“Because I should find something worse there than the wolf.” On hearing this, the Baron broke into a hearty fit of laughter, and, seeing their Master laugh, all the huntsmen followed suit and joined in the chorus. The fact was, that the sight of Agnelette had entirely restored the good humour of the Lord of Vez, and he would, no doubt, have continued for some time laughing and talking with Agnelette, if Marcotte, who had been recalling the dogs, and coupling them, had not respectfully reminded my Lord that they had some distance to go on their way back to the Castle. The Baron made a playful gesture of menace with his finger to the girl, and rode off followed by his train. Agnelette was left alone with Thibault. We have related what Agnelette had done for Thibault’s sake, and also said that she was pretty. Nevertheless, for all that, Thibault’s first thoughts on finding himself alone with the girl, were not for the one who had saved his life, but were given up to hatred and the contemplation of vengeance. Thibault, as you see, had, since the morning, been making rapid strides along the path of evil. “Ah! if the devil will but hear my prayer this time,” he cried, as he shook his fist, cursing the while, after the retiring huntsmen, who were just out of view, “if the devil will but hear me, you shall be paid back with usury for all you have made me suffer this day, that I swear.” “Oh, how wicked it is of you to behave like that!” said Agnelette, going up to him. “The Baron is a kind Lord, very good to the poor, and always gently behaved with women.” “Quite so, and you shall see with what gratitude I will repay him for the blows he has given me.” “Come now, frankly, friend, confess that you deserved those blows,” said the girl, laughing. “So, so!” answered Thibault, “the Baron’s kiss has turned your head, has it, my pretty Agnelette?” “You, I should have thought, would have been the last person to reproach me with that kiss, Monsieur Thibault. But what I have said, I say again; my Lord Baron was within his rights.” “What, in belabouring me with blows!” “Well, why do you go hunting on the estates of these great lords?” “Does not the game belong to everybody, to the peasant just as much as to the great lords?” “No, certainly not; the game is in their woods, it is fed on their grass, and you have no right to throw your boar-spear at a buck which belongs to my lord the Duke of Orleans.” “And who told you that I threw a boar-spear at his buck?” replied Thibault, advancing towards Agnelette in an almost threatening manner. “Who told me? why, my own eyes, which, let me tell you, do not lie. Yes, I saw you throw your boar-spear, when you were hidden there, behind the beech-tree.” Thibault’s anger subsided at once before the straightforward attitude of the girl, whose truthfulness was in such contrast to his falsehood.