gone.

The boys were more eager than Marie to be home. They were in fear for
their rabbits and doves. They were heaping up their faggots with all
speed, when they heard noises from the lane which made them pause.
There was the sound of wheels, and the tramp of many horses, and the
voices of a large company.

"It is the Count and his family," said Marie, "coming to the chateau by
the shortest road. No--do not go, boys," she entreated, as they left
their faggots, and began forcing their way through the brushwood towards
the pond, that they might see the sight in the lane. "Robin, dear
Robin!--Marc,--come back! Do come back, now! You will see them much
better to-morrow. They will make a much grander show to-morrow.
Charles, do make them stay here!"

Charles did not attempt this. He was thinking of something else; for he
had observed Marie's colour change when the cavalcade was first heard in
the lane. He fixed his eyes upon her as he said--

"Had you seen the Count and his train when you found us here?"

"Yes," she replied, looking in his face; "I had crossed the corner of
neighbour Thibaut's field, and was upon the stile when the party turned
into the cross-road; and I had to wait till they were all past."

"How many were there?"

"Oh, more than I can tell. There was a coach full of ladies, and six
horses to it. And some more ladies on horseback, and some gentlemen,
and many servants."

"Did any of them speak to you?"

"They gave me good-day. But, Charles, I could hardly return it
dutifully to them." She hid her face on her lover's shoulder as she
whispered, "It made my heart sink to nothing, and does now, to think
that I cannot be married without his consent,--that great Count's! When
I saw his grandeur, I thought it never could be."

"Never fear," said Charles, relieved from some feeling of dread which he
hardly understood, but still with a heavy heart. "If his grandeur be
all you are afraid of, never fear. He will be too busy to attend to
such an affair, and will send us word through the bailiff, or the cure,
if we can get him to speak for us. Or we can wait a few days, till they
are fairly gone with the Dauphiness, and then marry; and the thing done,
he will not take it amiss that we did not trouble him for his consent,
at such a busy time."

"See, what are the boys doing?" exclaimed Marie, who saw through the
trees that her brothers were making the humblest of their rustic bows
repeated