usted
strength. La Louve had come to the succour of her lover at the very
instant when, worn-out and despairing, he felt himself dying,--less from
want of food than air, which it was impossible to obtain in so small an
apartment, unprovided with a chimney or any other outlet, and
hermetically closed, thanks to the fiendish contrivance of Calabash, who
had stopped even the most trifling crevices in the door and window with
pieces of old rag.

Trembling with joy and apprehension, her eyes streaming with tears, La
Louve, kneeling beside Martial, watched his slightest movements, and
intently gazed on his features. The unfortunate youth seemed gradually
to recover as his lungs inhaled a freer and more healthful atmosphere.
After a few convulsive shudderings he raised his languid head, heaved a
deep sigh, and, opening his eyes, looked eagerly around him.

"Martial! 'Tis I!--your Louve! How are you now?"

"Better!" replied he, in a feeble voice.

"Thank God! Will you have a little water or some vinegar?"

"No, no," replied Martial, speaking more naturally; "air, air! Oh, I
want only air!"

At the risk of gashing the backs of her hands, La Louve drove them
through the four panes of a window she could not have opened without
first removing a large and heavy table.

"Now I breathe! I breathe freely! And my head seems quite relieved!"
said Martial, entirely recovering his senses and voice.

Then, as if recalling for the first time the service his mistress had
rendered him, he exclaimed, with a burst of ineffable gratitude:

"But for you, my brave Louve, I should soon have been dead!"

"Oh, never mind thinking of that! But tell me, how do you find yourself
now?"

"Better--much better!"

"You are hungry, I doubt not?"

"No; I feel myself too weak for that. What I have suffered most cruelly
from has been want of air. At last I felt suffocating, strangling,
choking. Oh, it was dreadful!"

"But now?"

"I live again. I come forth from the very tomb itself; and that, too,
thanks to you!"

"And these cuts upon your poor bleeding hands! For God's sake, what have
they done to you?"

"Nicholas and Calabash, not daring to attack me openly a second time,
fastened me up in my chamber to allow me to perish of hunger in it. I
tried to prevent their nailing up my shutters, and my sister chopped my
fingers with a hatchet."

"The monsters! They wished to make it appear that you had died of
sickness. Your mother had spread th