"Yes."
"Impossible! He cannot move!"
"I couldn't believe my eyes; but, nevertheless, I saw him as plainly as I see you this minute. He held a torch in his hand, and the air was so still that its flame never wavered."
I stared at Marie Lagoutte, stupefied.
"At first," she went on, "when I saw the master in this extraordinary position, it made such an effect on me that I wanted to scream; but then I thought, 'Perhaps he is walking in his sleep; if you cry out and wake him he will fall and be dashed to pieces.' So I kept still and watched him, as you can fancy. He raised his torch slowly, and then he lowered it, and he did this three times, like a man making signals to some one; then he threw it down on to the ramparts, closed the window, and drew the curtains; he passed before me without appearing to see me, and got into bed again muttering Heaven knows what."
"Are you certain you saw all this, madame?"
"Perfectly!"
"It is strange!"
"Yes, I know it, but it is true! Goodness, how astonished I was for a moment! Then, when I saw him go back to bed again and cross his hands over his breast as if nothing had happened, I said to myself, 'Marie Anne, you have had a bad dream; that is the only explanation of it!' and I went over to the window. But the torch was still burning; it had fallen into a bush a little to the left of the third gate, and you could see it glowing like a spark. There was no denying it!"
Marie Lagoutte looked at me for some minutes without speaking.