"Mon Dieu! in pity's name, will no one come to help me?"
But her eyes sought in vain the Comte de Brévanne; he had disappeared under the trees, uncertain as to what he ought to do, but desirous to learn the cause of the strange noise he had heard.
At that moment, voices arose in the distance and came rapidly nearer. Little Astianax, jovial Chambourdin, young Miaulard and Beau Saint-Arthur were coming in search of the baroness; for when all the guests had assembled in the salon, that lady's absence had been noticed; and as Madame Glumeau declared that she had been in the woods, her failure to return caused apprehension that some accident had happened to her, and that the little pond had done further execution.
The four gentlemen entered the wood, shouting with all their strength:
"Madame la baronne!--Are you here?--Has anything happened to you?"
"This way, messieurs, this way; yes, I am here!" the lady made haste to reply, overjoyed by the arrival of the young men. "Come, come, messieurs! come! mon Dieu! how opportunely you arrive!"
"But, madame, how does it happen that you remained alone in the wood? You did not follow the crowd, the torrent----"
"No, messieurs, I didn't follow the other ladies at first, because I had lost my--my handkerchief; it is quite a fine one and I stopped to look for it."
"Oh! if we had known that, madame, we would have saved you the trouble. Did you find it?"
"Yes, I have it; but then, as I was about to leave this spot, I had a fright, I heard a noise that terrified me so that I was too weak to walk when you arrived."
"It isn't probable that there are robbers in our wood," said little Astianax.
"It would be strange, at least, that they should have selected the day when it was full of people to come here," said Chambourdin.
"Unless," said Miaulard, "they are robbers who are very fond of a play, and who were unable to resist the desire to see the fine performance going on here!"
"_Fichtre!_ if _I_ had acted!" muttered young Saint-Arthur.
"You are pleased to jest, messieurs, but I believe that I still hear the noise which frightened me just now.--Yes, there it is; listen."
The young men ceased to speak and did in fact hear the prolonged groan.
"Parbleu! we will find out what that is!" said Astianax, arming himself with a chair.
