By this time Beatrix had recovered a little strength.
The ladder being placed, she was able, by the help of Gasselin, who
lowered Camille's red shawl till he could grasp it, to reach the round
top of the rock, where the Breton took her in his arms and carried her
to the shore as though she were an infant.
"I should not have said no to death--but suffering!" she murmured to
Felicite, in a feeble voice.
The weakness, in fact the complete prostration, of the marquise
obliged Camille to have her taken to the farmhouse from which the
ladder had been borrowed. Calyste, Gasselin, and Camille took off what
clothes they could spare and laid them on the ladder, making a sort of
litter on which they carried Beatrix. The farmers gave her a bed.
Gasselin then went to the place where the carriage was awaiting them,
and, taking one of the horses, rode to Croisic to obtain a doctor,
telling the boatman to row to the landing-place that was nearest to
the farmhouse.
Calyste, sitting on a stool, answered only by motions of the head, and
rare monosyllables when spoken to; Camille's uneasiness, roused for
Beatrix, was still further excited by Calyste's unnatural condition.
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