Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/189

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and listening like the timid deer, for the approach of the savage hound, whose thirst nothing but blood can satiate: starting, as by electricity, at a cold touch on my hand, I involuntarily threw myself into an attitude of defence, but seeing nothing, and judging that coward fancy had created this alarm, I again advanced, when I perceived by my side the dog Fox, whose cold mark of recognition in the dark, had been the cause of it, and who, trotting before me to the house, every now and then returned, as if to invite, and assure me that no enemy was near. Having reached the window, I gently tapped; Madame Derikre opened it, begged me not to come in, and sent the dog to look out. My first inquiry was, of the doubtful fate of Mansell; she said, that she had escorted him to Moitier's, disguised as a girl, had left him there, and had not seen him since. She then related, that, soon after her return, the house was surrounded and searched most minutely by thirty-six gens d'armes and police officers, without their finding any thing to corroborate their suspicions. During our