alf calcined walls, heaps of black and gray ashes, and still
glowing timbers, from which columns of smoke were slowly rising upward.
Thanks to Capt. Parenteau, all that they had been able to save had been
carried to a distance, and safely stored away under the shelter of the
ruins of the old castle. There, furniture and other articles were piled
up pell-mell. There, carts and agricultural machines were standing
about, empty casks, and sacks of oats and rye. There, also, the cattle
were gathered, that had been drawn from their stalls with infinite
labor, and at great risk of life,--horses, oxen, some sheep, and a
dozen cows, who lowed piteously. Few of the people had left as yet. With
greater zeal than ever the firemen, aided by the peasants, deluged the
remains of the dwelling-house with water. They had nothing to fear
from the fire; but they desired to keep the bodies of their unfortunate
companions from being entirely consumed.

"What a terrible scourge fire is!" said M. Seneschal.

Neither M. Galpin nor the mayor made any answer. They also felt their
hearts oppressed by the sad sight before them, in spite of all the
intense excitement before; for a fire is nothing as long as the feverish
excitement, and the hope of saving something, continue to keep us up,
and as long as the red flames illumine the horizon; but the next day,
when all is over, then we realize the extent of the misfortune.

The firemen recognized the mayor, and greeted him with cheers. He went
rapidly towards them; and, for the first time since the alarm had been
raised, the magistrate and the attorney were alone. They were standing
close by each other, and for a moment kept silent, while each one tried
to read in the other's eyes the secret of his thoughts. At last M.
Daubigeon asked,--

"Well?"

M. Galpin trembled.

"This is a fearful calamity," he said.

"What is your opinion?"

"Ah! do I know it myself? I have lost my head: the whole thing looks to
me like a nightmare."

"You cannot really believe that M. de Boiscoran is guilty?"

"I believe nothing. My reason tells me he is innocent. I feel he must be
innocent; and yet I see terrible evidence rising against him."

The attorney was overwhelmed.

"Alas!" he said, "why did you, contrary to everybody's opinion, insist
upon examining Cocoleu, a poor idiotic wretch?"

But the magistrate remonstrated--

"You do not mean to reproach me, sir, for having followed the impulses
of my conscie