drew back his head and refused to advance. Pierre Picard felt the beast's warm breath upon his cheek.
The brigadier gently flipped Sapajou's ears to force him to enter the pool, but the animal backed a couple of paces, and his master was unable, either by blows or pattings, to induce him to obey.
"Oh! we are in our tantrums!" cried the brigadier, furious at a resistance to which he was wholly unused; "we'll see which of us is going to give in to the other."
And he was preparing to flog poor Sapajou severely, when, as it understanding the impending danger, the animal wheeled suddenly to the left and entered the pool some paces further off.
"That's all the better for you," said the brigadier. Then, while his horse was drinking, he said to the peasants:
"Now, my good fellows, you can go back to the village; I and Sapajou will see to the rest."
The peasants moved off, wishing him good luck. Then the horse, having sufficiently satisfied his thirst, left the water and set off across the fields, stimulated by the voice of his master.
The murderer was left alone.
"The animal quickly drew back his head."
But, though he was benumbed with cold, he allowed more than a quarter of an hour to pass before venturing to quit his retreat. At length he came from the pool, dripping with water, his head and shoulders covered with water-grass and plants which clung to his skin and clothes, his body shivering, his face cadaverous. He cast a long glance over the deserted plain, and tried to speak, but his teeth clattered together so violently that it was some moments before he could articulate a word.
"Saved!" he gasped at length.
Then he continued, with profound dejection:
"Yes, saved—for the hour! But the brigadier waits for me on the frontier; the gendarmerie are warned, the whole population are on foot; the hunt is going to begin again against the common enemy—against the mad dog. The struggle—for ever the struggle—without cessation, without pity! All men against me, and God as well! It is too much—it is beyond my strength!"
While speaking he mechanically freed himself from the slimy weeds with which he was covered.
He gazed upon the solitude by which he was surrounded, and it appeared to terrify him: he seemed to feel in his heart the same cold, sullen, desolate solitude.
Then he took his head between his hands, and for five minutes remained plunged in his reflections.
"So be it," he said at length, in a resolute tone.
And he set in the direction of the village from which he had fled.
An hour afterwards he entered the tavern where the brigadier had been so near capturing him.
All the peasants who had pursued him were there.
"The assassin!" they cried in bewilderment.
"Yes," replied the murderer, calmly,
