gged to be
allowed to stay under shelter of some kind; and, at last, a bright idea
came over her, and she bade us mount by a ladder to a kind of loft, which
went half over the lofty mill-kitchen in which we were sitting. We
obeyed her--what else could we do?--and found ourselves in a spacious
floor, without any safeguard or wall, boarding, or railing, to keep us
from falling over into the kitchen in case we went too near the edge. It
was, in fact, the store-room or garret for the household. There was
bedding piled up, boxes and chests, mill sacks, the winter store of
apples and nuts, bundles of old clothes, broken furniture, and many
other things. No sooner were we up there, than the old woman dragged
the ladder, by which we had ascended, away with a chuckle, as if she was
now secure that we could do no mischief, and sat herself down again once
more, to doze and await her master's return. We pulled out some bedding,
and gladly laid ourselves down in our dried clothes and in some warmth,
hoping to have the sleep we so much needed to refresh us and prepare us
for the next day. But I could not sleep, and I was aware, from her
breathing, that Amante was equally wakeful. We could both see through
the crevices between the boards that formed the flooring into the
kitchen below, very partially lighted by the common lamp that hung
against the wall near the stove on the opposite side to that on which we
were.

PORTION III.

Far on in the night there were voices outside reached us in our
hiding-place; an angry knocking at the door, and we saw through the
chinks the old woman rouse herself up to go and open it for her master,
who came in, evidently half drunk. To my sick horror, he was followed
by Lefebvre, apparently as sober and wily as ever. They were talking
together as they came in, disputing about something; but the miller
stopped the conversation to swear at the old woman for having fallen
asleep, and, with tipsy anger, and even with blows, drove the poor
old creature out of the kitchen to bed. Then he and Lefebvre went on
talking--about the Sieur de Poissy's disappearance. It seemed that
Lefebvre had been out all day, along with other of my husband's men,
ostensibly assisting in the search; in all probability trying to blind
the Sieur de Poissy's followers by putting them on a wrong scent, and
also, I fancied, from one or two of Lefebvre's sly questions, combining
the hidden purpose of discovering us.

Although the mi