So saying, she glanced frantically around in search of something to aid her efforts to free her lover, when her eye caught sight of a ladder partly hanging against one of the outside shutters of the sitting-room. Hastily pulling the shutter, the more quickly to disengage the ladder, the key of the outer door, left by the widow on the sill of the window, fell to the ground. "Oh, if this be only the right key!" cried La Louve, trying it in the lock of the entrance door; "I can go straight up stairs to his chamber. Oh, it turns! It opens!" exclaimed La Louve, with delight; "and my man is saved!" Once in the kitchen she was struck by the cries of the two children, who, shut up in the cellar, and hearing an unusual noise, called loudly for help. The widow, persuaded that no person would visit the isle or her dwelling, had contented herself with double-locking the door upon Francois and Amandine, leaving the key in the lock. Released by La Louve, the two children hurried from the cellar to the kitchen. "Oh, La Louve!" exclaimed Francois, "save our dear Brother Martial; they want him to die! For two days he has been shut up in his room!" "They have not wounded him, have they?" "No, no, I think not!" "I have arrived just in time, it seems," cried La Louve, rushing towards the staircase, and hastily mounting the stairs. Then, suddenly stopping, she exclaimed, "Ah, but La Goualeuse! I quite forgot her. Amandine, my child, light a fire directly; and then do you and your brother fetch a poor, half-drowned girl you will find lying outside the door under the porch, and place her before the fire. She would have been quite dead, if I had not saved her. Francois, quick! Bring me a crowbar, a hatchet, an axe, anything, that I may break in the door that confines my man!" "There is the cleaver we split wood with, but it is too heavy for you," said the lad, dragging forward an enormous chopper. "Too heavy! I don't even feel it!" cried La Louve, swinging the ponderous weapon, which, at another time, she would have had much difficulty in lifting, as though it had been a feather. Then, proceeding with hurried steps up-stairs, she called out to the children: "Go and fetch the young girl I told you of, and place her by the fire." And, with two bounds, La Louve reached the corridor, at the end of which was situated the apartment of Martial. "Courage! Courage, my man! Your Louve is here!" cried she, and, lifting the cleaver with both hands, she dashed it furiously against the door. "It is fastened on the outside," moaned Martial, in a feeble voice; "draw out the nails,--you cannot open it otherwise."