
At first the band of miners from the settlement kept at a distance. They were some thirty at most, and talked together in a violent and confused way.
Maheude, who had arrived first with dishevelled hair beneath a handkerchief knotted on in haste, and having Estelle asleep in her arms, repeated in feverish tones:
"Don't let any one in or any one out! Shut them all in there!"
Maheu approved, and just then Father Mouque arrived from R
