it within twenty miles of this place, except in this cursed wood--of
that I am sure."

"Do you think there is yet time?" asked the young Count, in a low voice.
"The children seem to me to be very ill."

"Lost, I fear; but everything depends on the time that has passed, the
quantity they have taken, and the remedies I can procure."

The old man consulted quickly with Madame de Tecle, who found she had not
in her country pharmacy the necessary remedies, or counter-irritants,
which the urgency of the case demanded. The doctor was obliged to content
himself with the essence of coffee, which the servant was ordered to
prepare in haste, and to send to the village for the other things needed.

"To the village!" cried Madame de Tecle. "Good heavens! it is four
leagues--it is night, and we shall have to wait probably three or four
hours!"

Camors heard this: "Doctor, write your prescription," he said: "Trilby is
at the door, and with him I can do the four leagues in an hour--in one
hour I promise to return here."

"Oh! thank you, Monsieur!" said Madame de Tecle.

He took the prescription which Dr. Durocher had rapidly traced on a leaf
of his pocketbook, mounted his horse, and departed.

The highroad was fortunately not far distant. When he reached it he rode
like the phantom horseman.

It was nine o'clock when Madame de Tecle witnessed his departure--it was
a few moments after ten when she heard the tramp of his horse at the foot
of the hill and ran to the door of the hut. The condition of the two
children seemed to have grown worse in the interval, but the old doctor
had great hopes in the remedies which Camors was to bring. She waited
with impatience, and received him like the dawn of the last hope. She
contented herself with pressing his hand, when, breathless, he descended
from his horse. But this adorable creature threw herself on Trilby, who
was covered with foam and steaming like a furnace.

"Poor Trilby," she said, embracing him in her two arms, "dear
Trilby--good Trilby! you are half dead, are you not? But I love you well.
Go quickly, Monsieur de Camors, I will attend to Trilby"--and while the
young man entered the cabin, she confided Trilby to the charge of her
servant, with orders to take him to the stable, and a thousand minute
directions to take good care of him after his noble conduct. Dr. Durocher
had to obtain the aid of Camors to pass the new medicine through the
clenched teeth of the unfortunate chi