At length there came a time, a little before high noon, when he awoke with a clearer eye and a mind capable of feeling surprise at his position. He saw her sitting beside him, but he saw also the rough grey walls, the altar, the crucifix; and to wonder succeeded curiosity. What had happened, and how came he there? His eyes sought her face and remained riveted to it. "Where am I?" he whispered. She marked that his eyes were clear and his strength greater, and, "You are in the chapel in the upper valley of the Dronne," she answered. "But I----" He stopped and closed his eyes, brought up by some confusion in his thoughts. At last, "I fancied I fought with some one," he whispered. "It was in a courtyard--at night? And there were lights? It was one of Vlaye's men, and the place was----" He broke off in the painful effort to remember. His lips moved without sound. "Villeneuve," she said. "Villeneuve," he whispered gratefully. "But this is not Villeneuve?" "We are two leagues from Villeneuve." "How come I here?" She told him, preserving the gentle placidity which, not without thought, she had adopted for her _role_. The repulse of Vlaye's men and the Lieutenant's decision to quit the chateau, that and the night retreat up to the arrival of the party at the ford--all were told. Then she broke off. "But des Ageaux?" he murmured. "Where is he?" And again, that he might look round him, he tried to rise. "Where are they all?" he continued in wonder. "They have not left me?" with a querulous note in his voice. "They are not here," she answered. And gently she induced him to lie back again. "Be still, I pray," she said. "Be still. You do yourself no good by moving." He sighed. "Where are they?" he persisted. "We were hard pressed at the ford," she answered with feigned reluctance. "And your litter delayed them. It was necessary to leave you or all had been lost." He lay in silence awhile with closed eyes, considering what she had told him. At last, "And you stayed?" he murmured in so low a voice that the words were barely audible. "You stayed!" "It was necessary," she answered. "And you have been beside me all night?" She bowed her head. His eyes filled with tears, and his lips trembled, for he was very weak. He groped for her hand, and would have carried it to his lips, but as men kiss relics or the hands of saints--if she had not withheld it from him. Settling the thin coverings more comfortably round him, she gave him to drink again, softly chiding him and bidding him be silent--be silent and sleep. But, "You have been beside me all night!" he repeated. "All night, alone here, and a woman! A woman!"