The Count's eyes flashed, and the combat was instantly renewed, but this time with a different result. At the end of four or five passes, with a movement so rapid that I could scarcely see how it was effected, though it may be believed I was an eager spectator, Monsieur de Villardin parried a lunge of his adversary in such a manner as to leave the whole of the Count's person open. He then lunged in return, and the next moment the Count de Mesnil was lying prostrate on the turf. At a sign from the Duke, I threw the bridles of the horses over a low bough, and ran up to the spot. The fallen man by that time had raised himself upon one arm, and with the other hand seemed grasping at the blades of grass; but he spoke not, and his head, drooping forward, concealed his countenance. "Shall I bring water?" I said; but, ere time was given for an answer, the strength which had enabled him to raise himself so far passed away, and with a single groan he fell back upon the ground and expired.
We stood and gazed upon his still, pale countenance for several minutes; but it was very evident, from the first look, that his career was at an end; and, after a pause, the Duke bent over him and opened his vest. Scarcely a drop of blood had flowed from the wound which caused his death, although, from the direction it had taken, it seemed to me that it must have pierced his heart.
"It is over!" said Monsieur de Villardin,--"it is over! yet, put your hand upon his heart, my boy: see if it beats."
As I opened his shirt to do so, there dropped out a locket, which was suspended from his neck by a blue riband, and which contained a single lock of dark hair. As soon as he saw it, the Duke caught it up, and unfastening the riband, gazed upon the hair for a moment or two with an eager look. It was certainly the colour to a very shade, of that of Madame de Villardin; and I instantly saw that the demon had taken possession of her husband once more. After gazing at the locket for several minutes, he put it by, and then asked me, sternly, if the man were dead.
I replied that he certainly was, as far as I could discover. "Then now to our next task," said the Duke: "bring me yon mantle and coat."
I immediately obeyed, and bringing forward the clothes of the unhappy Count, I aided in wrapping the body therein; and then, taking the feet, while the Duke raised the head, we bore the corpse to the grave that we had dug, and laid it there, without prayer or benediction. We next placed the hat and sword of the deceased in the earth along with him; and then, as fast as possible, filled up the pit with mould. Notwithstanding the quantity of earth I had removed the night before, there was still more than enough to fill up the grave to the level of the other ground, and I had four or five shovelfuls more to carry down and cast into the river. When that was done, however, and the last spadeful had been disposed of, we laid the turf down again over the spot; and so carefully had it been removed, that, though the ground was a little raised, it required some examination to discover where the aperture had been made.
"A few showers of rain," said the Duke, as he gazed upon the grave, "will remove every trace."
I replied nothing, but I thought that the rain of many years would never remove the traces of that morning's work from his heart or from my memory. In regard to the ground, however, I entertained no apprehension of its ever being discovered. The young Count himself, in tying his horse to that tree when he came on his furtive and evil visit to the dwelling of his friend, had of course selected one of the most retired spots that he could find; and it was only the accidental circumstance of my cutting across from the particular point of the high road where I had left Monsieur de Villardin on the way to Rennes, that had caused me to discover the charger in that situation. In that spot, too, the turf was short, and the grass any thing but luxuriant; so that the shepherds were not likely to lead their flocks thither, at least till the year was more advanced, by which time all traces of the grave would be effaced. The only thing now to dispose of was the horse; and after examining the ground carefully, in order to ascertain that nothing of any kind had been dropped or forgotten, the Duke directed me to lead the animal some distance in the way to the Count's own dwelling, and then turn him loose.
I did as he bade me, leaving Monsieur de Villardin to return to the castle alone; and, taking the horse by the bridle, I brought it to the vicinity of the road which led to Mesnil Moray, at a spot about half a mile from the bridge which crosses the Vilaine. There I gave it the rein; and, though it had followed as quietly as possible up to that moment, no sooner did it find itself free, than it darted away as if it had suddenly become mad. It sprang at once over a fence, and crossed the high road, taking the direction of its lord's dwelling, without any regard to path. I climbed up a neighbouring bank to watch its course for an instant; and, to my surprise, saw it plunge into the river, and, after sinking down from the force with which it darted in, rise up again, swim the stream, spring up the bank, and gallop away across the fields.
There was something awful in the sight; and I could not help thinking, as the noble horse bounded away, that there was a living witness of the bloody scene in which I had just taken part, that, could he have found voice, would have soon called the friends of his fallen lord to avenge his death.