The dear and sensible Erard was delighted. He laughed, he wept, he
looked at the chevalier, whose cheeks had recovered some color, and
asked him, softly, whether he lived, and whether he heard and saw them.

"Where am I?" asked the chevalier, faintly, turning his eyes towards one
of the torches.

"With God and with your brethren!" replied Gottfried, taking one of his
hands. "But say no more now, and may God aid us!"

It was necessary to transport the warrior to the dwelling of Gottfried,
and the passage was long and difficult.

Gottfried first spread upon the litter some light pine-branches, over
which he placed the housing of the horse and his own outer garments,
those of his servants, and even that of Erard, who begged him to take
this also; then, after the old man had bound up the bruised limb between
strong splinters of pine, which he had cut with the blade of the
chevalier's sword, and which he tied with his scarf, he laid the warrior
on the branches, while two robust servants carefully raised and bore the
litter towards the summit of the hill.

"And the poor horse!" said Erard, at the moment when his grandpapa, who
bore the flambeaux and the sword of the Chevalier, began his march.

"You will return to-morrow morning," said Gottfried to his servants,
"and take off the trappings. As to the body, the eagles and the crows
must devour it. Come, and may God guard and strengthen us!"

The chevalier had recovered his senses. He saw himself in the hands of