t imperceptible--breath escape her lips; "no, she
lives! Merciful Father, she breathes! And 'tis I have snatched her from
death! I, who never yet saved any one! Oh, how happy the thought makes
me! My heart glows with a new delight. How thankful I feel that none but
I saved her! Ha! but my man,--I must save him also. Perhaps he is even
now in his death-throes--his mother and brother are even wretches
enough to murder him! What shall I do? I cannot leave this poor creature
here,--I will carry her to the widow's house. She must and she shall
succour the poor Goualeuse and let me see Martial, or I will smash
everything in my way. No mother, brother, or sister shall hinder me from
going wherever my man is!"

And, springing up as she spoke, La Louve raised Fleur-de-Marie in her
strong arms. Charged with this slender burthen, she hurried towards the
house, never for a moment doubting that, spite of their hard and wicked
natures, the widow and her daughter would bestow on Fleur-de-Marie every
requisite care.

When Martial's mistress had reached that point of the isle from which
both sides of the Seine were distinguishable, Nicholas, his mother, and
Calabash had quitted the place, certain of the accomplishment of their
double crime; they then repaired, in all haste, to the house of
Bras-Rouge.

At this moment a man who, hidden in one of the recesses of the river
concealed by the lime-kiln, had, without being seen himself, witnessed
the whole progress of this horrible scene, also disappeared; believing,
as well as the guilty perpetrators, that the fell deed had been fully
achieved. This man was Jacques Ferrand.

One of Nicholas's boats was rocking to and fro, moored to a stake on the
river's bank, just by where Madame Seraphin and La Goualeuse had
embarked.

Scarcely had Jacques Ferrand quitted the lime-kiln to return to Paris
than M. de Saint-Remy and Doctor Griffon hastily crossed the bridge of
Asnieres, for the purpose of reaching the isle; which they contemplated
doing by means of Nicholas's boat, which they had discerned from afar.

To the extreme astonishment of La Louve, when she arrived at the house
in the Isle du Ravageur, she found the door shut and fastened. Placing
the still inanimate form of Fleur-de-Marie beneath the porch, she more
closely examined the dwelling. The window of Martial's chamber was well
known to her; what was her surprise to find the shutters belonging to it
closed, and sheets of tin nailed o