Lescande had risen before him, and he believed he could almost hear her
weep. Suddenly this illusion gave place to a strange reality. The voice
of a woman plainly called him by name, in accents of distress--"Monsieur
de Camors!"

Stopping his horse on the instant, he felt an icy shudder pass through
his frame. The same voice rose higher and called him again. He
recognized it as the voice of Madame de Tecle. Looking around him in the
obscure light with a rapid glance, he saw a light shining through the
foliage in the direction of the cottage of the sabot-maker. Guided by
this, he put spurs to his horse, crossed the cleared ground up the
hillside, and found himself face to face with Madame de Tecle. She was
standing at the threshold of the hut, her head bare, and her beautiful
hair dishevelled under a long, black lace veil. She was giving a servant
some hasty orders. When she saw Camors approach, she came toward him.

"Pardon me," she said, "but I thought I recognized you, and I called you.
I am so much distressed--so distressed! The two children of this man are
dying! What is to be done? Come in--come in, I beg of you!"

He leaped to the ground, threw the reins to his servant, and followed
Madame de Tekle into the interior of the cabin.

The two children with the golden hair were lying side by side on a little
bed, immovable, rigid, their eyes open and the pupils strangely dilated--
their faces red, and agitated by slight convulsions. They seemed to be
in the agony of death. The old doctor, Du Rocher, was leaning over them,
looking at them with a fixed, anxious, and despairing eye. The mother
was on her knees, her head clasped in her hands, and weeping bitterly.
At the foot of the bed stood the father, with his savage mien--his arms