She shuddered; she remembered how Edouard had appeared before her, his excitement, his terror at the appearance of the strangers; she dared not continue her questions, but she anxiously awaited Jacques’s return. He appeared at last.
“Some of the villains have escaped,” he said, approaching Adeline, upon whom he bestowed a glance of which she understood the meaning. “Those who were killed well deserve their fate.”
“Morbleu!” said Sans-Souci; “they all well deserve to be broken on the wheel! I have only one regret, and that is that any of them got away.”
“And my faithful Dupré,” said Monsieur Gerval; “you tell me nothing of him.”
“Alas, my dear monsieur, your old servant was, it seems, the first victim of those monsters; he is no more!”
“The villains! to murder an old man! Ah, me! if I had heeded his representations—poor Dupré, my imprudence was the cause of your death! I shall reproach myself for it always. This house has become hateful to me and I propose to leave it to-morrow!”
Monsieur Gerval shed tears over the fate of his old servant; Catherine mingled her tears with his, and one and all tried to console the good man, who blamed himself for the loss of his faithful companion.
The dawn surprised the inhabitants of the cottage in this situation. Monsieur Gerval consented to take a little rest, while Lucas went to notify the authorities of the neighboring village of the occurrences of the night. Catherine, by her master’s orders, made preparations for their departure, and Adeline promised the old man to tell him before long the story of her misfortunes.
Jacques found an opportunity to be alone with Adeline. She burned to question him, but dared not break the silence. He divined her grief, her tremor, her most secret thoughts.
“Dufresne is no more,” he said to her; “the scoundrel has at last received the reward of his crimes.”