ry, staring eyes, then turned again and fled homeward. She swerved once
toward Dr. Sevier's quarters, but soon decided to see first if there
were any tidings with Mrs. Riley, and so resumed her course. Night
overtook her in streets where every footstep before or behind her made
her tremble; but at length she crossed the threshold of Mrs. Riley's
little parlor. Mrs. Riley was standing in the door, and retreated a step
or two backward as Mary entered with a look of wild inquiry.

"Not come?" cried the wife.

"Mrs. Richlin'," said the widow, hurriedly, "yer husband's alive and
found."

Mary seized her frantically by the shoulders, crying with high-pitched
voice:--

"Where is he?--where is he?"

"Ya can't see um till marning, Mrs. Richlin'."

"Where is he?" cried Mary, louder than before.

"Me dear," said Mrs. Riley, "ye kin easy git him out in the marning."

"Mrs. Riley," said Mary, holding her with her eye, "is my husband in
prison?--O Lord God! O God! my God!"

Mrs. Riley wept. She clasped the moaning, sobbing wife to her bosom, and
with streaming eyes said:--

"Mrs. Richlin', me dear, Mrs. Richlin', me dear, what wad I give to have
my husband this night where your husband is!"

CHAPTER XXIX.

RELEASE.--NARCISSE.

As some children were playing in the street before the Parish Prison
next morning, they suddenly started and scampered toward the prison's
black entrance. A physician's carriage had driven briskly up to it,
ground its wheels against the curb-stone, and halted. If any fresh
crumbs of horror were about to be dropped, the children must be there to
feast on them. Dr. Sevier stepped out, gave Mary his hand and then his
arm, and went in with her. A question or two in the prison office, a
reference to the rolls, and a turnkey led the way through a dark gallery
lighted with dimly burning gas. The stench was suffocating. They stopped
at the inner gate.

"Why didn't you bring him to us?" asked the Doctor, scowling resentfully
at the facetious drawings and legends on the walls, where the dampness
glistened in the sickly light.

The keeper made a low reply as he shot the bolts.

"What?" quickly asked Mary.

"He's not well," said Dr. Sevier.

The gate swung open. They stepped into the yard and across it. The
prisoners paused in a game of ball. Others, who were playing cards,
merely glanced up and went on. The jailer pointed with his bunch of keys
to a cell before him. Mary glided away from th