rds shall escape from my heart."

The old man read so much truth and so much grief in the face of the
young man that he made him a sign to listen, and repeated in a low
voice: "It was scarcely nine o'clock when I heard a noise in the street,
and was wondering what it could be, when on coming to my door, I found
that somebody was endeavoring to open it. As I am very poor and am not
afraid of being robbed, I went and opened the gate and saw three men at
a few paces from it. In the shadow was a carriage with two horses, and
some saddlehorses. These horses evidently belonged to the three men, who
were dressed as cavaliers. 'Ah, my worthy gentlemen,' cried I, 'what
do you want?' 'You must have a ladder?' said he who appeared to be the
leader of the party. 'Yes, monsieur, the one with which I gather my
fruit.' 'Lend it to us, and go into your house again; there is a crown
for the annoyance we have caused you. Only remember this--if you speak a
word of what you may see or what you may hear (for you will look and
you will listen, I am quite sure, however we may threaten you), you are
lost.' At these words he threw me a crown, which I picked up, and he
took the ladder. After shutting the gate behind them, I pretended
to return to the house, but I immediately went out a back door, and
stealing along in the shade of the hedge, I gained yonder clump of
elder, from which I could hear and see everything. The three men brought
the carriage up quietly, and took out of it a little man, stout, short,
elderly, and commonly dressed in clothes of a dark color, who ascended
the ladder very carefully, looked suspiciously in at the window of the
pavilion, came down as quietly as he had gone up, and whispered, 'It is
she!' Immediately, he who had spoken to me approached the door of the
pavilion, opened it with a key he had in his hand, closed the door
and disappeared, while at the same time the other two men ascended the
ladder. The little old man remained at the coach door; the coachman took
care of his horses, the lackey held the saddlehorses. All at once great
cries resounded in the pavilion, and a woman came to the window,
and opened it, as if to throw herself out of it; but as soon as she
perceived the other two men, she fell back and they went into the
chamber. Then I saw no more; but I heard the noise of breaking
furniture. The woman screamed, and cried for help; but her cries were
soon stifled. Two of the men appeared, bearing the woman