Samouard wept bitter tears, and almost resumed his earlier dark thoughts of suicide. But no! he wished to live, to live and take vengeance on those who had wronged him. So before long, his mind returned to thoughts of escape. Though the digging was complete, he found his flight hindered by yet another obstacle, more redoubtable than the castle wall itself: the Silent Watchers. These were the most horrible abominations of the Ancien Régime: two white marble statues seated upon thrones, each with three bodies and three heads topped with powdered wigs, facing inward, outward, and across the doorway. They seemed immovable, and yet they were aware; occasionally they even quoted Racine.
Therefore Gamgès controve another plan. By now, the authorities had discovered the abbé's death and had had him wrapped in a shroud. Quickly, Samouard moved Frodia's remains to his own cell, and then hid himself in the shroud, reckoning that after burial he could easily delve his way to the surface. The only mild hitch was that he was not interred at all, but was tossed into the tempest-torn sea: the graveyard of the Château de Loqueholles.
