Midnight Flight and Mysterious Rescue — The Romance of the Forest

Pierre de la Motte leaves Paris at midnight with his wife and two loyal servants, fleeing creditors and a legal scandal born of gambling and false pride. Advocate Nemours has arranged the escape, but the darkness and La Motte's own weakness sink him into dread before the journey has truly begun. Madame de la Motte grieves the city she may never see again and the son she could not warn in Germany. On a wild heath the postillion loses the road, and La Motte walks to a lonely house for directions. Instead of hospitality he is locked in a bare room with barred windows, convinced he will be robbed or delivered to justice. He hears a woman sobbing above and imagines his wife already taken. When the door opens, a ruffian points a pistol and orders him to swear he will carry away a terrified girl he has never met. Bound and blindfolded, La Motte is reunited with his carriage and compelled to accept Adeline as a passenger the banditti refuse to keep. In the morning he tells his wife what happened; Madame La Motte's compassion awakens even as La Motte worries about future trouble. Adeline falls into a dangerous fever at Monville, forcing a delay that terrifies La Motte yet deepens his unwilling care. She recovers, thanks Madame La Motte with artless gratitude, and the party presses on toward Lyons through the forest of Fontanville. Spring light briefly lifts Adeline's spirits until the road grows trackless at sunset and dark towers rise through the trees, ending the chapter on Gothic expectation rather than safety.