Part 58 (2/2)

”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.

<script>