Nevertheless, the viscount had to repeat his cry time after time.
At last, a faint voice reached us.
"I am dreaming!" it said.
"Christine, Christine, it is I, Raoul!"
A silence.
"But answer me, Christine!...In Heaven's name, if you are alone,
answer me!"
Then Christine's voice whispered Raoul's name.
"Yes! Yes! It is I! It is not a dream!...Christine,
trust me!...We are here to save you...but be prudent!
When you hear the monster, warn us!"
Then Christine gave way to fear. She trembled lest Erik should
discover where Raoul was hidden; she told us in a few hurried words
that Erik had gone quite mad with love and that he had decided TO
KILL EVERYBODY AND HIMSELF WITH EVERYBODY if she did not consent
to become his wife. He had given her till eleven o'clock the next
evening for reflection. It was the last respite. She must choose,
as he said, between the wedding mass and the requiem.
And Erik had then uttered a phrase which Christine did not
quite understand:
"Yes or no! If your answer is no, everybody will be dead AND BURIED!"
But I understood the sentence perfectly, for it corresponded
in a terrible manner with my own dreadful thought.
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