know he was coming, and waited for an answering light.

"Come, M. Gaston," entreated old St. Jean, who could not understand the
strange conduct. "For God's sake make haste! your life is at stake!"

At last he came running down the stairs, and had just reached the
vestibule when a pistol-shot, the signal given by the marquis, was
heard.

The loud swinging open of the large gate, the rattling of the sabres
of the gendarmes, the furious galloping of many horses, and a chorus of
loud shouts and angry oaths, were next heard.

Leaning against the window, his brow beaded with cold perspiration, the
Marquis de Clameran breathlessly awaited the issue of this expedient,
upon which depended the life of his eldest son.

His measures were excellent, and deserved success. As he had ordered,
Louis and La Verdure dashed out through the gate, one to the right, the
other to the left, each one pursued by a dozen mounted men. Their horses
flew like arrows, and kept far ahead of the pursuers.

Gaston would have been saved, but for the interference of fate; but was
it fate, or was it malice?

Suddenly Louis's horse stumbled, and fell to the ground with his rider.
The gendarmes rode up, and at once recognized the second son of M. de
Clameran.

"This is not the assassin!" they cried. "Let us hurry back, else he will
escape!"

They returned just in time to see, by the uncertain light of the moon
peeping from behind a cloud, Gaston climbing the garden wall.

"There is our man!" exclaimed the corporal. "Keep your eyes open, and
gallop after him!"

They spurred their horses, and hastened to the spot where Gaston had
jumped from the wall.

On a wooded piece of ground, even if it be hilly, an agile man, if he
preserves his presence of mind, can escape a number of horsemen. The
ground on this side of the park was favorable to Gaston. He found
himself in an immense madder-field; and, as is well known, as this
valuable root must remain in the ground three years, the furrows are
necessarily ploughed very deep. Horses cannot even walk over its uneven
surface; indeed, they can scarcely stand steadily upon it.

This circumstance brought the gendarmes to a dead halt.

Four rash hussars ventured in the field, but they and their beasts were
soon rolling between hillocks.

Jumping from ridge to ridge, Gaston soon reached a large field, freshly
ploughed, and planted with young chestnuts.

As his chances of escape increased, the excitement gr