A servant followed him.
Catherine lay alone where she fell, completely closing the narrow way.
Just then a man appeared on the top of the hill, coming from Villers-Cotterets, and rapidly advancing towards the farm; he was very near treading on the inanimate body that lay in the pathway.
He lost his balance, stumbled and fell, and was not aware of the body until he touched it.
“Catherine!” said he; “Catherine dead?”
He uttered a cry of such agony that he aroused the very dogs of the farm.
“Who,—who has killed her?” He sat pale, trembling, and inert, with the body on his knees.
THE END.