La Bretonne, only, did not sleep! An emotion, at once poignant and tender, tore at her heart, and she thought more than ever of that other little one, whom they said she had killed.... This lasted till dawn. Mother and child slept still, but La Bretonne was up and out, gliding hurriedly and furtively in the direction of Auberive and slackening her pace only when the first houses of the village came in sight. Soon she had reached and was traversing its only street, walking slowly now and scanning with all her eyes the signs of the shops. One at last seemed to fix her attention. She knocked at the shutter and presently it opened. A mercer's shop, apparently, but also with some toys and playthings in the window--poor, pitiful trifles, a pasteboard doll, a Noah's ark, a woolly, stiff-legged little sheep! To the astonishment of the merchant, La Bretonne purchased them all, paid, and went out. She had resumed the road to the hovel in the wood, when suddenly a hand fell heavily upon her shoulder, and she was face to face with a brigadier of _gendarmerie_. The unhappy one had forgotten that it was forbidden to liberated prisoners to loiter near the Maison Centrale. "Instead of vagabondizing here, you should already be at Langres," said the brigadier, gruffly. "Come, march, be off with you! To the road, to the road, I say!" She sought to explain. Pains lost. At once a passing cart was pressed into service, La Bretonne bundled into it, and in charge of a _gendarme_ once more en route for Langres. The cart jolted lumberingly over the frozen ruts. The poor La Bretonne clutched with a heartbroken air her bundle of playthings in her freezing fingers. All at once, at a turn of the road, she recognized the cross path that led through the wood. Her heart leaped and she besought the _gendarme_ to stop only one moment. She had a commission for La Fleuriotte, the woman that lived there! She supplicated with so much fervor that the _gendarme_, a good man at heart, allowed himself to be persuaded. They stopped, tied the horse to a tree, and ascended the pathway. Before the door La Fleuriotte hewed the gathered wood into the required fagots. On seeing her visitor return, accompanied by a _gendarme_, she stood open-mouthed and with arms hanging. "Hist!" said La Bretonne, "hist! the little one--does it sleep still?" "Yes--but--" "Then, here, these playthings, lay them on the bed and tell her Sainte-Catherine brought them. I returned to Auberive for them; but it seems I had no right to do it, and they are taking me now to Langres." "Holy Mother of God!" cried the amazed La Fleuriotte. "Hist! be still, I say!" And drawing near the bed herself, followed always by her escort, La Bretonne scattered upon the coverlet the doll, the Noah's ark, and the stiff-legged, woolly, and somewhat grimy little lamb, bent the bare arm of the child till it clasped the latter, then turned with a smile.