y word, my good fellow," said M. Seneschal, "you have done better
than the gendarmes!"

The manner in which Michael winked with his eye showed that he had not a
very exalted opinion of the cleverness of the gendarmes.

"I promised the baron," he said, "I would get hold of Cocoleu somehow or
other. I knew that at certain times he went and buried himself, like the
wild beast that he is, in a hole which he has scratched under a rock in
the densest part of the forest of Rochepommier. I had discovered this
den of his one day by accident; for a man might pass by a hundred times,
and never dream of where it was. But, as soon as the baron told me that
the innocent had disappeared, I said to myself, 'I am sure he is in his
hole: let us go and see.' So I gathered up my legs; I ran down to the
rocks: and there was Cocoleu. But it was not so easy to pull him out of
his den. He would not come; and, while defending himself, he bit me in
the hand, like the mad dog that he is."

And Michael held up his left hand, wrapped up in a bloody piece of
linen.

"It was pretty hard work to get the madman here. I was compelled to tie
him hand and foot, and to carry him bodily to my father's house. There
we put him into the little carriage, and here he is. Just look at the
pretty fellow!"

He was hideous at that moment, with his livid face spotted all over with
red marks, his hanging lips covered with white foam, and his brutish
glances.

"Why would you not come?" asked M. Seneschal.

The idiot looked as if he did not hear.

"Why did you bite Michael?" continued the mayor.

Cocoleu made no reply.

"Do you know that M. de Boiscoran is in prison because of what you have
said?"

Still no reply.

"Ah!" said Michael, "it is of no use to question him. You might beat him
till to-morrow, and he would rather give up the ghost than say a word."

"I am--I am hungry," stammered Cocoleu.

M. Folgat looked indignant.

"And to think," he said, "that, upon the testimony of such a thing, a
capital charge has been made!"

Grandpapa Chandore seemed to be seriously embarrassed. He said,--

"But now, what in the world are we to do with the idiot?"

"I am going to take him," said M. Seneschal, "to the hospital. I will
go with him myself, and let Dr. Seignebos know, and the commonwealth
attorney."

Dr. Seignebos was an eccentric man, beyond doubt; and the absurd stories
which his enemies attributed to him were not all unfounded. But he had,
at