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Lanrivain had said; and I was overcome by the almost blasphemous frivolity of suggesting to any living being that Kerfol was the place for him. "Is it possible that any one could NOT see ?" I wondered. I did not finish the thought: what I meant was undefinable. I stood up and wandered toward the gate.
Two or three witnesses thereupon came forward to say that it was known throughout the country that Lanrivain had formerly been on good terms with the lady of Cornault; but that he had been absent from Brittany for over a year, and people had ceased to associate their names. The witnesses who made this statement were not of a very reputable sort.
"But what did you want to say to Herve de Lanrivain?" the court asked; and she answered: "To ask him to take me away." "Ah you confess that you went down to him with adulterous thoughts?" "No." "Then why did you want him to take you away?" "Because I was afraid for my life." "Of whom were you afraid?" "Of my husband." "Why were you afraid of your husband?"
"There was nobody about. At least I saw no one." "How extraordinary! Literally nobody?" "Nobody but a lot of dogs a whole pack of them who seemed to have the place to themselves." Madame de Lanrivain let the embroidery slip to her knee and folded her hands on it. For several minutes she looked at me thoughtfully. "A pack of dogs you SAW them?" "Saw them? I saw nothing else!" "How many?"
But she went on to the end, with a kind of hypnotized insistence, as though the scenes she evoked were so real to her that she had forgotten where she was and imagined herself to be re-living them. "I did not murder my husband." "Who did, then? Hervé de Lanrivain?" "No." "Who then? Can you tell us?" "Yes, I can tell you. The dogs " At that point she was carried out of the court in a swoon.
"Where was Hervé de Lanrivain at this time?" "He was standing outside in the court. I just made him out in the darkness. I told him for God's sake to go, and then I pushed the door shut." "What did you do next?" "I stood at the foot of the stairs and listened." "What did you hear?" "I heard dogs snarling and panting." "What dogs?"
Then the strange scent attracted her and she began to wonder what kind of spice was in the box. She opened it and found a grey bean rolled in a strip of paper; and on the paper she saw a sign she knew, and a message from Hervé de Lanrivain, saying that he was at home again and would be at the door in the court that night after the moon had set.... She burned the paper and sat down to think.
Barbe no one could object, and even the chaplain declared himself in favour of the pilgrimage. So Anne set out for Ste. Barbe, and there for the first time she talked with Hervé de Lanrivain. He had come once or twice to Kerfol with his father, but she had never before exchanged a dozen words with him.
"Where was Herve de Lanrivain at this time?" "He was standing outside in the court. I just made him out in the darkness. I told him for God's sake to go, and then I pushed the door shut." "What did you do next?" "I stood at the foot of the stairs and listened." "What did you hear?" "I heard dogs snarling and panting." "What dogs?"
The book was written about a hundred years later than the Kerfol affair; but I believe the account is transcribed pretty literally from the judicial records. Anyhow, it's queer reading. And there's a Hervé de Lanrivain mixed up in it not exactly my style, as you'll see. But then he's only a collateral. Here, take the book up to bed with you.
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