close to him, was asleep, with her head
on his left shoulder. All of a sudden he heard the report of a fire-arm
(he had seen the light of it at some paces' distance), and Madame
Peytel cried out, 'My poor husband, take your pistols;' the horse was
frightened, and began to trot. Peytel immediately drew the pistol, and
fired, from the interior of the carriage, upon an individual whom he saw
running by the side of the road.

"Not knowing, as yet, that his wife had been hit, he jumped out on one
side of the carriage, while Madame Peytel descended from the other; and
he fired a second pistol at his domestic, Louis Rey, whom he had just
recognized. Redoubling his pace, he came up with Rey, and struck him,
from behind, a blow with the hammer. Rey turned at this, and raised
up his arm to strike his master with the pistol which he had just
discharged at him; but Peytel, more quick than he, gave the domestic a
blow with the hammer, which felled him to the ground (he fell his
face forwards), and then Peytel, bestriding the body, despatched him,
although the brigand asked for mercy.

"He now began to think of his wife and ran back, calling out her name
repeatedly, and seeking for her, in vain, on both sides of the road.
Arrived at the bridge of Andert, he recognized his wife, stretched in
a field, covered with water, which bordered the Furans. This horrible
discovery had so much the more astonished him, because he had no idea,
until now, that his wife had been wounded: he endeavored to draw her
from the water; and it was only after considerable exertions that he was
enabled to do so, and to place her, with her face towards the ground, on
the side of the road. Supposing that, here, she would be sheltered from
any farther danger, and believing, as yet, that she was only wounded, he
determined to ask for help at a lone house, situated on the road towards
Rossillon; and at this instant he perceived, without at all being able
to explain how, that his horse had followed him back to the spot, having
turned back of its own accord, from the road to Belley.

"The house at which he knocked was inhabited by two men, of the name
of Thannet, father and son, who opened the door to him, and whom
he entreated to come to his aid, saying that his wife had just been
assassinated by his servant. The elder Thannet approached to, and
examined the body, and told Peytel that it was quite dead; he and his
son took up the corpse, and placed it in the botto