Catherine returned to her master in despair, and told him what had happened. Monsieur Gerval knew that all the peasants were devoted to him, and he sent Dupré and Lucas to beg them to search the whole district. The good people made haste to beat up the forest. Success crowned their zealous efforts; they found Adeline lying at the foot of a tree; fever had given place to exhaustion, and the fugitive had been unable to go farther. They placed her on a litter hastily constructed of the branches of trees, and carried her and her daughter back to their benefactor’s house. The old man dismissed the villagers, after lauding their zeal, and devoted his whole attention to pacifying the poor invalid, whom the young peasant’s plaintive cry had cast into a more violent attack of delirium than any that she had had since her arrival in the Vosges. In the throes of constantly returning terror, Adeline talked more than usual, and Catherine did not leave her side. But she shuddered at the broken phrases that the stranger uttered: “Take him from that scaffold!” Adeline exclaimed again and again, putting her hands before her eyes. “In pity’s name, do not give him to the executioners! They are going to kill him! I hear his voice! But no, that plaintive cry did not come from his mouth; that was another victim.--Oh! I cannot be mistaken, I recognize his tones; they always go to my heart!” Catherine shed tears; Monsieur Gerval caught a glimpse of a ghastly mystery, and the old servant repeated to her master: “A scaffold! executioners! Ah! that makes one shudder, monsieur!” “No matter,” said the kindhearted Gerval; “if the young woman’s husband or relatives are criminals I will keep her none the less. She is not guilty, I am sure; she is only unfortunate!” “Yes, monsieur; but the monsters who have brought her to this condition! they are very guilty; they deserve to be severely punished!” “Yes, my poor Catherine; but we do not know them; let us leave to Providence the duty of avenging this unhappy creature, and let us not doubt its justice. It would be too horrible to think that the wicked may enjoy in peace the fruit of an evil deed, while the victim wastes her life away in tears and despair.” Monsieur Gerval summoned his servants again, and urged them to redouble their attention, in order to spare the young mother such dangerous emotion. “No noise, no shouts in the neighborhood of her room! If you come together to talk and laugh, which I do not wish to forbid you to do, let it be in some room at a distance from Constance’s so that she cannot hear you. Above all, no more questions; for they lead to no good result.” “Oh! I am done, monsieur,” said the old servant; “I have no desire to learn anything more now; it strikes me as altogether too painful a subject; and I should be terribly distressed to pain a woman whom I should like to see happy once more.”