"Oh! how they have bound him!" cried the mother. "My poor child! my
poor boy!" and she fell on her knees beside the pallet, hiding her
head in the cassock of the priest, who was standing by her.

"If Jean will promise me to be quiet," said the rector, "and not
attempt to injure himself, and to behave properly while we are with
him, I will ask to have him unbound; but the least violation of his
promise will reflect on me."

"I do so want to move as I please, dear Monsieur Bonnet," said the
criminal, his eyes moistening with tears, "that I give you my word to
do as you wish."

The rector went out, and returned with the jailer, and the jacket was
taken off.

"You won't kill me to-night, will you?" said the turnkey.

Jean made no answer.

"Poor brother!" said Denise, opening a basket which had just passed
through a rigorous examination. "Here are some of the things you like;
I dare say they don't feed you for the love of God."

She showed him some fruit, gathered as soon as the rector had told her
she could go to the jail, and a _galette_ his mother had immediately
baked for him. This attention, which reminded him of his boyhood, the
voice and gestures of his sister, the presence of his mother and the
rector, brought on a reaction and he burst into tears.