"Go, then; I will keep you no longer."
"One last kiss."
"Adieu!"
The young girl consented, knowing that nothing could keep Isidore from obeying this order of his brother. She slid from his arms to the ground.
The young man looked away, sighed, hesitated, but under the influence of the order he had received, galloped away, casting one long last look on Catherine.
A servant followed him.
Catherine lay alone where she fell, completely closing the narrow way.
Just then a man appeared on the top of the hill, coming from Villers-Cotterets, and rapidly advancing towards the farm; he was very near treading on the inanimate body that lay in the pathway.
He lost his balance, stumbled and fell, and was not aware of the body until he touched it.
"Catherine!" said he; "Catherine dead?"
He uttered a cry of such agony that he aroused the very dogs of the farm.
"Who,—who has killed her?" He sat pale, trembling, and inert, with the body on his knees.
THE END.
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Ange Pitou Page 73
