With set lips and eager eyes he passed me, taking the road by which we had come.

And I, hugging my wounded arm, with open eyes and parted lips, saw him dive in among the trees and disappear toward the house.

And I looked round on the iron box and the dead body--two caskets robbed of all that made them more than empty lumber.
Minute followed minute; and then I heard the hoofs of a horse galloping at full speed along the road from the house toward Avranches.

Lafleur was dead and done with; Pierre might go his ways; I lay fainting in the wood; the Cardinal's Necklace was still against my side.

What recked the Duke of Saint-Maclou of all that?
I knew, as I heard the thud of the hoofs on the road, that by the time the first reddening rays reached over the horizon he would be at the convent, seeking the woman who was all the world to him.
And I sat there helpless, fearful of what would befall her.