safety in me; at each minute he reiterated a prayer that I would not
abandon him; and I as often replied, "Ya, François, ya, I not leave
you." At length the decisive moment came, the cord was broken. I
leaped a ditch, which separated us from a thicket. Moiselet, who
seemed young again, jumped after me: one of the gendarmes alighted to
follow us, but to run and jump in jack-boots and with a heavy sword
was difficult; and whilst he made a circuit to join us, we disappeared
in a hollow, and were soon lost to view.

A path into which we struck led us to the wood of Vaujours. There
Moiselet stopped, and having looked carefully about him, went towards
some bushes. I saw him then stoop, plunge his arm into a thick tuft,
whence he took out a spade: arising quickly, he went on some paces
without saying a word; and when we reached a birch tree, several of
the boughs of which I observed were broken, he took off his hat and
coat, and began to dig. He went to work with so much good-will, that
his labour rapidly advanced. Suddenly he stooped down, and then
escaped from him that ha! which betokens satisfaction, and which
informed me, without the use of a conjuror's rod, that he had found
his treasure. I thought the cooper would have fainted; but recovering
himself, he made two or three more strokes with his spade, and the box
was exposed to view. I seized on the instrument of his toil, and
suddenly changing my language, declared, in very good French, that he
was my prisoner.

"No resistance," I said, "or I will cleave your skull in two."

At this threat he seemed in a dream; but when he knew that he was
gripped by that iron hand which had subdued the most vigorous
malefactors, he was convinced that it was no vision. Moiselet was as