He rushed to the stairs, shouting for help. No sooner had he opened the door than the room was full of people. Curiosity had brought the neighbours together, for they had heard loud voices; the cries they knew were uttered by the wife of Señor Leon Roch, and a wife who cries out is a legitimate object of sympathy and curiosity. They rushed up into the room, and with them the Marquis de Fúcar, who had come to give Leon his little commission for Paris. But they all stood in helpless astonishment.
“Take her to my house at once,” said Fúcar. “Have you any brandy, any spirit? The first thing is to put her to bed, to send for a doctor.... Take her to my house.”
“No, the doctor can come here,” said Leon.
“But you have no bed,” said Fúcar looking round at the dismantled room.
“There is my bed,” said Facunda. “A king has not got a better.”
“Move away all of you—let me see. I think her heart is still beating.”
“Yes, yes, it is certainly beating,” exclaimed Leon hopefully.
“It will be nothing—merely a fainting fit—and all for a squabble! You see the consequences of exageration.... But we must get her to bed. Wrap her in a cloak—get me a cloak.”
The Marquis de Fúcar was an invaluable person in these emergencies, when prompt decision, energy, and a tone of command are indispensable. Four strong arms lifted María, wrapped her carefully in a cloak, and carried her down stairs. It was like carrying a body to be buried. Leon looked on and allowed them to act, as he would have looked on at any other step Fúcar might have taken. It was like a scene in a dream, and for some time he failed to remember that this arrangement, which from one point of view was the best thing that could be done, from another was the very reverse; but by that time the little procession had started.
Pepa’s astonishment on seeing this inanimate figure brought into her house can easily be imagined.... “Merciful Heaven! María Sudre!” and what a state she was in. She could understand the fainting fit, but it was not so easy to account for the torn dress and dishevelled hair.