f up to justice. He had been
condemned to death by default, and sooner or later he must have been
taken and executed. Monsieur Bonnet went to find him in the woods,
all alone, at the risk of being killed. No one knows what he said to
Farrabesche. They were alone together two days; on the third day the
rector brought Farrabesche to Tulle, where he gave himself up. Monsieur
Bonnet went to see a good lawyer and begged him to do his best for the
man. Farrabesche escaped with ten years in irons. The rector went to
visit him in prison, and that dangerous fellow, who used to be the
terror of the whole country, became as gentle as a girl; he even let
them take him to the galleys without a struggle. On his return he
settled here by the rector's advice; no one says a word against him; he
goes to mass every Sunday and all the feast-days. Though his place is
among us he slips in beside the wall and sits alone. He goes to the
altar sometimes and prays, but when he takes the holy sacrament he
always kneels apart."

"And you say that man killed another man?"

"One!" exclaimed Colorat; "he killed several! But he is a good man all
the same."

"Is that possible?" exclaimed Veronique, letting the bridle fall on the
neck of her horse.

"Well, you see, madame," said the forester, who asked no better than to
tell the tale, "Farrabesche may have had good reason for what he did. He
was the last of the Farrabesches,--an old family of the Correze, don't
you know! His elder brother, Captain Farrabesche, died ten years earlier
in Italy, at Montenotte, a captain when he was only twenty-two years
old. Wasn't that ill-luck? and such a lad, too! knew how to read and
write, and bid fair to be a general. The family grieved terribly, and
good reason, too. As for me, I heard all about his death, for I was
serving at that time under L'AUTRE. Oh! he made a fine death, did
Captain Farrabesche; he saved the army and the Little Corporal. I
was then in the division of General Steingel, a German,--that is, an
Alsacian,--a famous good general but rather short-sighted, and that was
the reason why he was killed soon after Captain Farrabesche. The younger
brother--that's this one--was only six years old when he heard of his
brother's death. The second brother served too; but only as a private
soldier; he died a sergeant in the first regiment of the Guard, at the
battle of Austerlitz, where, d'ye see, madame, they manoeuvred just as
quietly as they might in the