At this moment Estelle and her husband discovered Oscar cowering in his corner. Moreau swooped down on the luckless lad like a hawk on its prey, took him by the collar of the coat and dragged him to the light of a window. “Speak! what did you say to monseigneur in that coach? What demon let loose your tongue, you who keep a doltish silence whenever I speak to you? What did you do it for?” cried the steward, with frightful violence. Too bewildered to weep, Oscar was dumb and motionless as a statue. “Come with me and beg his Excellency’s pardon,” said Moreau. “As if his Excellency cares for a little toad like that!” cried the furious Estelle. “Come, I say, to the chateau,” repeated Moreau. Oscar dropped like an inert mass to the ground. “Come!” cried Moreau, his anger increasing at every instant. “No! no! mercy!” cried Oscar, who could not bring himself to submit to a torture that seemed to him worse than death. Moreau then took the lad by his coat, and dragged him, as he might a dead body, through the yards, which rang with the boy’s outcries and sobs. He pulled him up the portico, and, with an arm that fury made powerful, he flung him, bellowing, and rigid as a pole, into the salon, at the very feet of the count, who, having completed the purchase of Les Moulineaux, was about to leave the salon for the dining-room with his guests. “On your knees, wretched boy! and ask pardon of him who gave food to your mind by obtaining your scholarship.” Oscar, his face to the ground, was foaming with rage, and did not say a word. The spectators of the scene were shocked. Moreau seemed no longer in his senses; his face was crimson with injected blood. “This young man is a mere lump of vanity,” said the count, after waiting a moment for Oscar’s excuses. “A proud man humiliates himself because he sees there is grandeur in a certain self-abasement. I am afraid that you will never make much of that lad.” So saying, his Excellency passed on. Moreau took Oscar home with him; and on the way gave orders that the horses should immediately be put to Madame Moreau’s caleche. CHAPTER VII. A MOTHER’S TRIALS While the horses were being harnessed, Moreau wrote the following letter to Madame Clapart:-- My dear,--Oscar has ruined me. During his journey in Pierrotin’s coach, he spoke of Madame de Serizy’s behavior to his Excellency, who was travelling incognito, and actually told, to himself, the secret of his terrible malady. After dismissing me from my stewardship, the count told me not to let Oscar sleep at Presles, but to send him away immediately. Therefore, to obey his orders, the horses are being harnessed at this moment to my wife’s carriage, and Brochon, my stable-man, will take the miserable child to you to-night.