fore. At this unexpected obstacle Jacques Ferrand
precipitated himself against the door and shook it with desperate fury,
while Cecily, with the rapidity of thought, took the pocket-book between
her teeth, opened the window, threw a large cloak out into the yard
below, and, light and agile as bold and daring, seized a knotted cord
previously secured to the balcony, and glided from her chamber on the
first floor to the court beneath, descending with the swiftness of an
arrow shot from a bow. Then wrapping herself hastily in the mantle, she
flew to the porter's lodge, opened the door, drew up the string, ran
into the street, and sprang into a hackney-coach, which, ever since
Cecily had been with Jacques Ferrand, came regularly every evening, in
case of need, by Baron Grauen's orders, and took up its station a short
distance from the notary's house. Directly she had entered the vehicle
it drove off at the topmost speed of the two strong, powerful horses
that drew it, and had reached the Boulevards ere Jacques Ferrand had
even discovered Cecily's flight.

We will now return to the disappointed wretch. From the situation of the
door he was unable to perceive the window by which the creole had
contrived to prepare and make good her flight; but concentrating all his
powers, by a vigorous application of his brawny shoulders Jacques
Ferrand succeeded in forcing out the chain which kept the door from
opening.

With furious impatience he rushed into the chamber,--it was empty. The
knotted cord was still suspended to the balcony of the window from which
he leaned; and then, at the other extremity of the courtyard, he saw by
means of the moon, which just then shone out from behind the stormy
clouds which had hitherto obscured it, the dim outline of the outer gate
swinging to and fro as though left open by some person having hastily
passed through. Then did Jacques Ferrand divine the whole of the scheme
so successfully laid to entrap him; but a glimmer of hope still
remained. Determined and vigorous, he threw his leg over the balcony,
let himself down in his turn by the cord, and hastily quitted the house.

The street was quite deserted,--not a creature was to be seen; and the
only sound his ear could detect was the distant rumbling of the wheels
of the vehicle that bore away the object of his search. The notary, who
supposed it to be the carriage of some person whose business or pleasure
took them late from home, paid no attention