Frederick allowed his tears to flow, as a silent and eloquent response. David then, leaning over his pupil's ear, whispered to him:
"My child, is not this rude procession worth all the splendour of the brilliant hunting procession of St. Hubert?"
At the moment Frederick turned toward David to press his hand, he saw a movement in the crowd, which, suddenly separating itself with a murmur of surprise and curiosity, gave passage to Raoul de Pont Brillant.
The marquis advanced a little in front of Jean François; then, with perfect ease and grace, he said to Frederick:
"I have come, monsieur, to thank you for saving my life, because this is my first day out, and it was my duty to dedicate it to you. I met these good people on the way, and after learning from one of them the purpose of their assemblage I joined them, since, like these good people, I am of the valley, and like several of them, I owe my life to you."
After these words, uttered with an accent perhaps more polished than emotional, the Marquis de Pont Brillant, with exquisite tact, again mingled with the multitude.
"Ah, well, my child," whispered David to Frederick, "is it not the Marquis de Pont Brillant now who ought to envy you?"
Frederick pressed David's hand, but was possessed by the thought: "He whom I basely desired to murder is there, ignorant of my dastardly attempt, and he has come to thank me for saving his life."
Then the son of Madame Bastien, addressing the people of the valley, said to them, in an impassioned voice, as he mingled with them, and cordially pressed their hands:
"My friends, what I have done was done at the suggestion of my mother, and with the aid of my friend, M. David. It is, then, in their name, as well as my own, that I thank you from the bottom of my heart for these evidences of affection. As to this little boat," added the young man, turning toward the boat which had been deposited in the middle of the garden, and contemplating it with as much sadness as joy, "it shall be consecrated to the pleasure of my mother, and this touching inscription will remind us of the inhabitants of the valley, whom we love as much as they love us."