o assure herself that
everything was right. "But, madame," stammered the girl, "the cask isn't
empty. You needn't bother to--" "Mind your own business," interrupted
the mistress, whose candle was already lighting up the passageway. I
had barely time to squat down again behind the cask, when the old woman,
stooping beneath the low, dingy ceiling, passed from one keg to another,
mumbling as she went: "Oh! the little wretch. How she lets the wine
leak. I'll teach her to close the spigots tighter; did ever any one
see the like?" The candle threw great shadows against the damp wall. I
huddled closer and closer. Suddenly, just as I thought the visit happily
ended, and was beginning to breathe easier again, I heard the old
creature give a sigh so long and so full of woe that I knew something
unusual was happening. I risked just the least glance, and I saw Dame
Gredel Dick, her under jaw dropped and her eyes sticking out of her
head, staring at the bottom of the barrel behind which I lay. She had
caught sight of one of my feet underneath the joist that served as
a wedge to keep the cask in place. She evidently believed she had
discovered the chief of the robbers concealed there for the purpose of
strangling her during the night. I formed a sudden resolution. "Madame,
for God's sake, have pity on me!" I cried: "I am--" Without looking at
me, or listening to a word I said, she set up an ear-splitting shriek
and started up the stairs as quickly as her great weight would permit.
Seized with inexpressible terror, I clung to her skirt and went down on
my knees. This only made matters worse. "Help! seize the assassin! Oh,
my God! release me! Take my money! Oh! Oh!"

It was horrible. In vain did I cry: "Only look at me, my dear madame; I
am not what you think me!" She was beside herself with fear; she raved
and screamed in such piercing tones that had we not been underground,
the whole neighborhood would inevitably have been aroused. In this
extremity, consulting only my rage, I overturned her, and gaining the
door before her, I slammed it in her face, taking care to slip the bolt.
During the struggle the candle had been extinguished and Dame Gredel
was left in the dark. Her cries grew fainter and fainter. I stared
at Annette, giddy, and with hardly strength enough left to stand. Her
agitation equaled mine. We neither of us seemed able to speak, and
stood listening to the expiring cries of the mistress, which soon ceased
altogether. Th