And he put her in the basket, despite her resistance, and ran away with her at full speed. The unfortunate creature's shrieks died away without echo in the vast plain. "Mario! Mario!" she wailed in a voice broken by sobs; "I want to see Mario. Villain! assassin! You promised that I should see Mario, who used to give me things to eat and play with me, and his mother, who kept me from being beaten! Mercedes! Mario! come to help me! Kill him! he is hurting me, he is shaking me, he is killing me, he is starving me to death! Damnation on him! death and blood and murder! The lash, the stake, the wheel, hell itself for the wicked!" [Footnote 18: Man without tongue and of great heart, Learning has triumphed over misery.] [Footnote 19: You do not give your heart away, It will triumph over the devil.] [Footnote 20: He from whom this token comes. If he but heed to the presage And hold aloof from love--] XXIII While the gypsy fled toward the north, the marquis, with D'Alvimar and Lucilio, rode in the opposite direction toward Briantes. He was most anxious to tell his faithful Adamas of what he regarded as a happy issue of his enterprise; and, although he thought that he owed it to his love to indulge in a few stifled sighs of anxiety or impatience, he was by no means ill-pleased, taking everything into consideration, to have seven years before him in which to adopt a new matrimonial resolution. D'Alvimar was in a very bad humor, not only because of the predictions which had stirred his bile and disturbed his brain, but also because of the tranquil manner in which Madame de Beuvre had taken leave of him, while she had given both her little hands to the marquis, as she gayly promised him a visit on the second day following. "Can it be possible," he thought, "that she has accepted that old man's gold pieces, and that I am supplanted by a rival of seventy?" He was exceedingly desirous to question his host, to poke fun at him, to quarrel with him. But it was impossible to enter into conversation with Bois-Doré on that subject. The marquis bore himself with an air of discreet and modest triumph, which caused him to outdo himself in courteous attentions to his guest. D'Alvimar was able to avenge himself for his discomfiture in no other way than by doing his best to splash Master Jovelin, who rode behind the marquis. When they reached the château, as the supper hour had not arrived, he walked to the rectory to consult with Monsieur Poulain. "Well, monsieur," said the trusty Adamas, as he removed his master's boots--in his capacity of _homme de chambre_ he almost never left the château of Briantes--"well, monsieur, must we think about preparing the betrothal banquet?" "To be sure, my friend. We must think about it at once."