"You are incorrigible, Lampin; your infernal sottishness came near betraying us a hundred times."

"Bah! bah; what had we to fear, after all? There's n.o.body in the house but three old blockheads, a fool, a mad woman and a child! That's a very terrible lot, isn't it? If you had taken my advice, once we were in the house, we would have acted without disguise. For my part, I would look after the old Crsus and his servant."

"It is much better to act without risk, and to be able to effect our retreat without disorder. You may be sure that, before bringing you here, I made inquiries about the people in the house. The owner is very rich, he helps everybody."

"Well, he must help us too, the old Crsus!"

"He must have much money here; I know that he received remittances from his farmers a week ago. All that money must be in his room; we can easily get in there, take possession of the treasure, and escape through the mad woman's room; for the gate is very strong, and very securely fastened, and we should have much difficulty in forcing it."

"Very good! But I saw bars at the ground floor window looking on the woods. Is that the way that you propose to take us out, my most honored father?"

"You idiot! Do you suppose that I haven't thought of everything? Our comrades have orders to file the bars, and I told them that they could work without fear, as the woman who occupies the room would watch them without saying a word."

"Bravo! That is a most excellent idea; isn't it, Edouard? Speak up, you infernal dreamer!"

"Yes, yes, the plan is well devised."

"It is very lucky that it pleases you! If only that old steward who looked askance at us doesn't disturb our arrangements."

"Woe to him, if he should dare!--We will let our comrades in; then we shall be in force; and those who make trouble for us will soon be reduced to silence!"

"That's the talk! strong measures."

"Luckily I was moderate at table; if I had imitated you, Lampin, we should have betrayed ourselves."

"What the devil! you played the old man so well that I nearly choked with laughter. But if I did drink, it only increased my courage; there is gold to be got here, and that gives me nerve, my colleagues. Let's see, how do we distribute our functions?"

"We will let our friends in, in a few moments; we must give these old men time to get to sleep. We will leave Edouard on guard with the mad woman, to see that she doesn't lock the door of her room in a fit of delirium; for that would cut off our retreat. Our comrades will stand guard, one over the gardener, the other over the cook; and you, Lampin, will go with me in search of the money."

"That's well arranged; this good fellow cannot complain of having a too dangerous post; to stay with a woman and a child, both asleep! What prowess!"

"Very true, but they mustn't wake; if they should make the slightest sound--remember, Edouard, that our safety, our lives, are at stake."

"All right, I understand."

"And so do I," said Dupre to himself, noiselessly withdrawing his head; "I know enough;--the villains! I was not mistaken! We have given hospitality to brigands! O my G.o.d! inspire me, so that I may save my master and that poor woman!"

The old servant crept along the roof and reentered the loft. Despite all he could do to revive his spirits and his courage, his legs trembled, he could hardly hold himself erect, and his imagination, thrown into confusion by all that he had heard, saw nothing but scenes of blood and death. Dupre was sixty-five years old; at that age, a man is a long time coming to a decision; and in dangerous crises, the time that he loses in making up his mind as to what he shall do makes the danger more imminent.

Dupre felt his way through the loft. Should he wake his master or Lucas?

But the gardener did not wake easily, he would have to make much noise at his door, and in the silence of the night, the slightest sound would be heard by the robbers and would arouse their suspicions. Catherine was locked into her kitchen, and would be of no a.s.sistance to them. But it was the young woman's apartment through which the comrades of the brigands were to enter the house; it was most essential to close that entrance, after removing Constance and her daughter from the room.

This plan seemed the wisest to the old servant. He decided to go downstairs, but he trembled and shuddered as he placed his foot on the staircase. If the villains should come out of their room and meet him, he would be lost! He listened before venturing upon each step; at the slightest sound he stopped. He was about to pa.s.s the door of the second floor; but he heard voices and footsteps. The door was thrown open, and Dupre hurried back to the loft.

The pretended peddlers had heard a noise above their heads; the old man's heavy step had made the boards creak and had disturbed the silence of the night. Dufresne left the room first; he held a torch in one hand and a dagger in the other. Lampin followed, and they entered the loft just as the old servant was crawling under a bundle of straw.

"We are betrayed!" said Dufresne; "someone has been listening to us."

He instantly plunged his dagger into the old man's bosom, as he clasped his hands to implore mercy. Dupre expired without uttering a sound; his blood inundated the floor, and Lampin covered the ill-fated servant's body with straw.

"Let us go down," said Dufresne; "and as suspicion has been aroused, let us make haste to act!"

"What has happened?" asked Edouard, who had remained on the landing as a sentinel.

"Nothing," said Lampin; "only there is one less prying fool."

"Let us go at once to the mad woman's room; our friends should be at their post; let us not leave them any longer cooling their heels in the open air."

The brigands went down to the ground floor; the key was in the door of Adeline's room, and they entered. A lamp on the hearth half lighted the room, the window of which opened on the forest. The child's little bed was placed beside the mother's, the curtains of which were tightly drawn. Well a.s.sured that she who was in the bed was not awake to spy upon their acts, Dufresne went at once to open the shutters, and admitted his companions, who had remained by the window after sawing the bars.

"All goes well," said Dufresne; "let us leave these shutters open, and there will be nothing to interfere with our flight. Edouard, remain here; above all things, no pity if she wakes.--You, my friends, come with me, and I will show you your posts; then Lampin and I will look after the rest."

During Dufresne's speech, Lampin turned up his sleeves, drew his weapons, and examined the point of his dagger; a tigerish smile gleamed in his eyes, and his hideous face, animated by wine and the antic.i.p.ation of pillage, seemed to bear with joy the impress of crime.

The four brigands departed from the room and Edouard was left alone. On the alert for the slightest noise, he walked constantly from the window to the bed; he listened to see whether anyone pa.s.sed in the woods, then returned to put his ear to the curtains which concealed the young woman from him. His eyes turned toward the child's crib; she was not in it.

Adeline, more excited than usual, and disturbed by the dull sound she had heard outside her shutters, had taken her daughter and laid her across her breast, when she threw herself fully dressed on her bed.

Curious to see the mad woman, Edouard was about to put aside the curtain when a noise from the woods attracted his attention, and he returned to the window. He heard footsteps trampling over the dry branches and crunching the half-frozen snow. The noise drew near, and he heard voices. If they were gendarmes sent in pursuit of them, if they should see the window with the broken bars--Edouard trembled; he softly closed the shutters so that no one could see into the room. He hardly breathed. Despite his precautions, Adeline had waked; she abruptly opened her curtains, half rising.

"Is it you? is it you?" she cried in a loud voice.

"This miserable creature will betray us," said Edouard to himself; "her voice will attract those travellers in this direction.--Well! I must do it!"

He ran to the bed, dagger in hand; he was about to strike, when he recognized his wife and child.

A cry of dismay, of horror, issued from the mouth of the miserable outcast, who dropped the murderous steel and stood motionless before the woman he had been about to strike. But that terrible cry had found an echo in Adeline's soul; she recognized her husband's voice; those same accents which had destroyed her reason once more revolutionized her whole being; she tried to collect her ideas; it was as if she were waking from a hideous dream; she saw Edouard, recognized him, and rushed into his arms with a cry of joy.

"Edouard! here, by my side!" cried Adeline, gazing at him lovingly. "My dear, how does it happen? Ah! I do not know what to think! My head is on fire!"

"Come," said Edouard; "give me the child; let us fly, let us fly from this place, or you are lost."

"Why should we fly? What danger threatens you? Have you not suffered enough? Does man's justice pursue you still?"

"Yes, yes; and you yourself are in danger from the rage of the brigands!

Listen,--do you hear those shrieks in the house? They are murdering an old man without pity; come, I tell you, or they will kill you before my eyes! Oh! do not refuse me! I am a monster, a villain, but I long to save you."

Adeline allowed herself to be led away by her husband; she took her child in her arms and was about to follow him, when the shutters were violently thrown open, while the bell at the gate rang loudly.

A man appeared in the window, and prepared to leap into the room, calling to his companion:

"Here's a breach; this way, comrade, this way! There are villains in the citadel; let us go in and we'll give them a hiding, ten thousand cartridges! Forward!"

At sight of the stranger, Edouard, bewildered and beside himself with fear, had no doubt that he had come to arrest him and his companions; seeking to avoid the punishment that awaited him, he dropped Adeline's hand and pushed her away when she clung to him.

"You are saved," he said; "let me alone, do not follow me; adieu, adieu forever!"

He rushed out through the door at the end of the room, reached the courtyard, succeeded in climbing over the gate and fled into the woods.

At the same moment Jacques and Sans-Souci entered Adeline's room by the window; she, exhausted by all the shocks to which her mind had been exposed, fell unconscious at the moment that her husband disappeared.