Everybody looked curiously at the farmer. He had grown thinner and much paler. Part of his face and around his left eye had retained the black and blue tint of extravasated blood. His clenched teeth and frowning brows indicated sullen rage which waited the time for a vent.
"Do you know what has happened?" inquired Pitou.
"I know all," was the reply.
As soon as Gilbert had told his patient of the state of his wife, he had taken a cabriolet as far as Nanteuil. As the horse could go no farther, though Billet was weak, he had mounted a post horse and with a change at Levignan, he reached his farm as we know.
In two words Mother Clement had told the story. He remounted the horse and stopped the procession which he descried on turning a wall.
Silent and moody before, the party became more so since this figure of hate led the way.
At Villers Cotterets a waiting party fell into the line. As the cortege went up the street, men, women and children flowed out of the dwellings, saluted Billet, who nodded, and incorporated themselves in the ranks.
It numbered five hundred when it reached the church. It was shut, as Pitou had anticipated. They halted at the door.
Billet had become livid; his expression had grown more and more threatening.