was
trying to bandage it with his handkerchief, when he heard the sound of
approaching footsteps.

He had no time for reflection; he sprang into the forest that lies to
the left of the Croix d'Arcy.

The troops were returning to Montaignac after pursuing the rebels for
more than three miles. There were about two hundred soldiers, and they
were bringing back, as prisoners, about twenty peasants.

Hidden by a great oak scarcely fifteen paces from the road, Lacheneur
recognized several of the prisoners in the gray light of dawn. It
was only by the merest chance that he escaped discovery; and he fully
realized how difficult it would be for him to gain the frontier without
falling into the hands of the detachment of soldiery, who were doubtless
scouring the country in every direction.

Still he did not despair.

The mountains lay only two leagues away; and he firmly believed that he
could successfully elude his pursuers as soon as he gained the shelter
of the hills.

He began his journey courageously.

Alas! he had not realized how exhausted he had become from the excessive
labor and excitement of the past few days, and by the loss of blood from
his wound, which he could not stanch.

He tore up a pole in one of the vineyards to serve as a staff, and
dragged himself along, keeping in the shelter of the woods as much as
possible, and creeping along beside the hedges and in the ditches when
he was obliged to traverse an open space.

To the great physical suffering, and the most cruel mental anguish, was
now added an agony that momentarily increased--hunger.

He had eaten nothing for thirty hours, and he felt terribly weak from
lack of nourishment. This torture soon became so intolerable that he was
willing to brave anything to appease it.

At last he perceived the roofs of a tiny hamlet. He decided to enter it
and ask for food. He was on the outskirts of the village, when he heard
the rolling of a drum. Instinctively he hid behind a wall. But it was
only a town-crier beating his drum to call the people together.

And soon a voice rose so clear and penetrating that each word it uttered
fell distinctly on Lacheneur's ears.

It said:

"This is to inform you that the authorities of Montaignac promise to
give a reward of twenty thousand francs--two thousand pistoles, you
understand--to him who will deliver up the man known as Lacheneur, dead
or alive. Dead or alive, you understand. If he is dead, the compensation