,
forgot his fatigue, and followed him silently, grieved to have touched a
wound that was evidently not healed.

"Some day, my friend," said Philippe, pressing his hand, and thanking
him for his mute repentance by a heart-rending look, "I will relate to
you my life. To-day I cannot."

They continued their way in silence. When the colonel's pain seemed
soothed, the marquis resumed his fatigue; and with the instinct, or
rather the will, of a wearied man his eye took in the very depths of the
forest; he questioned the tree-tops and examined the branching paths,
hoping to discover some dwelling where he could ask hospitality.
Arriving at a cross-ways, he thought he noticed a slight smoke rising
among the trees; he stopped, looked more attentively, and saw, in the
midst of a vast copse, the dark-green branches of several pine-trees.

"A house! a house!" he cried, with the joy the sailor feels in crying
"Land!"

Then he sprang quickly into the copse, and the colonel, who had fallen
into a deep reverie, followed him mechanically.

"I'd rather get an omelet, some cottage bread, and a chair here," he
said, "than go to Cassan for sofas, truffles, and Bordeaux."

These words were an exclamation of enthusiasm, elicited from the
councillor on catching sight of a wall, the white towers of which
glimmered in the distance through the brown masses of the tree trunks.

"Ha! ha! this looks to me as if it had once been a priory," cried the
marquis, as they reached a very old and blackened gate, through which
they could see, in the midst of a large park, a building constructed in
the style of the monasteries of old. "How those rascals the monks knew
how to choose their sites!"

This last exclamation was an expression of surprise and pleasure at the
poetical hermitage which met his eyes. The house stood on the slope of
the mountain, at the summit of which is the village of Nerville. The
great centennial oaks of the forest which encircled the dwelling made
the place an absolute solitude. The main building, formerly occupied by
the monks, faced south. The park seemed to have about forty acres.
Near the house lay a succession of green meadows, charmingly crossed by
several clear rivulets, with here and there a piece of water naturally
placed without the least apparent artifice. Trees of elegant shape and
varied foliage were distributed about. Grottos, cleverly managed, and
massive terraces with dilapidated steps and rusty railings, gav