his spurs into the flanks of his horse, which,
with bounds of pain, flew forward, and leaping off, he peered anxiously
into the carriage. The situation was clear enough to him, for its like
was then only too common, so, placing aside for the time being his rage
at the villains, he lifted and straightened the insensible lady into a
position on the seat-cushions, and sent a groom forward for help.

The gratitude of the Prince was profuse. Cyrene spoke not a word. The
shock to her had been intense, and burying her face in her handkerchief
she burst into tears, which more than ever agitated Lecour.

In a few minutes d'Estaing and de Grancey drove up. They were astonished
at the speed and audacity of the affair.

CHAPTER X

THE GALLEY-ON-LAND

At three o'clock a search party of friends and gendarmes from the
Palace, at which the occurrence had aroused something of a flutter, came
back to the place.

The Guardsmen offered to scour the woods in a body. Lecour soberly
recommended a different plan, which they adopted, and placing his six
friends and several royal gamekeepers in Indian file he started at their
head. They followed him without speaking and watched him closely as,
with an intentness quite un-French, he bent down to see farther through
the trees, examined the branches for newly-broken twigs, the displaced
stones, the crushed mosses, disturbed grass, and soft places of the
ground, and the little indications read and looked for by trappers and
Indians. As he entered the woods the traces of the first rush back of
the robbers gave a mass of easy clues and an initial direction.
Following on they came to a marsh, where they found footmarks, and
readily put together the number of the thieves and the physical
character of each. In an open place the trail would be an unconcealed
track across the grass; in dry woods perhaps it would be lost for many
yards. Its discovery, of course, was not altogether so marvellous a
matter as they thought. But it helped Germain's reputation afterwards.

At last they came into a tangled and difficult region called Apremont,
where the rocky ridges were broken into intractable ruins--the most
savage portion of the forest. Strange cliffs of shale, eaten by weather
and earthquake into the most picturesque columns and caves, confronted
them. Here the signs became rare and the advance tedious, but the little
column still breathlessly followed the woodsman. They were rewarded by
findi