The Doctor answered:
—Lazareth!
And the little gig continued its jingling rattle over the stones. At the edge of the forest he stopped. The road was clear. I hastily jumped out.
—Take this, said the kind man, holding out a basket full of food and bottles . . . Shut yourself up, and do not stir out . . . I will come and see you soon.
Thereupon he whipped up his horse, and I threw myself into the thicket. A quarter of an hour later, I was at the Hermitage.
January 3rd.
. . . A fine drifting snow has been falling for the last few days. The forest is completely covered. Around me the silence was so deep that I could even hear the fall of the thickening flakes. It is impossible to go out. I watch the snow falling from the murky sky and whitening all things. The famished birds come to my very doorstep. The roedeer have taken refuge in the stable in place of my poor Colaquet, of whom I have heard nothing…