Traces of the fugitives had been discovered immediately, and the men who gave us these details had followed Laurence and Leonard so closely that several of their shots had hit the former only a short distance from Gazeau Tower.  They had heard him cry that he was done for; and, as far as they could see, Leonard had carried him to the sorcerer’s door.  This Leonard was the only one of my uncles who deserved any pity, for he was the only one who might, perhaps, have been encouraged to a better kind of life.  At times there was a touch of chivalry in his brigandage, and his savage heart was capable of affection.  I was deeply moved, therefore, by his tragic death, and let myself be carried along mechanically, plunged in gloomy thoughts, and determined to end my days in the same manner should I ever be condemned to the disgrace he had scorned to endure.

All at once the sound of horns and the baying of hounds announced the approach of a party of huntsmen.  While we, on our side, were answering with shouts, Patience ran to meet them.  Edmee, longing to see her father again, and forgetting all the horrors of this bloody night, whipped up her horse and reached the hunters first.  As soon as we came up with them, I saw Edmee in the arms of a tall man with a venerable face.  He was richly dressed; his hunting-coat, with gold lace over all the seams, and the magnificent Norman horse, which a groom was holding behind him, so struck me that I thought I was in the presence of a prince.  The signs of love which he was showing his daughter were so new to me that I was inclined to deem them exaggerated and unworthy of the dignity of a man.  At the same time they filled me with a sort of brute jealousy; for it did not occur to my mind that a man so splendidly dressed could be my uncle.  Edmee was speaking to him in a low voice, but with great animation.  Their conversation lasted a few moments.  At the end of it the old man came and embraced me cordially.  Everything about these manners seemed so new to me, that I responded neither by word nor gesture to the protestations and caresses of which I was the object.  A tall young man, with a handsome face, as elegantly dressed as M. Hubert, also came and shook my hand and proffered thanks; why, I could not understand.  He next entered into a discussion with the gendarmes, and I gathered that he was the lieutenant-general of the province, and that he was ordering them to set me at liberty for the present, that I might accompany my uncle to his chateau, where he undertook to be responsible for me.  The gendarmes then left us, for the chevalier and the lieutenant-general were sufficiently well escorted by their own men not to fear attack from any one.  A fresh cause of astonishment for me was to see the chevalier bestowing marks of warm friendship on Patience and Marcasse.  As for the cure, he was upon a footing of equality with these seigneurs.  For some months he had been chaplain at the chateau of Saint-Severe, having previously been compelled to give up his living by the persecutions of the diocesan clergy.