"You see, madame, it is impossible for me to move. I pray you return to the house, and tell some one to come for me with a chair or a litter. Oh, how I suffer! My God, how I suffer! For pity's sake, madame, go back quick to the house; it is so far, I shall never be able to drag myself there." "Mademoiselle," cried the mother superior, "I am not your dupe! You have no more of a sprain than I have, it is an abominable falsehood! You wish, I know not for what reason, to send me away, and remain alone in the garden. Ah, indeed you make me repent of my condescension." The light noise of a few pebbles falling across the boughs of the trees attracted the attention of the mother superior and Dolores, who, radiant with delight, leaped up with a bound, exclaiming: "There he is!" "Of whom are you speaking, unhappy girl?" "Of Captain Horace, madame," said Dolores, curtseying with mock reverence. "He is coming to carry me away." "What impudence! Ah, you think that in spite of me--" "We are at the bottom of the garden, madame; cry, call, nobody will hear you." "Oh, what horrible treason!" cried the mother superior. "But it is impossible! The men on guard have not dared leave the boulevard since nightfall." "Horatio!" cried Dolores, in a clear, silvery voice. "My Horatio!" "Shameless creature!" cried Sister Prudence, in desperation, rushing forward to seize Dolores by the arm. But the Spanish girl, nimble as a gazelle, with two bounds was out of the reach of Sister Prudence, whose limbs, stiffened by age, refused to lend themselves to gymnastic exercise; and already overcome, she cried, wringing her hands: "Oh, those miserable patrols! They have not been on guard. I would cry, but they would not hear me at the convent. To run there is to leave this wretched girl here alone! Ah, I understand too late why this serpent wished to prolong our walk." "Horatio," cried Dolores a second time, holding herself at a distance from the mother superior, "my dear Horatio!" "Descend!" cried a ringing male voice which seemed to come from the sky. This celestial voice was no other than that of Captain Horace, giving the signal to his faithful Sans-Plume to descend something. The mother superior and Dolores, notwithstanding the difference of the emotions which agitated them, raised their eyes simultaneously when they heard the voice of Captain Horace. But let us recall the situation of the walk and garden in order to explain the miracle about to be manifested to the sight of the recluse. Two of the largest branches of the trees on the boulevard outside extended like a gibbet, so to speak, above and beyond the coping of the convent wall. The night was so clear that Dolores and the mother superior saw, slowly descending, sustained by cords, an Indian hammock in the bottom of which Captain Horace was extended, throwing with his hand a shower of kisses to Dolores. When the hammock was within two feet of the earth, the captain called, in a ringing voice: "Stop!"