d be false; for her son possessed her whole soul, and she thought,--

"This is the first time he has ever disobeyed and deceived me. The demon
of avarice has entered into him. Why does he want so much money? Can all
the riches in the world pay for one of the tears that the ingratitude of
a beloved son draws from his mother's eyes?"

Suddenly her thoughts were arrested, for the sound of a trumpet was
heard in the still night.

"It is the convent horn," said Matheline.

"And it sounds the wolf-alarm," added Pol.

"What harm can the wolf do," asked Josserande, "to a well-mounted troop
like the cavalry of Gildas the Wise? And, besides, cannot the holy abbot
with a single word put to flight a hundred wolves?"

They arrived at the heath of Carnac, where are the two thousand seven
hundred and twenty-nine Druid stones, and the monks had already passed
the round point where nothing grows, neither grass nor heath, and which
resembles an enormous caldron,--a caldron wherein to make
oaten-porridge,--or rather a race-course, to exercise horses.

On one side might be seen the town, dark and gloomy; on the other, as
far as the eye could reach, rows of rugged obelisks, half-black,
half-white, owing to the snow, which threw into bold relief each jagged
outline. Josserande, Matheline, and Pol Bihan had just turned from the
sunken road which branches towards Plouharnel; and the moon played
hide-and-go-seek behind a flock of little clouds that flitted over the
sky like lambs.

Then a strange thing happened. The cavalcade of monks was seen to
retreat from the entrance of the avenues to the middle of the circle,
while the horn sounded the signal of distress, and loud cries were heard
of "Wolf! wolf! wolf!" At the same time could be distinguished the
clashing of arms, the stamping of horses, and all the noise of a
ferocious struggle, above which rose the majestic tones of Gildas the
Wise, as he said, with calmness,--

"Wolf, wicked wolf, I forbid you to touch God's servants!" But it
seemed that the wicked wolf was in no hurry to obey, for the cavalcade
plunged hither and thither as though shaken by convulsion; and the moon
having come forth from the clouds, there was seen an enormous beast
struggling with the staffs of the monks, the halberds of the armed
guard, the pitchforks and spears of the peasants, who had hastened from
all directions at the trumpet-call from Ruiz.

The animal received many wounds, but it was fated not to die