"M. de Fleurot," replied Blanchet curtly, "fighting a rearguard action and covering the main retreat. I was in his company." "And ... what was the result ... of the action, I mean?" "I cannot say. I was taken prisoner quite early. I only heard rumours afterwards." "What were they?" "That our small contingent was entirely cut up ... there were some prisoners taken ... but it is generally believed that scarce a man escaped." "And ... has anything been heard of M. de Puisaye?" "No, Madame la Marquise, nothing." "Or of M. de Courson, or any of the others?" "No. But," added Blanchet significantly, as he nodded in the direction of the door, "I believe that Mathurin there knows something." "You think ..." began Madame involuntarily. Then she paused; something in the man's look--furtive and compassionate--froze the words upon her lips. "Can't you tell me?" she asked under her breath. "I don't know for certain, Madame la Marquise," he replied. IV It meant another struggle against resentment and against pride. But, in any case, the present uncertainty was unendurable. Denise de Mortain felt that she would have gone on her knees to the devil himself if he brought her authentic news of Laurent. She went boldly to the door, and, opening it, she called: "Mathurin! Are you there?" "At your orders, Madame la Marquise," replied the man. He came back into the room, reluctantly this time. He was a good fellow, with wife and children of his own. Temperamentally and traditionally he hated these Royalists--packs of rebels and intriguers, he called them--and he knew this haughty lady had plotted against her own son--M. le Marechal--whom he adored; but there was something which he had yet to tell her, and in his own rough way he shrank from the task, feeling nothing but pity for her, because of what she was doomed to suffer. "The prisoner tells me," began Madame la Marquise, as calmly as she could, "that you can give me news of M. le Marquis de Mortain, my son. Is that so?" "Yes, Madame la Marquise," replied the man slowly. "Well," she asked, "why did you not give me that news at once?" Thus commanded, Mathurin could not help but obey as quickly as possible. He shifted from one foot to the other, and a look of real pity softened for a moment the rugged lines of his face. "Well, Madame la Marquise," he began, "you must know that after the fight with M. de Puisaye's rearguard we had several prisoners in our hands. M. le Marechal took the trouble to interrogate each one separately. When he had finished, he ordered me to accompany him, and together we went to the spot where the affray had taken place. It was on the edge of the wood. It was then about three o'clock in the morning and the dawn was breaking. The place was littered with dead. I counted over sixty myself, among them young M. de Fleurot, whom I knew."