And, if the day is clear, one can easily distinguish the spires of Montaignac in the distance. This was the path traversed by M. Lacheneur after Chupin had delivered his message. But what did he care for the beauties of the landscape! Upon the church porch he had received his death-wound; and now, with a tottering and dragging step, he dragged himself along like one of those poor soldiers, mortally wounded upon the field of battle, who go back, seeking a ditch or quiet spot where they can lie down and die. He seemed to have lost all thought of his surroundings--all consciousness of previous events. He pursued his way, lost in his reflections, guided only by force of habit. Two or three times his daughter, Marie-Anne, who was walking by his side, addressed him; but an “Ah! let me alone!” uttered in a harsh tone, was the only response she could draw from him. Evidently he had received a terrible blow; and undoubtedly, as often happens under such circumstances, the unfortunate man was reviewing all the different phases of his life. At twenty Lacheneur was only a poor ploughboy in the service of the Sairmeuse family. His ambition was modest then. When stretched beneath a tree at the hour of noonday rest, his dreams were as simple as those of an infant. “If I could but amass a hundred pistoles,” he thought, “I would ask Father Barrois for the hand of his daughter Martha; and he would not refuse me.” A hundred pistoles! A thousand francs!--an enormous sum for him who, in two years of toil and privation had only laid by eleven louis, which he had placed carefully in a tiny box and hidden in the depths of his straw mattress. Still he did not despair. He had read in Martha’s eyes that she would wait. And Mlle. Armande de Sairmeuse, a rich old maid, was his god-mother; and he thought, if he attacked her adroitly, that he might, perhaps, interest her in his love-affair. Then the terrible storm of the revolution burst over France. With the fall of the first thunder-bolts, the Duke of Sairmeuse left France with the Count d’Artois. They took refuge in foreign lands as a passer-by seeks shelter in a doorway from a summer shower, saying to himself: “This will not last long.” The storm did last, however; and the following year Mlle. Armande, who had remained at Sairmeuse, died. The chateau was then closed, the president of the district took possession of the keys in the name of the government, and the servants were scattered. Lacheneur took up his residence in Montaignac. Young, daring, and personally attractive, blessed with an energetic face, and an intelligence far above his station, it was not long before he became well known in the political clubs. For three months Lacheneur was the tyrant of Montaignac.