A wild and piercing shriek rang through the house, startling all its echoes!
It was followed by a dead silence, and then by the sound of many hurrying feet and terrified exclamations.
"Salome! my bride! Oh, what has happened!" thought the startled young marquis, rushing back into the hall and up the stairs.
In the upper hall he found a crowd of terrified people, all hurrying in one direction—toward the bedroom of the banker.
"The dear old gentleman has got a fit, I fear, and his daughter has discovered him in it," was the next thought that flashed upon the mind of the marquis as, without waiting to ask questions, he rushed through and distanced the crowd, and reached the door of the banker's bedroom, which was blocked up by men and women, wedding guests, and servants, some questioning and exclaiming, some weeping and wailing, some standing in panic-stricken silence.
"What has happened?" cried the young marquis pushing his way with more violence than ceremony through all that impeded his entrance into the chamber.
No one answered him. No one dared to do so.
"It is Lord Arondelle—let his lordship pass," said one of the wedding guests, recognizing the expectant bridegroom as he entered the room.
An awe-struck group of persons was gathered around some object on the floor; they made way in silence for the approach of the marquis.
He passed in and looked down.