Her good-humour and her courage in such a wretched place made me still more indignant against those who had plunged us all into misfortune; my consternation kept me from speaking.
"Are Marie-Rose and the grandmother well?" asked Margredel.
"Yes, thank God!" I answered; "but we are very uneasy about Jean. The Prussians know that he has gone; Father Ykel has warned me to be on my guard, and I came to warn you."
"Who cares for the Prussians?" said she, shrugging her shoulders contemptuously. "Ah! they are a bad race! Jean has crossed the mountains long before this; if they had been able to stop him we would have heard of it by this time; they would have come to tell us, rubbing their hands with delight; but he has got over; he is a fine fellow!"
She laughed with all her toothless mouth.
"Those who have to fight him will not laugh. He is safe with our volunteers! The guns and cannon are thundering yonder!"
The poor woman saw the bright side of everything, as usual, and I thought:
"What a blessing it is to have a character like that; how fortunate!"
Uncle Daniel was walking about the room, saying:
"It is because of Jean's departure that the bandits shut up my school. They had nothing to reproach me with; they gave me no explanations; they simply shut it up, that is all, and just gave us time enough to carry away our furniture; they looked at us crossly, crying, 'Schwindt! schwindt!'"[#]