ghed.

"The scoundrels!" he said. "Madame was right."

Michaud and Blondet examined the body and found, just as the countess
had said, that some one had cut the greyhound's throat. To prevent his
barking he had been decoyed with a bit of meat, which was still between
his tongue and his palate.

"Poor brute; he died of self-indulgence."

"Like all princes," said Blondet.

"Some one, whoever it is, has just gone, fearing that we might catch him
or her," said Michaud. "A serious offence has been committed. But for
all that, I see no branches about and no lopped trees."

Blondet and the bailiff began a cautious search, looking at each spot
where they set their feet before setting them. Presently Blondet pointed
to a tree beneath which the grass was flattened down and two hollows
made.

"Some one knelt there, and it must have been a woman, for a man would
not have left such a quantity of flattened grass around the impression
of his two knees; yes, see! that is the outline of a petticoat."

The bailiff, after examining the base of the tree, found the beginning
of a hole beneath the bark; but he did not find the worm with the tough
skin, shiny and squamous, covered with brown specks, ending in a tail
not unlike that of a cockchafer, and having also the latter's head,
antennae, and the two vigorous hooks or shears with which the creature
cuts into the wood.

"My dear fellow," said Blondet, "now I understand the enormous number
of _dead_ trees that I noticed this morning from the terrace of
the chateau, and which brought me here to find out the cause of
the phenomenon. Worms are at work; but they are no other than your
peasants."

The bailiff gave vent to an oath and rushed off, followed by Blondet, to
rejoin the countess, whom he requested to take his wife home with her.
Then he jumped on Joseph's horse, leaving the man to return on foot, and
disappeared with great rapidity to cut off the retreat of the woman who
had killed his dog, hoping to catch her with the bloody bill-hook in her
hand and the tool used to make the incisions in the bark of the tree.

"Let us go and tell the general at once, before he breakfasts," cried
the countess; "he might die of anger."

"I'll prepare him," said Blondet.

"They have killed the dog," said Olympe, in tears.

"You loved the poor greyhound, dear, enough to weep for him?" said the
countess.

"I think of Prince as a warning; I fear some danger to my husband."

"How they h