woods in a shroud of frozen foam, and the wolves came and howled at our
very doors.

"The thought of that poor lost woman haunted me, and I made several
applications to the Prussian authorities in order to obtain some
information, and was nearly shot for doing so. When spring returned, the
army of occupation withdrew, but my neighbor's house remained closed;
the grass grew thick in the garden walks. The old servant had died
during the winter, and nobody troubled himself any longer about the
occurrence; I alone thought about it constantly. What had they done with
the woman? Had she escaped through the forest? Had somebody found her,
and taken her to a hospital, without being able to obtain any
information from her? Nothing happened to relieve my doubts; but, by
degrees, time assuaged my fears.

"Well, in the following autumn the woodcock were very plentiful, and as
my gout had left me for a time, I dragged myself as far as the forest. I
had already killed four or five of the long-billed birds, when I knocked
over one, which fell into a ditch full of branches, and I was obliged to
get into it, in order to pick it up, and I found that it had fallen
close to a dead human body, and immediately the recollection of the mad
woman struck me, like a blow in the chest. Many other people had perhaps
died in the wood during that disastrous year, but I do not know why, yet
I was sure, sure, I tell you, that I should see the head of that
wretched maniac.

"And suddenly I understood, I guessed everything. They had abandoned her
on that mattress in the cold, deserted wood; and, faithful to her fixed
idea, she had allowed herself to perish under that thick and light
counterpane of snow, without moving either arms or legs.