At that moment a thousand confused ideas passed before my imagination. The robbers who infested the wood, Marguerite’s exclamation respecting her children, the arms and appearance of the two young men, and the various anecdotes which I had heard related, respecting the secret correspondence which frequently exists between banditti and postillions, all these circumstances flashed upon my mind, and inspired me with doubt and apprehension. I ruminated on the most probable means of ascertaining the truth of my conjectures. Suddenly I was aware of someone below pacing hastily backwards and forwards. Everything now appeared to me an object of suspicion. With precaution I drew near the window, which, as the room had been long shut up, was left open in spite of the cold. I ventured to look out. The beams of the moon permitted me to distinguish a man, whom I had no difficulty to recognize for my host. I watched his movements.

He walked swiftly, then stopped, and seemed to listen: he stamped upon the ground, and beat his stomach with his arms as if to guard himself from the inclemency of the season. At the least noise, if a voice was heard in the lower part of the house, if a bat flitted past him, or the wind rattled amidst the leafless boughs, he started, and looked round with anxiety.

“Plague take him!” said he at length with impatience; “What can he be about!”

He spoke in a low voice; but as he was just below my window, I had no difficulty to distinguish his words.