Aimé Levet, instead of escaping by the right bank, on which his house was situated, had chosen the left bank, and thrown himself into that beautiful country which extends between the Rhone and the lake on one side, and Mount Voiron and Mount Salève on the other, and where the wide opening which these two mountains leave between them, permits the traveller to contemplate the magnificent range of the Alps of Mont Blanc. Was it Levet's wish to avoid taking the usual road of the fugitives, on which he was sure to be arrested; or did he intend hiding in the mountains, as the fine month of July invited him, to climb the easy and graceful slope of the Voiron, or to scale, by the road called l'Echelle (the ladder), the abrupt walls of Salève, whose enormous rocks overhang the plain? That is possible; other fugitives had done so. Levet wandered for some time in that part of the valley where the sandy torrent of the Arve utters a low murmur; but, thinking only how he should escape his persecutors, he had no leisure to contemplate the dazzling vision of the Alps lighted up by a July sun, which made so striking a contrast with the gloomy paths he was then traversing. He knew that mamelukes, priests, ducal partisans, and above all, the Sire de Montagny, castellan of Gaillard, would follow in his track. How strange his destiny! Only a few months ago he had been a zealous catholic, and then the surprising conversion of his wife had led to his.... Now, he was wandering about as a fugitive, without a place where to lay his head. We cannot tell all the anguish he went through, and all the groans he uttered. He did not lose courage, however, for he knew Him who was his protector, and who maintains the right. He was assured of being able to stand before God and His angels at the very moment when men were hunting him down. He had wolves behind him eager to tear him in pieces, but 'God saves His poor sheep, even out of the jaws of the lions.'[772] [Sidenote: LEVET PURSUED AND TAKEN.]