More and more agitated, Dagobert avoided the marshal's gaze, and trembled like a leaf. Adrienne cast down her eyes without answering. Her heart sunk within her, at thought of dealing the terrible blow to Marshal Simon.
The latter, astonished at this silence, looking at Adrienne, then at the soldier, became first uneasy, and at last alarmed. "Dagobert!" he exclaimed, "something is concealed from me!"
"General!" stammered the soldier, "I assure you—I—I—."
"Madame!" cried Pierre Simon, "I conjure you, in pity, speak to me frankly!—my anxiety is horrible. My first fears return upon me. What is it? Are my wife and daughters ill? Are they in danger? Oh! speak! speak!"
"Your daughters, marshal," said Adrienne "have been rather unwell, since their long journey—but they are in no danger."
"Oh, heaven! it is my wife!"
"Have courage, sir!" said Mdlle. de Cardoville, sadly. "Alas! you must seek consolation in the affection of the two angels that remain to you."
"General!" said Dagobert, in a firm grave tone, "I returned from
Siberia—alone with your two daughters."
"And their mother! their mother!" cried Simon, in a voice of despair.
"I set out with the two orphans the day after her death," said the soldier.