n straight on without any hesitation as to the path he should
take. Already he had leapt across the ditch, and was rapidly striding
across the reeds towards the cliff. Finding she could not catch him up,
Jeanne stood on the slope beyond the wood, and watched him as long as
he was in sight; then, when she could see him no longer, she went
indoors again, tortured with fear and anxiety.

When he reached the edge of the cliff, the comte turned to the right,
and again began to run. The sea was very rough, and one after the other
the heavy clouds came up and poured their contents on the land. A
whistling moaning wind swept over the grass, laying low the young
barley, and carrying the great, white seagulls inland like sprays of
foam. The rain, which came in gusts, beat in the comte's face and
drenched his cheeks and moustaches, and the tumult of the elements
seemed to fill his heart as well as his ears. There, straight before him
in the distance, lay the Vaucotte valley, and between it and him stood a
solitary shepherd's hut, with two horses tied to the shafts. (What fear
could there be of anyone seeing them on such a day as this?)

As soon as he caught sight of the animals, the comte threw himself flat
on the ground, and dragged himself along on his hands and knees, his
hairy cap and mud-stained clothes making him look like some monstrous
animal. He crawled to the lonely hut, and, in case its occupants should
see him through the cracks in the planks he hid himself beneath it. The
horses had seen him and were pawing the ground. He slowly cut the reins
by which they were fastened with a knife that he held open in his hand,
and, as a fresh gust of wind swept by, the two animals cantered off,
their backs stung by the hail which lashed against the sloping roof of
the shepherd's cot, and made the frail abode tremble on its wheels.

Then the comte rose to his knees, put his eye to the slit at the bottom
of the door, and remained perfectly motionless while he watched and
waited. Some time passed thus, and then he suddenly leapt to his feet,
covered with mire from head to foot. Furiously he fastened the bolt,
which secured the shelter on the outside, and seizing the shafts, he
shook the hut as if he would have broken it to atoms. After a moment he
began to drag it along--exerting the strength of a bull, and bending
nearly double in his tremendous effort--and it was towards the almost
perpendicular slope to the valley that he hurried