The heifer came galloping back at full speed toward Renaud and Zinzara, the latter of whom, being entangled in the folds of her ragged finery, thought that she was lost.--Boldly she turned and faced the danger, too proud to fly, at least when to fly would be useless. But Renaud had already stepped in front of her to protect her, and, seized with some insane idea or other,--the bravado of a horse-breaker, or of a lover, if you choose,--instead of entering into a contest with the heifer, instead of seizing her by the horns or the legs, stopped, and, without taking his eyes from the beast's face, quickly knelt upon one knee, squatted upon his heel, folded his arms, and, with his head thrown back, defied her. Like an experienced "trapper," he counted upon the beast's astonishment, and she did, in fact, stop short, and scrutinize him suspiciously. The gipsy, her lips pressed tightly together, having regained her place upon the wagon, looked back and saw her protector still in that singularly foolhardy attitude. As may be imagined, everybody was shouting: "Vive Renaud!" It seemed as if they would never weary of it. When he rose, he was again charged by Serpentine, and had barely time to regain his place of refuge beside the gitana; and the furious beast attacked the flooring of the wagon just at their feet with such a fierce blow of her powerfully armed head, that it was caught there for a moment by the horns, so that Renaud had to force them out by stamping upon them with the heel of his iron-shod boot. Then the gipsy smiled, and, bending over toward the drover's ear, whispered a word or two that made the handsome horse-breaker smile with her. Livette--who was a long distance away, at the other end of the arena, but almost opposite them, and so placed that she could see them in the bright light--had not lost a single gesture, not a single glance. What jealousy does not see, it divines, and that is not surprising, for it sees what does not exist. XX THE SNARE The relics were exposed twenty-four hours in the church. The second day, they reascended to their chapel, amid the howling of the same poor wretches whose hopes they carried with them.