e in the parlour as they plied me with
questions upon my prospects and my intentions.

"One way or the other," they said, in their blunt country fashion. "Let
us hear that you are betrothed to Marie, or let us never see your face
again."

I spoke of my honour, my hopes, and my future, but they remained
immovable upon the present. I pleaded my career, but they in their
selfish way would think of nothing but their daughter. It was indeed a
difficult position in which I found myself. On the one hand, I could
not forsake my Marie; on the other, what would a young Hussar do with
marriage? At last, hard pressed, I begged them to leave the matter, if
it were only for a day.

"I will see Marie," said I, "I will see her without delay. It is her
heart and her happiness which come before all else."

They were not satisfied, these grumbling old people, but they could
say no more. They bade me a short good night and I departed, full
of perplexity, for the inn. I came out by the same door which I had
entered, and I heard them lock and bar it behind me.

I walked across the field lost in thought, with my mind entirely filled
with the arguments of the old people and the skilful replies which I
had made to them. What should I do? I had promised to see Marie without
delay. What should I say to her when I did see her? Would I surrender
to her beauty and turn my back upon my profession? If Etienne Gerard's
sword were turned to a scythe, then indeed it was a bad day for the
Emperor and France. Or should I harden my heart and turn away from
Marie? Or was it not possible that all might be reconciled; that I might
be a happy husband in Normandy but a brave soldier elsewhere? All these
thoughts were buzzing in my head, when a sudden noise made me look up.
The moon had come from behind a cloud, and there was the bull before me.

He had seemed a large animal beneath the beech tree, but now he appeared
enormous. He was black in colour. His head was held down, and the moon
shone upon two menacing and bloodshot eyes. His tail switched swiftly
from side to side, and his fore feet dug into the earth. A more
horrible-looking monster was never seen in a nightmare. He was moving
slowly and stealthily in my direction.

I glanced behind me, and I found that in my distraction I had come
a very long way from the edge of the field. I was more than half-way
across it. My nearest refuge was the inn, but the bull was between me
and it. Perhaps if the cre