He held himself aloof while Pierre gave her all the assistance he could in their slow progress homewards.

But Morin accompanied her all the same.
He had played too desperate a game to be baulked now.

He had given information against the ci-devant Marquis de Crequy, as a returned emigre, to be met with at such a time, in such a place.

Morin had hoped that all sign of the arrest would have been cleared away before Virginie reached the spot--so swiftly were terrible deeds done in those days.

But Clement defended himself desperately: Virginie was punctual to a second; and, though the wounded man was borne off to the Abbaye, amid a crowd of the unsympathising jeerers who mingled with the armed officials of the Directory, Morin feared lest Virginie had recognized him; and he would have preferred that she should have thought that the 'faithful cousin' was faithless, than that she should have seen him in bloody danger on her account.