"Hush! there it goes again. It's by the church."

"What a dreadful cry!"

They ran at full speed towards the place whence it seemed to come, but
found only solitude, darkness, and silence. They looked in every
direction.

"I can't see a living soul," said Jeannin, "and I very much fear that the
poor devil who gave that yell has mumbled his last prayer,"

"I don't know why I tremble so," replied de Jars; "that heart-rending cry
made me shiver from head to foot. Was it not something like the
chevalier's voice?"

"The chevalier is with La Guerchi, and even if he had left her this would
not have been his way to rejoin us. Let us go on and leave the dead in
peace."

"Look, Jeannin! what is that in front of us?"

"On that stone? A man who has fallen!"

"Yes, and bathed in blood," exclaimed de Jars, who had darted to his
side. "Ah! it's he! it's he! Look, his eyes are closed, his hands cold!
My child he does not hear me! Oh, who has murdered him?"

He fell on his knees, and threw himself on the body with every mark of
the most violent despair.