The widow, sitting on the straw beside the bed, and conscious of her own fatigue, felt her eyes closing and sleep overtaking her in spite of herself, when, all of a sudden she heard, or fancied she heard, some unusual sound in the courtyard. She listened attentively; it was certainly a man's step on the pavement which surrounded the pile of manure which lay in the yard of the two dwellings. Presently a hand unfastened the latch of the adjoining door, and Marianne heard a voice, which she recognized as that of her brother-in-law, cry out: "This way, this way!" and then the steps went up to Joseph's house.
Marianne knew that the house was empty; this nocturnal visit of her brother-in-law excited her curiosity. She did not doubt it concerned some scheme of violence such as all Chouans cherish traditionally, and she resolved to listen.
She softly raised the shutter of a hole through which the cows, when in the stable, poked their heads to eat the provender laid for them on the floor of the room itself. Through this narrow opening she crawled into her own room; then she climbed noiselessly up the ladder on which the Comte de Bonneville had met his death, entered the garret, which, as we know, was common to the two houses, and there, with her ear to the floor above her brother-in-law's room, listened attentively.
She came into the midst of a conversation already begun.
"Did you see the sum?" said a voice which was not completely unknown to her, though she could not recall the owner of it.
"As plain as I see you," replied Joseph Picaut. "It was all in bank-bills; but he insisted on having it in gold."
"So much the better! for bills, I must say, don't attract me much; it is difficult to get them taken in country places."
"I tell you he is to have gold."
"Good! and where are they to meet?"
"At Saint-Philbert, to-morrow night. You have plenty of time to collect your gars."