Although it was only nine o'clock, everybody at the château of Boisguilbault had retired when our travellers arrived. No one except old Martin ever paid any attention to the master after sunset, and on this evening Martin had closed the park after seeing the marquis enter his chalet, and had no suspicion that he had gone abroad and was travelling around the country in the rain and thunder, with an old carpenter and a young woman. Jean was not particularly anxious to go into the courtyard with Gilberte; for, living so near Châteaubrun as they did, it was impossible that some if not all of the servants should not be familiar with the lovely girl's face, and the first exclamation would betray her. But the rain was still falling, and there was no plausible excuse for making the marquis or Gilberte alight at the outer gate, especially as Monsieur de Boisguilbault absolutely insisted that his companions should come in and wait by the fire until the rain, which was quite cold and continuous, had ceased. Jean meanwhile was dying with longing to seize this pretext for prolonging the interview; but Gilberte refused in dismay to enter the dreadful manor-house of Boisguilbault, and it was certain that there was great peril in doing it. Luckily the marquis's eccentric habits made it impossible for them to effect an entrance to the château. In vain did they ring the bell again and again, the wind roared so fiercely that the sound was carried far away. No servant, male or female, slept in that part of the building, where a grewsome solitude habitually prevailed; and, as for old Martin, the only person who ever ventured there, he was too deaf to hear anything, the bell or the thunder. Monsieur de Boisguilbault was extremely mortified by his inability to show the hospitality which all the circumstances combined to impose upon him as a duty; and he was very angry with himself for having failed to anticipate what had happened. His wrath was on the point of breaking out anew and turning against old Martin, who went to bed with the sun. But at last, suddenly making up his mind what course to pursue, he said: "I see that I must abandon the idea of getting into my own house, for I shall never make anybody hear unless I send for cannon to take the house by assault; but if madame is not afraid to visit an anchorite's cell, I have another lodging, the key of which never leaves me, where we shall find all that we need to enable us to warm ourselves and rest." As he spoke he turned the horse's head toward the park, alighted at the gate, opened it himself, and led Lanterne in by the bridle, while Jean squeezed the trembling Gilberte's arm to encourage her to risk the adventure. "God forgive me!" he muttered, "he is taking us to his wooden house, where he passes all his nights evoking the devil! Never fear, Gilberte, I am with you, and this is the day we are going to turn Satan out-of-doors here!"