ABSTRACT
Far on in the night b there were voices outside reached us in our hiding-place; c an angry knocking at the door, and we saw through the chinks d the old woman rouse e herself up to go and open it for her master, who came in, evidently half drunk. To f my sick horror, he was g followed by Lefebvre, apparently h as sober and wily as over. They were talking together as they came in, disputing about something; but the miller stopped the conversation to swear at the old woman for having fallen asleep, and, with tipsy anger, and even with blows, i drove the poor old creature j out of the kitchen to bed. Then he and Lefebvre went on talking – about the Sieur de Poissy’s disappearance. It seemed that Lefebvre had been out all day, along with other of my husband’s men, ostensibly assisting in the search; in all probability trying to blind the Sieur de Poissy’s followers by putting them on a wrong scent, and also, I fancied, from one or two of Lefebvre’s sly questions, combining the hidden purpose of discovering us.
