"They had coaxed the miserable fire into a more promising condition when the sound of voices on the road made Marguerite start nervously, and rush to the door. At first she thought that her worst fears were fulfilled. Two men were carrying _something_ on a plank, while beside walked a boy--a boy of about ten or eleven, whom she did not know by sight, who from time to time as they came along stooped over the plank and looked anxiously at the motionless figure extended on it. With a fearful scream Marguerite rushed out. "`My Louis! my Louis!' she cried. `Is he dead?' "The two men tramped on into the cottage stolidly, and laid down the plank. "`Dead?--I know not,' said one, with a sort of indifference that was not heartlessness. `Would you wish him alive, you foolish child?' "But the little boy touched her gently. "`He is not dead,' he said softly; `he has only fainted,' and he drew a small bottle out of the inside of his jacket. "`I have a little wine here,' he said, `mother gave it me before I left home. He is opening his eyes--give him a spoonful.' "The girl did as he said. Poor Louis swallowed with difficulty, and a very little colour came into his face. He tried to sit up, but sank back again, murmuring-- "`My back--oh, my back!' "`He has strained it,' said the second man. `No wonder. He must lie down; have you no mattress?' "Marguerite gazed round her stupidly. Madelon touched her. "`Rouse yourself, my girl,' she said; `he looks nothing like as bad as Jean when they brought him home,' and Marguerite turned to drag out of its corner the heap of straw on which, covered with what had once been a woman's skirt, Louis spent the night. The little boy darted forward to help her. "`Who are you?' she said, looking at him wish the quick suspicion with which these poor creatures looked at every new face. `I don't know you--you don't belong here.' "`No,' said he; `I come from Valmont. I came in the carriage that has been sent to fetch my lord, who has been staying here with my lady's brother. The coachman brought me to help him, as the groom who generally comes is ill.' "`And how did you--how came you to see Louis?' "`I was strolling about the woods when I met them _driving_ him,' said the boy, in a low voice of distress and horror. `I saw him fall--and I was so sorry for him,' he added simply, `I thought I would come to see how he was. But I must not stay; the Count is returning home to-day--I must not stay. But see here,' and from his pocket he drew a little bag containing a few copper coins and one small silver piece. "`These are my own--my very own. It is all I have, but take it, to get some food for poor Louis.' "Marguerite seized his hand and kissed it. "`Tell me your name, that I may pray for you.' "`I am Pierre--Pierre Germain, the son of the forester at Valmont,' he said, as he ran off. "It was in very different circumstances that these two met again." CHAPTER FOUR.