“ ‘You were right, Cavalier; you’re a good fellow.’
“He rose.
“ ‘Thank you, monsieur. Now I’ll go and fetch him; he must be punished, for the sake of the lesson.’
“I knew that it was useless to attempt to dissuade the old man from any plan he had already formed. So I let him have his own way.
“He went off to fetch the lad, and brought him back, holding him by the ear.
“I was seated on a cane chair, wearing the grave visage of a judge. Marius appeared to me to have grown; he was even uglier than the year before, with his evil, cunning expression. And his great hands looked monstrous.
“His uncle shoved him in front of me, and said in his military voice:
“ ‘Ask pardon from the master.’
“The boy did not utter a word.
“Then, seizing him under the arms, the ex-policeman lifted him off the ground and began to thrash him with such violence that I got up to stop the blows.
“The child was now bawling:
“ ‘Mercy!—mercy!—mercy! I promise …’
“Cavalier lowered him on to the ground and, forcing him on to his knees by pressing upon his shoulders, said:
“ ‘Ask pardon.’
“ ‘I ask pardon,’ murmured the young scamp, with downcast eyes.
“Thereupon his uncle lifted him to his feet and dismissed him with a blow which nearly knocked him down again.
“He made off, and I did not see him again that evening.
“But Cavalier seemed terribly distressed.
“ ‘He’s a bad character,’ he said, and throughout dinner he kept on saying:
“ ‘Oh! how it grieves me, monsieur; you don’t know how it grieves me.’
“I tried to console him, but in vain. I went up to bed early, so as to be out shooting at break of day. My dog was already asleep upon the floor at the foot of my bed, when I blew out my candle.
“I was awakened in the middle of the night by the furious barking of Bock. I realised at once that my room was full of smoke. I leapt out of bed, lit the light, ran to the door, and opened it. A swirl of flames entered. The house was on fire.
“I promptly shut the strong oak door again, and dragging on my breeches, I first of all lowered my dog from the window with a rope made of twisted sheets; then, throwing down my clothes, my game-bag, and my gun, I made my escape in the same way.
“Then I began to shout with all my might:
“ ‘Cavalier! Cavalier! Cavalier!’
“But the keeper did not wake; the old policeman was a heavy sleeper.
“Through the lower windows I saw that the whole ground-floor was nothing but a blazing furnace, and I saw too that it had been filled with straw to assist the fire.
“So it had been purposely fired!
“I resumed my furious shouts:
“ ‘Cavalier!’
“Then the thought came to me that the smoke was suffocating him. An idea leaped into my mind; slipping two cartridges into my gun, I fired straight at his window.
“The six panes crashed into the room in a welter of splintered glass. This time the old man had heard, and his terrified figure appeared at the window, clad in his nightshirt; he was terrified more than anything by the violent glare which lit up the whole front of his dwelling.
“ ‘Your house is on fire,’ I shouted. ‘Jump out of the window, quick, quick!’
“The flames suddenly darted through the lower windows, licked the wall, reached him, were on the point of surrounding him. He jumped and landed on his feet like a cat.
“It was high time. The thatched roof cracked in the middle, above the staircase, which formed a sort of chimney for the fire below; an immense red sheaf of flame rose in the air, widened, like the jet of a fountain, and sowed a shower of sparks round the cottage. In a few seconds it was nothing but a mass of flames.
“ ‘How did it catch fire?’ asked Cavalier, bewildered.
“ ‘Someone set fire to the kitchen,’ I replied.
“ ‘Who could have done it?’ he murmured.
“Suddenly I guessed.
“ ‘Marius!’ I said.
“The old man understood.
“ ‘Oh! Holy Mother of God!’ he stammered; ‘that’s why he didn’t come in again.’
“But a horrible thought ran through my brain. I cried:
“ ‘And Céleste? Céleste?’
“He did not answer, but the house collapsed before our eyes, forming nothing but a huge brazier, blinding, bleeding; a terrible pyre in which the poor woman could be no more than a glowing cinder, a cinder of human flesh.
“We had not heard a single cry.
“But, as the fire was reaching the neighbouring shed, I suddenly thought of my horse, and Cavalier ran to set it free.
“He had scarcely opened the stable-door when a swift, supple form passed between his legs, throwing him flat on his nose. It was Marius, running for all he was worth.
“In a second the man picked himself up. He wanted to run after the wretch, but realising that he could not hope to catch him and maddened with an ungovernable rage, he yielded to one of those momentary, thoughtless impulses which can be neither foreseen nor restrained. He picked up my gun, which was lying upon the ground close by, set it to his shoulder, and before I could move, pulled the trigger, without even knowing whether the gun was loaded.
“One of the cartridges which I had put in to give warning of the fire had not gone off; the charge caught the fugitive full in the back, and flung him on his face, covered with blood. He began to scrabble at the ground with hands and knees, as though he was eager to go on running upon all fours, like mortally wounded hares when they see the hunter come up.
“I dashed to him. The child was already in his death-throes. He died before the flames were extinguished, without having uttered a word.
“Cavalier, still in his nightshirt, with bare legs, stood near us, motionless, bewildered.
“When the people arrived from the village, they took away my keeper, who was like a madman.
“I appeared at the trial as a witness, and narrated the facts in detail, without altering a single
