manner, without shame or embarrassment. At last he did as she asked him,
and in a moment she unfastened her petticoat, which slipped down her
legs, fell at her feet and lay on the ground in a circle. She left it
there, stooped over it, naked with the exception of her floating
chemise, and slipped into the bed, whose springs creaked beneath her
weight. He immediately went up to her, without his shoes and in his
trousers, and stooping over his wife he sought her lips, which she hid
beneath the pillow, when a shot was heard in the distance, in the
direction of the forest of Râpées, as he thought.

He raised himself anxiously and with his heart beating, and running to
the window, he opened the shutters. The full moon flooded the yard with
yellow light, and the reflection of the apple trees made black shadows
at their feet, while in the distance the fields gleamed, covered with
the ripe corn. But as he was leaning out, listening to every sound in
the still night, two bare arms were put round his neck, and his wife
whispered, trying to pull him back: "Do leave them alone; it has nothing
to do with you. Come to bed."

He turned round, put his arms round her, and drew her towards him,
feeling her warm skin through the thin material, and lifting her up in
his vigorous arms, he carried her towards their couch, but just as he
was laying her on the bed, which yielded beneath her weight, they heard
another report, considerably nearer this time, and Jean, giving way to
his tumultuous rage, swore aloud: "God, G...! Do you think I shall not
go out and see what it is, because of you?... Wait, wait a few minutes!"
He put on his shoes again, took down his gun, which was always hanging
within reach, against the wall, and, as his wife threw herself on her
knees in her terror to implore him not to go, he hastily freed himself,
ran to the window and jumped into the yard.