"Yes, you do now, but you did not a moment ago."
"On the contrary, I tell you that I do know perfectly well why I am hiding here with my gun."
"Then Jean François was right," said the poor mother, pretending to be reassured. "What he told me was true."
"What did he tell you?"
"That you were poaching in the Pont Brillant woods. You can judge of my anxiety when I heard that, so I hastened here at once with Jean François, for it is frightfully imprudent in you, my poor child. Don't you know that M. le marquis—"
The words M. le marquis startled Frederick out of his terrible calmness. He clenched his fists furiously and, confronting his mother with a ferocious expression upon his face, exclaimed:
"It was M. le marquis I was lying in wait for; do you hear me, mother?"
"No, Frederick, no," replied the poor mother, shuddering.
"I am determined to make myself understood, then," said Frederick, with a frightful smile. "Knowing that M. le marquis would pass here about nightfall on his way home, I loaded my gun and came and concealed myself behind this tree to kill M. le marquis as he passed. Do you understand me now, mother?"
On hearing this terrible confession, Madame Bastien's brain reeled for a moment; then she showed herself to be truly heroic.