nto the sort of
terror that so affects the very springs of life that all things become
excessive, weakness as well as strength. The feeblest beings will then
do deeds of amazing power; the strongest go mad with fear.

Marie heard at a short distance a number of strange sounds, distinct yet
vague, indicative of confusion and tumult, fatiguing to the ear which
tried to distinguish them. They came from the ground, which seemed to
tremble beneath the feet of a multitude of marching men. A momentary
clearness in the sky enabled her to perceive at a little distance long
files of hideous figures waving like ears of corn and gliding like
phantoms; but she scarcely saw them, for darkness fell again, like a
black curtain, and hid the fearful scene which seemed to her full of
yellow, dazzling eyes. She turned hastily and ran to the top of a
bank to escape meeting three of these horrible figures who were coming
towards her.

"Did you see it?" said one.

"I felt a cold wind as it rushed past me," replied a hoarse voice.

"I smelt a damp and graveyard smell," said the third.

"Was it white?" asked the first.

"Why should only _he_ come back out of all those we left dead at La
Pelerine?" said the second.

"Why indeed?" replied the third. "Why do the Sacre-Coeur men have the
preference? Well, at any rate, I'd rather die without confession than
wander about as he does, without eating or drinking, and no blood in his
body or flesh on his bones."

"Ah!"

This exclamation, or rather this fearful cry, issued from the group
as the three Chouans pointed to the slender form and pallid face of
Mademoiselle de Verneuil, who fled away with terrified rapidity without
a sound.

"Here he is!" "There he is!" "Where?" "There!" "He's gone!" "No!" "Yes!"
"Can you see him?" These cries reverberated like the monotonous murmur
of waves upon a shore.

Mademoiselle de Verneuil walked bravely in the direction of the house
she had seen, and soon came in sight of a number of persons, who all
fled away at her approach with every sign of panic fear. She felt
impelled to advance by a mysterious power which coerced her; the
lightness of her body, which seemed to herself inexplicable, was another
source of terror. These forms which rose in masses at her approach, as
if from the ground on which she trod, uttered moans which were scarcely
human. At last she reached, not without difficulty, a trampled garden,
the hedges and fences of which were broken do