"`Don't you know me--your old friend Ludovic?' mother Germain burst into tears--tears of pity for him, of terror for those he had come from. "They at once did their best for him. It would have been cruel to question him till he had regained a little strength, and indeed useless. Now that he had reached the end of his journey, his forces seemed altogether to collapse, and for some hours they feared he would die without having told them anything. But food and wine carefully administered, and a refreshing sleep into which he fell, did wonders for him, for notwithstanding his age, he had been till lately a vigorous and healthy man; and by the evening he woke up greatly revived, and eager to explain everything, and by degrees his kind hosts heard all, which perhaps it is well to give as far as possible in his own words--for the events he related have often been told me both by my mother who had seen them herself, and by my father who heard them at the moment from Ludovic's own lips. "`I never thought I should reach here alive,' began the old man. `The last few days have been terribly hard. From some distance on the other side of Machard I have come on foot. But few conveyances are on the road--no longer a chance of meeting with those of some of the great lords whose attendants, had they known who I was, would have given me a lift--no, the days of such travelling are over indeed; and in the few public coaches I met I could not have had a place, for I had not a sou! She gave me all she had--our dear lady--but it was very little, and there was no time to sell the jewels she had with her. Since four or five days I have scarcely tasted any food, though once or twice kind souls took pity on me. The first part of the journey was easy enough. I travelled in the public conveyances, to save time; but though easy, I soon saw it was a risk. While I was decently dressed they looked at me more than once with suspicion--above all that my clothes, though they were shabby enough compared with those you used to know me in, in happier days, had the look of my position, and nobleman's servants are now often objects of suspicion. So I decided to make the rest of the way as best I could, getting a lift in a cart as long as my money lasted, and when my clothes became so shabby I dare say it was a safeguard. At all events here I am! God be thanked, if I could but think my dear ladies were also in safety!' "`But where are they?--what of them?' burst out Pierre, who had listened with compassion indeed, but not without a certain impatience, to the poor old man's somewhat rambling account of his own adventures. "`Softly, my boy,' said his mother in a low voice. `Do not hurry him, let him tell all in his own way, otherwise he may grow confused.' "But Pierre's words had done no harm.