.

THE TWO SIGNALS.
Let us now relate what happened at the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines three days after the events we have just described took place in Paris.
Since the successive departures of Roland, then Madame de Montrevel and her son, and finally Sir John--Roland to rejoin his general, Madame de Montrevel to place Edouard in school, and Sir John to acquaint Roland with his matrimonial plans--Amelie had remained alone with Charlotte at the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines.

We say _alone_, because Michel and his son Jacques did not live in the house, but in the little lodge at the gate where he added the duties of porter to those of gardener.
It therefore happened that at night all the windows, excepting those of Amelie, which, as we have said, were on the first floor overlooking the garden, and that of Charlotte in the attic, were left in darkness.
Madame de Montrevel had taken the second chambermaid with her.

The two young girls were perhaps rather isolated in their part of the house, which consisted of a dozen bedrooms on three floors, especially at a time when so many rumors of robberies on the highroads reached them.
Michel, therefore, proposed to his young mistress that he sleep in the main building, so as to be near her in case of need.

But she, in a firm voice, assured him that she felt no fear, and desired no change in the customary routine of the chateau.
Michel did not insist, and retired, saying that Mademoiselle might, in any case, sleep in peace, for he and Jacques would make the rounds of the house during the night.
Amelie at first seemed anxious about those rounds; but she soon noticed that Michel and Jacques contented themselves with watching on the edge of the forest of Seillon, and the frequent appearance of a jugged hare, or a haunch of venison on the table, proved to her that Michel kept his word regarding the promised rounds.
She therefore ceased to trouble about Michel's rounds, which were always on the side of the house opposite to that where she feared them.
Now, as we have said, three days after the events we have just related, or, to speak more correctly, during the night following the third day, those who were accustomed to see no light save in Amelie's windows on the first floor and Charlotte's on the third, might have observed with surprise that, from eleven o'clock until midnight, the four windows on the first floor were illuminated.