abruptly
drawn by La Louve within the piles, having first sunk completely from
the eyes of her murderers, was thus in safety from any further pursuit
on their part, they believing that she had effectually perished.

A few instants after, the current, as it swept by, carried with it a
second body, floating near to the surface of the water; but La Louve
perceived it not. It was the corpse of Madame Seraphin, the notary's
_femme de charge_. She, however, was perfectly dead.

It was as much the interest of Nicholas and Calabash as it was of
Jacques Ferrand to remove so formidable a witness as well as sharer of
their crime; seizing the opportunity, therefore, when the boat sunk with
Fleur-de-Marie, to spring into that rowed by his sister, and in which
was Madame Seraphin, he contrived to give the small vessel so great a
shock as almost threw the _femme de charge_ into the water, and, while
struggling to recover herself, he managed to thrust her overboard, and
then to finish her with his boat-hook.

* * * * *

Breathless and exhausted, La Louve, kneeling on the grass beside
Fleur-de-Marie, tried to recover her strength, and, at the same time, to
make out the features of her she had saved from certain death. Who can
describe her surprise, her utter astonishment, as she recognised her
late prison companion,--she who had exercised so beneficial an influence
on her mind, and produced so complete a change in her conduct and ideas?
In the first bewilderment of her feelings even Martial was forgotten.

"La Goualeuse!" exclaimed she, as, with head bent down, her hair
dishevelled, her garments streaming with wet, she, kneeling,
contemplated the unhappy girl stretched almost dying before her on the
grass.

Pale, motionless, her half closed eyes vacant and senseless, her
beautiful hair glued to her pallid brows, her lips blue and livid, her
small, delicate hands stiff and cold, La Goualeuse might well have
passed for dead to any but the watchful eye of affection.

"La Goualeuse!" again cried La Louve. "What a singular chance that I
should have come hither to relate to my man all the good and harm she
has done me with her words and promises, as well as the resolution I
have taken, and to find the poor thing thus to give me the meeting! Poor
girl! She is cold and dead. But, no, no!" exclaimed La Louve, stooping
still more closely over Fleur-de-Marie, and, as she did so, finding a
faint--indeed, almos