‘There, sir,’ he said with proud satisfaction, ’I have been to the camp across the river.  I heard there were good stuffs to be had there for nothing, and thought I would see if I could find a coat for Monsieur Philippe, for his own is a mere ruin.’

This was true, for Eustacie had been deciding that between blood and rents it had become a hopeless case for renovation; and Osbert joyfully displayed a beautifully-embroidered coat of soft leather, which he had purchased for a very small sum of a plunderer who had been there before him.  The camp had been so hastily abandoned that all the luggage had been left, and, like a true valet, Osbert had not neglected the opportunity of replenishing his master’s wardrobe.  ‘And,’ said he, ’I saw there on whom M. le Baron knows, —­M. de Nid de Merle.’

‘Here!’ cried Eustacie, startled for a moment, but her eyes resting reassured on her husband.

‘Madame need not be alarmed,’ said Osbert; ’M. le Baron has well repaid him.  Ah! ah! there he lies, a spectacle for all good Christians to delight in.’

‘It was then he, le scelerat?’ exclaimed Berenger; ’I have already thought it possible.’

‘And he fell by your hands!’ cried Eustacie.  ’That is as it should be.’

‘Yes, Madame,’ said Osbert; ’it did my very heart good to see him writhing there like a crushed viper.  M. le Baron’s bullet was mortal, and his own people thought him not worth the moving, so there he lies on the ground howling and cursing.  I would have given him the coup de grace myself, but that I thought M. le Baron might have some family matters to settle with him; so I only asked what he thought now of clapping guiltless folk into dungeons, and shooting innocent children like sparrows; but he grinned and cursed like a demon, and I left him.’

‘In any one’s charge?’ asked Berenger.

‘In the field’s, who is coming for him,’ said the descendant of the Norseman.  ’I only told Humfrey that if he saw any one likely to meddle he should tell them he was reserved for you.  Eh!  M. le Baron is not going now.  Supper is about to be served, and if M. le Baron would let me array him with this ruff of Spanish point, and wax the ends of his belle moustache—–­’

‘It is late,’ added Eustacie, laying her hand on his arm; ’there may be wild men about—­he may be desperate!  Oh, take care!’

’Ma mie, do you not think me capable of guarding myself from a wild cat leap of a dying man?  He must not be left thus.  Remember he is a Ribaumont.’

Vindictiveness and revenge had their part in the fire of Eustacie’s nature.  Many a time had she longed to strangle Narcisse; and she was on the point of saying, ’Think of his attempts on that little one’s life—­think of your wounds and captivity;’ but she had not spent three years with Isaac Gardon without learning that there was sin in giving way to her keen hatred; and she forced herself to silence, while Berenger said, reading her face, ’Keep it back, sweet heart!  Make it not harder for me.  I would as soon go near a dying serpent, but it were barbarity to leave him as Osbert describes.’