me, and at once made a new resolution: he walked straight to the hat,
seized it in his teeth, and galloped off, this time by one of the six
alleys that led from my tomb.

"Brutus got farther and farther away, and disappeared; I remained alone.
I was puzzled, positively puzzled. I shook off the little coating of
dust which covered me, and without getting up, by the help of my two
arms and right leg--to move my left leg was not to be thought of--I
succeeded in dragging myself to a little grassy slope on the edge of one
of the alleys. Once there, I could sit down, after a fashion, and I
began to shout with all the strength of my lungs, 'Hi, there! hi! hi,
there!' No answer. The woods were absolutely deserted and still. The
only thing to be done was to wait till some one passed by to aid me.

"For half an hour I had been in that hateful position when I perceived
in the distance, at the very end of the same alley by which he had gone
off, Brutus coming back, with the same long gallop he had used in going.
A great cloud of dust accompanied the horse. Little by little, in that
cloud, I perceived a tiny carriage--a pony-carriage; then in that little
pony-carriage a woman, who drove herself, and behind the woman a small
groom.

"A few moments later Brutus, covered with foam, stopped before me, let
my hat drop at my feet and neighed, as though to say, 'I've done my
duty; here is help.' But I no longer bothered myself about Brutus and
the explanations that he made me. My only thoughts were for the fairy
who was to relieve me, and who, after lightly jumping from her little
carriage, was coming quickly towards me. Besides, she, too, was
examining me curiously, and all at once we both exclaimed, at the same
time: