"No, no, she is living, she is living. I swear it! She has suffered terribly,--she has been alarmingly ill, but her life is no longer in danger." "It has been in danger, then?" "Yes, for two days, but I have just seen her and talked with her, and there is no longer cause for the slightest anxiety." "God be thanked!" exclaimed Onésime, fervently. "And how much I thank you, too, my dear aunt. Ah, if you knew how much good you have done me, and how relieved I feel. Is M. Cloarek here?" "No." "Where is he?" "We do not know." "But that fatal night--" "He came home, and was slightly wounded in the fray, but no one has seen him since." "And that strange attack upon the house, those frightful but incomprehensible words which were uttered by Mlle. Sabine, and which I seemed to hear as in a dream after I was hurt. These things puzzle me so. Explain them, I beg of you." "In your present state of mind I can see that a refusal on my part might prove dangerous." "Yes, very dangerous." "But I repeat that you must have courage, for--" "I will, aunt, I will." "You remember, do you not, that on the afternoon of that memorable day, M. Cloarek, who had left for Havre without our knowing it, sent a message to his daughter from that city telling her that she must not be anxious about him, as some business matters might detain him until late that night? You recollect that, do you not?" "Yes." "You remember, too, the fright we had the very evening of M. Cloarek's arrival?" "Yes, about those two men Thérèse thought she saw." "The poor girl saw them only too plainly, as subsequent events have proved, for two men, as we afterward learned, did effect an entrance into the garden, not to break into the house, but to reconnoitre." "The two men belonged to this armed band, then, I suppose." "One of them was the leader of it." Just then the nurse reëntered the room and motioned to Suzanne that she wished to speak to her. "What is it?" inquired Suzanne, in a low tone. "M. Segoffin has come." "And M. Cloarek?" "M. Segoffin is alone and wants to see Mlle. Sabine at once. Thérèse went up to tell her, and she sent word for him to come right up to her room." "Tell mademoiselle that I will come at once if she needs me." The nurse left the room again, and Suzanne returned to her nephew's bedside to continue her conversation with him. CHAPTER XX. THE MIDNIGHT ATTACK. "IT was no bad news that they came to tell you just now, was it, aunt?" inquired Onésime, as Suzanne reseated herself near him. "Oh, no; I will tell you what it was presently. Let me go on with my story. You recollect Thérèse running in to tell us that the stable was on fire, and that a band of armed men were attacking the house?" "Yes, yes; what a terrible night it was!"