“Come, my boy, listen to me, and try to understand what I say. Do you
know what has happened at Valpinson?”
“Fire,” replied the idiot.
“Yes, my friend, fire, which burns down the house of your
benefactor,--fire, which has killed two good men. But that is not all:
they have tried to murder the count. Do you see him there in his bed,
wounded, and covered with blood? Do you see the countess, how she
suffers?”
Did Cocoleu follow him? His distorted features betrayed nothing of what
might be going on within him.
“Nonsense!” growled the doctor, “what obstinacy! What folly!”