"How thankful they all were to sit down to a comfortable supper in the cottage--and, even more, to rest their poor tired limbs in Madame Germain's nice clean beds, where the sheets, though not of the finest, were sweet with country bleaching, and scented with lavender! That night Germain said nothing to distress the poor children, but the next day direful news had to be told. Edmee was indeed homeless, for the Chateau of Valmont no longer existed, except in crumbling ruins. It had been burnt down during Pierre's absence. Poor old Ludovic happily for himself perhaps, had not lived to see this. He had died a few days after Pierre's departure for Paris. No special ill-will to the family had been the reason of this destruction, but one of the wild mobs which in these dreadful times laid waste so much of the country had found their way to the peaceful village, and joined by some of the malcontents who would not believe that the recent exactions of money had not been the Countess's doing, had set fire to the home of the innocent lady and her child. "`After all she was a Sarinet,' was muttered as a sort of excuse for the shameful deed. But when the villagers recovered from the shock and horror, they had united to drive the doers of it from among them, and were now, father Germain had good reason to think, ready to defend the orphaned Edmee to the utmost. "So after much consultation, the Germains determined to remain at Valmont, though they had at first hesitated whether it would be safe for their charges to do so. It would, however, as was soon seen, have been difficult, almost impossible, to move Edmond. His strength, once he felt himself in safety, rapidly failed; he took to his bed, where he lay in peaceful weakness for some months, suffering little, thankful and grateful, and clinging with touching affection to Pierre's kind mother, till at last, when the first spring blossoms began to peep out again, he gently died. And though the change in him had endeared him to them all, they felt it was better thus. Life would have been a hard struggle to the poor boy, and he was devoid of the strength required to face his completely altered circumstances, for even had there been no Revolution the Sarinet family was completely ruined. "Before his death Edmee's kind protectors had began to breathe rather more freely with regard to her safety. The state of things in Paris was growing worse and worse; the `Reign of terror,' so called, was beginning. But less attention was now given to the upper classes--if, indeed, any of them still remained in the country! The fury of the various Republican parties, every one fighting for the mastery, was now turning against each other--in the end to be the ruin of all; and the motives and causes of the first revolt were forgotten in the general chaos of selfishness, and wild ambition.