“However, I could see through the lower windows that the whole ground-floor was nothing but a roaring furnace; I also noticed that it had been filled with straw to make it burn readily.

“Somebody must purposely have set fire to the place!

“I continued shrieking wildly:  ‘Cavalier!’

“Then the thought struck me that the smoke might be suffocating him.  An idea came to me.  I slipped two cartridges into my gun, and shot straight at his window.

“The six panes of glass shattered into the room in a cloud of glass.  This time the old man had heard me, and he appeared, dazed, in his nightshirt, bewildered by the glare which illumined the whole front of his ’house.

“I cried to him: 

“‘Your house is on fire!  Escape through the window!  Quick!  Quick!’

“The flames were coming out through all the cracks downstairs, were licking along the wall, were creeping toward him and going to surround him.  He jumped and landed on his feet, like a cat.

“It was none too soon.  The thatched roof cracked in the middle, right over the staircase, which formed a kind of flue for the fire downstairs; and an immense red jet jumped up into the air, spreading like a stream of water and sprinkling a shower of sparks around the hut.  In a few seconds it was nothing but a pool of flames.

“Cavalier, thunderstruck, asked: 

“‘How did the fire start?’

“I answered: 

“‘Somebody lit it in the kitchen.’

“He muttered: 

“‘Who could have started the fire?’

“And I, suddenly guessing, answered: 

“‘Marius!’

“The old man understood.  He stammered: 

“‘Good God!  That is why he didn’t return.’

“A terrible thought flashed through my mind.  I cried: 

“‘And Celeste!  Celeste!’

“He did not answer.  The house caved in before us, forming only an enormous, bright, blinding brazier, an awe-inspiring funeral-pile, where the poor woman could no longer be anything but a glowing ember, a glowing ember of human flesh.

“We had not heard a single cry.

“As the fire crept toward the shed, I suddenly bethought me of my horse, and Cavalier ran to free it.

“Hardly had he opened the door of the stable, when a supple, nimble body darted between his legs, and threw him on his face.  It was Marius, running for all he was worth.

“The man was up in a second.  He tried to run after the wretch, but, seeing that he could not catch him, and maddened by an irresistible anger, yielding to one of those thoughtless impulses which we cannot foresee or prevent, he picked up my gun, which was lying on the ground. near him, put it to his shoulder, and, before I could make a motion, he pulled the trigger without even noticing whether or not the weapon was loaded.

“One of the cartridges which I had put in to announce the fire was still intact, and the charge caught the fugitive right in the back,—­throwing him forward on the ground, bleeding profusely.  He immediately began to claw the earth with his hands and with his knees, as though trying to run on all fours like a rabbit who has been mortally wounded, and sees the hunter approaching.