She was hoping to greet her Manoel, she half expected to find Marcel, but to be faced by an officer was the last thing she had thought of.

In abject fear, she broke into a wild appeal to the Virgin; the officer merely laughed, though not loudly.
"Be not afraid, senhora--I am a friend," he said with quiet confidence, and the fact that he addressed her so courteously was a wondrously soothing thing in itself.

But he raised a fresh wave of dread in her soul when he peered into the cabin and spoke words she did not understand.
"I think you are here, mademoiselle," he said in French.

"I am come to share your retreat for a little while.

Perchance by daybreak I may arrive at some plan.