Ah! the imbecile thunderbolt! Ah! the scythe, which with a single stroke
blindly cuts down a whole springtide! It was all so brutally sudden, so
utterly unexpected, that at first the stupefaction of Marianne and
Mathieu was greater than their despair. In response to their cries the
whole farm hastened up, the fearful news filled the place, and then all
sank into the deep silence of death--all work, all life ceasing. And the
other children were there, scared and overcome: little Nicolas, who did
not yet understand things; Gregoire, the page of the previous day;
Louise, Madeleine, and Marguerite, the three maids of honor, and their
elders, Claire and Gervais, who felt the blow more deeply. And there were
yet the others journeying away, Blaise, Denis, and Ambroise, travelling
to Paris at that very moment, in ignorance of the unforeseen, frightful
hatchet-stroke which had fallen on the family. Where would the terrible
tidings reach them? In what cruel distress would they return! And the
doctor who would soon arrive too! But all at once, amid the terror and
confusion, there rang out the cries of Frederic, the poor dead girl's
affianced lover.
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