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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chaplet of Pearls, by Charlotte M Yonge
+#31 in our series by Charlotte M Yonge
+
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+Title: The Chaplet of Pearls
+
+Author: Charlotte M Yonge
+
+Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5274]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on June 23, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHAPLET OF PEARLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Prepared by Hanh Vu, capriccio_vn@yahoo.com.  
+A web page for Charlotte M Yonge will be found at www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CHAPLET OF PEARLS
+
+BY
+
+CHARLOTTE M.YONGE
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I.       THE BRIDAL OF THE WHITE AND BLACK
+
+CHAPTER II.      THE SEPARATION
+
+CHAPTER III.     THE FAMILY COUNCIL
+
+CHAPTER IV.      TITHONUS
+
+CHAPTER V.       THE CONVENT BIRD
+
+CHAPTER VI.      FOULLY COZENED
+
+CHAPTER VII.     THE QUEEN'S PASTORAL
+
+CHAPTER VIII.    'LE BROUILLON'
+
+CHAPTER IX.      THE WEDDING WITH CRIMSON FAVOURS
+
+CHAPTER X.       MONSIEUR'S BALLET
+
+CHAPTER XI.      THE KING'S TRAGEDY
+
+CHAPTER XII.     THE PALACE OF SLAUGHTER
+
+CHAPTER XIII.    THE BRIDEGROOM'S ARRIVAL
+
+CHAPTER XIV.     SWEET HEART
+
+CHAPTER XV.      NOTRE-DAME DE BELLAISE
+
+CHAPTER XVI.     THE HEARTHS AND THICKETS OF THE BOCAGE
+
+CHAPTER XVII.    THE GHOSTS OF THE TEMPLARS
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.   THE MOONBEAM
+
+CHAPTER XIX.     LA RUE DES TROIS FEES
+
+CHAPTER XX.      THE ABBE
+
+CHAPTER XXI.     UNDER THE WALNUT-TREE
+
+CHAPTER XXII.    DEPARTURE
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.   THE EMPTY CRADLE
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.    THE GOOD PRIEST OF NISSARD
+
+CHAPTER XXV.     THE VELVET COACH
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.    THE CHEVALIER'S EXPIATION
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.   THE DYING KING
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.  THE ORPHANS OF LA SABLERIE
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.    IN THE KING'S NAME
+
+CHAPTER XXX.     CAGED IN THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.    THE DARK POOL OF THE FUTURE
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.   'JAM SATIS'
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.  THE SCANDAL OF THE SYNOD OF MONTAUBAN
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.   MADAME LA DUCHESSE
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.    THE ITALIAN PEDLAR
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.   SPELL AND POTION
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.  BEATING AGAINST THE BARS
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE ENEMY IN PRESENCE
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.   THE PEDLAR'S PREDICTION
+
+CHAPTER XL.      THE SANDS OF OLONNE
+
+CHAPTER XLI.     OUR LADY OF HOPE
+
+CHAPTER XLII.    THE SILVER BULLET
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.   LA BAISER D'EUSTACIE
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.    THE GALIMAFRE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+
+It is the fashion to call every story controversial that deals with
+times when controversy or a war of religion was raging; but it
+should be remembered that there are some which only attempt to
+portray human feelings as affected by the events that such warfare
+occasioned.  'Old Mortality' and 'Woodstock' are not controversial
+tales, and the 'Chaplet of Pearls' is so quite as little.  It only
+aims at drawing certain scenes and certain characters as the
+convulsions of the sixteenth century may have affected them, and
+is, in fact, like all historical romance, the shaping of the
+conceptions that the imagination must necessarily form when
+dwelling upon the records of history.  That faculty which might be
+called the passive fancy, and might almost be described in Portia's
+song, --
+
+                  'It is engendered in the eyes,
+              By READING fed - and there it dies,'--
+
+that faculty, I say, has learnt to feed upon character and
+incident, and to require that the latter should be effective and
+exciting.  Is it not reasonable to seek for this in the days when
+such things were not infrequent, and did not imply exceptional
+wickedness or misfortune in those engaged in them?  This seems to
+me one plea for historical novel, to which I would add the
+opportunity that it gives for study of the times and delineation of
+characters.  Shakespeare's Henry IV. and Henry V., Scott's Louis
+XI., Manzoni's Federigo Borromeo, Bulwer's Harold, James's Philip
+Augustus, are all real contributions to our comprehension of the
+men themselves, by calling the chronicles and memoirs into action.
+True, the picture cannot be exact, and is sometimes distorted--nay,
+sometimes praiseworthy efforts at correctness in the detail take
+away whatever might have been lifelike in the outline.  Yet,
+acknowledging all this, I must still plead for the tales that
+presumptuously deal with days gone by, as enabling the young to
+realize history vividly--and, what is still more desirable,
+requiring an effort of the mind which to read of modern days does
+not.  The details of Millais' Inquisition or of his Huguenot may be
+in error in spite of all his study and diligence, but they have
+brought before us for ever the horrors of the _auto-da-fe_, and the
+patient, steadfast heroism of the man who can smile aside his
+wife's endeavour to make him tacitly betray his faith to save his
+life.  Surely it is well, by pen as by picture, to go back to the
+past for figures that will stir the heart like these, even though
+the details be as incorrect as those of the revolt of Liege or of
+La Ferrette in 'Quentin Durward' and 'Anne of Geierstein.'
+
+Scott, however, willfully carved history to suit the purposes of
+his story; and in these days we have come to feel that a story must
+earn a certain amount of credibility by being in keeping with
+established facts, even if striking events have to be sacrificed,
+and that the order of time must be preserved.  In Shakespeare's
+days, or even in Scott's, it might have been possible to bring
+Henry III. and his _mignons_ to due punishment within the limits of
+a tale beginning with the Massacre of St. Bartholomew; but in 1868
+the broad outlines of tragedy must be given up to keep within the
+bounds of historical verity.
+
+How far this has been done, critics better read than myself must
+decide.  I have endeavoured to speak fairly, to the best of my
+ability, of such classes of persons as fell in with the course of
+the narrative, according to such lights as the memoirs of the time
+afford.  The Convent is scarcely a CLASS portrait, but the
+condition of it seems to be justified by hints in the Port Royal
+memoirs, respecting Maubuisson and others which Mere Angelique
+reformed.  The intolerance of the ladies at Montauban is described
+in Madame Duplessis-Mornay's life; and if Berenger's education and
+opinions are looked on as not sufficiently alien from Roman
+Catholicism, a reference to Froude's 'History of Queen Elizabeth'
+will show both that the customs of the country clergy, and likewise
+that a broad distinction was made by the better informed among the
+French between Calvinism and Protestantism or Lutheranism, in which
+they included Anglicanism.  The minister Gardon I do not consider
+as representing his class.  He is a POSSIBILITY modified to serve
+the purposes of the story.
+
+Into historical matters, however, I have only entered so far as my
+story became involved with them.  And here I have to apologize for
+a few blunders, detected too late for alteration even in the
+volumes.  Sir Francis Walsingham was a young rising statesman in
+1572, instead of the elderly sage he is represented; his daughter
+Frances was a mere infant, and Sir Philip Sidney was not knighted
+till much later.  For the rest, I have tried to show the scenes
+that shaped themselves before me as carefully as I could; though of
+course they must not be a presentiment of the times themselves, but
+of my notion of them.
+
+C. M. Yonge
+
+November 14th, 1868
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CHAPLET OF PEARLS
+
+or
+
+THE WHITE AND BLACK RIBAUMONT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.  THE BRIDAL OF THE WHITE AND BLACK
+
+
+
+           Small was the ring, and small in truth the finger:
+         What then?  the faith was large that dropped it down.
+                        Aubrey De Vere, INFANT BRIDAL
+
+
+Setting aside the consideration of the risk, the baby-weddings of
+the Middle Ages must have been very pretty sights.
+
+So the Court of France thought the bridal of Henri Beranger
+Eustache de Ribaumont and of Marie Eustacie Rosalie de Rebaumont du
+Nid-de-Merle, when, amid the festivals that accompanied the
+signature of the treaty of Cateau-Cabresis, good-natured King Henri
+II. presided merrily at the union of the little pair, whose unite
+ages did not reach ten years.
+
+There they stood under the portal of Notre-Dame, the little
+bridegroom in a white velvet coat, with puffed sleeves, slashed
+with scarlet satin, as were the short, also puffed breeches meeting
+his long white knitted silk stockings some way above the knee;
+large scarlet rosettes were in his white shoes, a scarlet knot
+adorned his little sword, and his velvet cap of the same colour
+bore a long white plume, and was encircled by a row of pearls of
+priceless value.  They are no other than that garland of pearls
+which, after a night of personal combat before the walls of Calais,
+Edward III. of England took from his helmet and presented to Sir
+Eustache de Ribaumont, a knight of Picardy, bidding him say
+everywhere that it was a gift from the King of England to the
+bravest of knights.
+
+The precious heirlooms were scarcely held with the respect due to
+an ornament so acquired.  The manly garb for the first time assumed
+by his sturdy legs, and the possession of the little sword, were
+evidently the most interesting parts of the affair to the youthful
+husband, who seemed to find in them his only solace for the weary
+length of the ceremony.  He was a fine, handsome little fellow,
+fair and rosy, with bright blue eyes, and hair like shining flax,
+unusually tall and strong-limbed for his age; and as he gave his
+hand to his little bride, and walked with her under a canopy up to
+kneel at the High Altar, for the marriage blessing and the mass,
+they looked like a full-grown couple seen through a diminishing-
+glass.
+
+The little bride was perhaps a less beautiful child, but she had a
+splendid pair of black eyes, and a sweet little mouth, both set
+into the uncomprehending solemnity of baby gravity and contentment
+in fine clothes.  In accordance with the vow indicated by her name
+of Marie, her dress was white and blue, turquoise forget-me-nots
+bound the little lace veil on her dark chestnut hair, the bosom of
+her white satin dress was sprinkled with the same azure jewel, and
+turquoises bordered every seam of the sweeping skirt with a train
+befitting a count's daughter, and meandered in gorgeous
+constellations round the hem.  The little thing lisped her own vows
+forth without much notion of their sense, and indeed was sometimes
+prompted by her bridesmaid cousin, a pretty little girl a year
+older, who thrust in her assistance so glibly that the King, as
+well as others of the spectators, laughed, and observed that she
+would get herself married to the boy instead of her cousin.
+
+There was, however, to be no doubt nor mistake about Beranger and
+Eustacie de Ribaumont being man and wife.  Every ceremony,
+religious or domestic, that could render a marriage valid, was gone
+through with real earnestness, although with infinite gaiety, on
+the part of the court.  Much depended on their union, and the
+reconcilement of the two branches of the family had long been a
+favourite scheme of King Henri II.
+
+Both alike were descended from Anselme de Ribaumont, renowned in
+the first Crusade, and from the brave Picard who had received the
+pearls; but, in the miserable anarchy of Charles VI.'s reign, the
+elder brother had been on the Burgundian side--like most of the
+other nobles of Picardy--and had thus been brought into the English
+camp, where, regarding Henry V. as lawfully appointed to the
+succession, and much admiring him and his brother Nedford, he had
+become an ardent supporter of the English claim.  He had married an
+English lady, and had received the grant if the castle of Leurre in
+Normandy by way of compensation for his ancestral one of Ribaumont
+in Picardy, which had been declared to be forfeited by his treason,
+and seized by his brother.
+
+This brother had always been an Armagnac, and had risen and thriven
+with his party,--before the final peace between France and England
+obliged the elder line to submit to Charles VII.  Since that time
+there had been a perpetual contention as to the restitution of
+Chateau Ribaumont, a strife which under Louis XI. had become an
+endless lawsuit; and in the days of dueling had occasioned a good
+many insults and private encounters.  The younger branch, or Black
+Ribaumonts, had received a grant from Louis XI. of the lands of
+Nid-de-Merle, belonging to an unfortunate Angevin noble, who had
+fallen under the royal displeasure, and they had enjoyed court
+favour up to the present generation, when Henri II., either from
+opposition to his father, instinct for honesty, or both, had become
+a warm friend to the gay and brilliant young Baron de Ribaumont,
+head of the white or elder branch of the family.
+
+The family contention seemed likely to wear out of its own accord,
+for the Count de Ribaumont was an elderly and childless man, and
+his brother, the Chevalier de Ribaumont, was, according to the
+usual lot of French juniors, a bachelor, so that it was expected
+that the whole inheritance would centre upon the elder family.
+However, to the general surprise, the Chevalier late in life
+married, and became the father of a son and daughter; but soon
+after calculations were still more thrown out by the birth of a
+little daughter in the old age of the Count.
+
+Almost from the hour in which her sex was announced, the King had
+promised the Baron de Ribaumont that she should be the wife of his
+young son, and that all the possessions of the house should be
+settled upon the little couple, engaging to provide for the
+Chevalier's disappointed heir in some commandery of a religious
+order of knighthood.
+
+The Baron's wife was English.  He had, when on a visit to his
+English kindred, entirely turned the head of the lovely Annora
+Walwyn, and finding that her father, one of the gravest of Tudor
+statesmen, would not hear of her breaking her engagement to the
+honest Dorset squire Marmaduke Thistlewood, he had carried her off
+by a stolen marriage and _coup de main_, which, as her beauty,
+rank, and inheritance were all considerable, had won him great
+reputation at the gay court of Henri II.
+
+Infants as the boy and girl were, the King had hurried on their
+marriage to secure its taking place in the lifetime of the Count.
+The Countess had died soon after the birth of the little girl, and
+if the arrangement were to take effect at all, it must be before
+she should fall under the guardianship of her uncle, the Chevalier.
+Therefore the King had caused her to be brought up from the cottage
+in Anjou, where she had been nursed, and in person superintended
+the brilliant wedding.  He himself led off the dance with the tiny
+bride, conducting her through its mazes with fatherly kindliness
+and condescension; but Queen Catherine, who was strongly in the
+interests of the Angevin branch, and had always detested the Baron
+as her husband's intimate, excused herself from dancing with the
+bridegroom.  He therefore fell to the share of the Dauphiness Queen
+of Scots, a lovely, bright-eyed, laughing girl, who so completely
+fascinated the little fellow, that he convulsed the court by
+observing that he should not have objected to be married to some
+one like her, instead of a little baby like Eustacie.
+
+Amid all the mirth, it was not only the Chevalier and the Queen who
+bore displeased looks.  In truth, both were too great adepts in
+court life to let their dissatisfaction appear.  The gloomiest face
+was that of him whose triumph it was--the bridegroom's father, the
+Baron de Ribaumont.  He had suffered severely from the sickness
+that prevailed in St. Quentin, when in the last August the Admiral
+de Coligny had been besieged there by the Spaniards, and all agreed
+that he had never been the same man since, either in health or in
+demeanour.  When he came back from his captivity and found the King
+bent on crowning his return by the marriage of the children, he had
+hung back, spoken of scruples about such unconscious vows, and had
+finally only consented under stress of the personal friendship of
+the King, and on condition that he and his wife should at once have
+the sole custody of the little bride.  Even then he moved about the
+gay scene with so distressed and morose an air that he was
+evidently either under the influence of a scruple of conscience or
+of a foreboding of evil.
+
+No one doubted that it had been the latter, when, three days later,
+Henri II., in the prime of his strength and height of his spirits,
+encountered young Des Lorges in the lists, received the splinter of
+a lance in his eye, and died two days afterwards.
+
+No sooner were his obsequies over than the Baron de Ribaumont set
+off with his wife and the little bridal pair for his castle of
+Leurre, in Normandy, nor was he ever seen at court again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.  THE SEPARATION
+
+
+
+Parted without the least regret,
+Except that they had ever met.
+    *     *     *     *
+Misses, the tale that I relate,
+This lesson seems to carry:
+Choose not alone a proper mate,
+But proper time to marry!
+                COWPER, PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED
+
+
+'I will have it!'
+
+'Thou shalt not have it!'
+
+'Diane says it is mine.'
+
+'Diane knows nothing about it.'
+
+'Gentlemen always yield to ladies.'
+
+'Wives ought to mind their husbands.'
+
+'Then I will not be thy wife.'
+
+'Thou canst not help it.'
+
+'I will.  I will tell my father what M. le Baron reads and sings,
+and then I know he will.'
+
+'And welcome.'
+
+Eustacie put out her lip, and began to cry.
+
+The 'husband and wife,' now eight and seven years old, were in a
+large room hung with tapestry, representing the history of Tobit.
+A great state bed, curtained with piled velvet, stood on a sort of
+_dais_ at the further end; there was a toilet-table adorned with
+curiously shaped boxes, and coloured Venetian glasses, and filagree
+pouncet-boxes, and with a small mirror whose frame was inlaid with
+gold and ivory.  A large coffer, likewise inlaid, stood against the
+wall, and near it a cabinet, of Dutch workmanship, a combination of
+ebony, ivory, wood, and looking-glass, the centre retreating, and
+so arranged that by the help of most ingenious attention to
+perspective and reflection, it appeared like the entrance to a
+magnificent miniature cinque-cento palace, with steps up to a
+vestibule paved in black and white lozenges, and with three endless
+corridors diverging from it.  So much for show; for use, this
+palace was a bewildering complication of secret drawers and pigeon-
+holes, all depending indeed upon one tiny gold key; but unless the
+use of that key were well understood, all it led to was certain
+outer receptacles of fragrant Spanish gloves, knots of ribbon, and
+kerchiefs strewn over with rose leaves and lavender.  However,
+Eustacie had secured the key, and was now far beyond these mere
+superficial matters.  Her youthful lord had just discovered her
+mounted on a chair, her small person decked out with a profusion of
+necklaces, jewels, bracelets, chains, and rings; and her fingers,
+as well as they could under their stiffening load, were opening the
+very penetralia of the cabinet, the inner chamber of the hall,
+where lay a case adorned with the Ribaumont arms and containing the
+far-famed chaplet of pearls.  It was almost beyond her reach, but
+she had risen on tip-toe, and was stretching out her hand for it,
+when he, springing behind her on the chair, availed himself of his
+superior height and strength to shut the door of this Arcanum and
+turn the key.  His mortifying permission to his wife to absent
+herself arose from pure love of teasing, but the next moment he
+added, still holding his hand on the key--'As to telling what my
+father reads, that would be treason.  How shouldst thou know what
+it is?'
+
+'Does thou think every one is an infant but thyself?'
+
+'But who told thee that to talk of my father's books would get him
+into trouble?' continued the boy, as they still stood together on
+the high heavy wooden chair.
+
+She tossed her pretty head, and pretended to pout.
+
+'Was it Diane? I will know.  Didst thou tell Diane?'
+
+Instead of answering, now that his attention to the key was
+relaxed, Eustacie made a sudden dart, like a little wild cat, at
+the back of the chair and at the key.  They chair over-balanced;
+Beranger caught at the front drawer of the cabinet, which, unlocked
+by Eustacie, came out in his hand, and chair, children, drawer, and
+curiosities all went rolling over together on the floor with a
+hubbub that brought all the household together, exclaiming and
+scolding.  Madame de Ribaumont's displeasure at the rifling of her
+hoards knew no bounds; Eustacie, by way of defence, shrieked 'like
+twenty demons;' Beranger, too honourable to accuse her, underwent
+the same tempest; and at last both were soundly rapped over the
+knuckles with the long handle of Madame's fan, and consigned to two
+separate closets, to be dealt with on the return of M. le Baron,
+while Madame returned to her embroidery, lamenting the absence of
+that dear little Diane, whose late visit at the chateau had been
+marked by such unusual tranquility between the children.
+
+Beranger, in his dark closet, comforted himself with the shrewd
+suspicion that his father was so employed as not to be expected at
+home till supper-time, and that his mother's wrath was by no means
+likely to be so enduring as to lead her to make complaints of the
+prisoners; and when he heard a trampling of horses in the court, he
+anticipated a speedy release and summons to show himself to the
+visitors.  He waited long, however, before he heard the pattering
+of little feet; then a stool scraped along the floor, the button of
+his door was undone, the stool pushed back, and as he emerged,
+Eustacie stood before him with her finger to her lip.  'CHUT,
+Beranger! It is my father and uncle, and Narcisse, and, oh! so many
+_gens d'armes_.  They are come to summon M. le Baron to go with
+them to disperse the _preche_ by the Bac de l'Oie.  And oh,
+Beranger, is he not there?'
+
+'I do not know.  He went out with his hawk, and I do not think he
+could have gone anywhere else.  Did they say so to my mother?'
+
+'Yes; but she never knows.  And oh, Beranger, Narcisse told me--ah,
+was it to tease me?--that Diane has told them all they wanted to
+know, for that they sent her here on purpose to see if we were not
+all Huguenots.
+
+'Very likely, the little viper! Le me pass, Eustacie.  I must go
+and tell my father.'
+
+'Thou canst not get out that way; the court is full of men-at-arms.
+Hark, there's Narcisse calling me.  He will come after me.'
+
+There was not a moment to lose.  Berenger flew along a corridor,
+and down a narrow winding stair, and across the kitchen; then
+snatching at the arm of a boy of his own age whom he met at the
+door, he gasped out, 'Come and help me catch Follet, Landry!' and
+still running across an orchard, he pulled down a couple of apples
+from the trees, and bounded into a paddock where a small rough
+Breton pony was feeding among the little tawny Norman cows.  The
+animal knew his little master, and trotted towards him at his call
+of 'Follet, Follet.  Now be a wise Follet, and play me no tricks.
+Thou and I, Follet, shall do good service, if thou wilt be steady.'
+
+Follet made his advances, but with a coquettish eye and look, as if
+ready to start away at any moment.
+
+'Soh, Follet.  I have no bread for thee, only two apples; but,
+Follet, listen.  There's my _beau-pere_ the Count, and the
+Chevalier, all spite, and their whole troop of savage _gens
+d'armes_, come out to fall upon the poor Huguenots, who are doing
+no harm at all, only listening to a long dull sermon.  And I am
+much afraid my father is there, for he went out his hawk on his
+wrist, and he never does take Ysonde for any real sport, as thou
+and I would do, Follet.  He says it is all vanity of vanities.  But
+thou know'st, if they caught him at the _preche_ they would call it
+heresy and treason, and all sorts of horrors, and any way they
+would fall like demons on the poor Huguenots, Jacques and all--
+thine own Jacques, Follet.  Come, be a loyal pony, Follet.  Be at
+least as good as Eustacie.'
+
+Follet was evidently attentive to this peroration, turning round
+his ear in a sensible attitude, and advancing his nose to the
+apples.  As Beranger held them out to him, the other boy clutched
+his shaggy forelock so effectually that the start back did not
+shake him off, and the next moment Beranger was on his back.
+
+'And I, Monsieur, what shall I do?'
+
+'Thou, Landry?  I know.  Speed like a hare, lock the avenue gate,
+and hide the key.  That will delay them a long time.  Off now,
+Follet.'
+
+Beranger and Follet understood one another far too well to care
+about such trifles as saddle and bridle, and off they went through
+green grassy balks dividing the fields, or across the stubble,
+till, about three miles from the castle, they came to a narrow
+valley, dipping so suddenly between the hills that it could hardly
+have been suspected by one unaware of its locality, and the sides
+were dotted with copsewood, which entirely hid the bottom.
+Beranger guided his pony to a winding path that led down the steep
+side of the valley, already hearing the cadence of a loud, chanting
+voice, throwing out its sounds over the assembly, whence arose
+assenting hums over an undercurrent of sobs, as though the
+excitable French assembly were strongly affected.
+
+The thicket was so close that Beranger was almost among the
+congregation before he could see more than a passing glimpse of a
+sea of heads.  Stout, ruddy, Norman peasants, and high white-capped
+women, mingled with a few soberly-clad townsfolk, almost all with
+the grave, steadfast cast of countenance imparted by unresisted
+persecution, stood gathered round the green mound that served as a
+natural pulpit for a Calvinist minister, who more the dress of a
+burgher, but entirely black.  To Beranger's despair, he was in the
+act of inviting his hearers to join with him in singing one of
+Marot's psalms; and the boy, eager to lose not a moment, grasped
+the skirt of the outermost of the crowd.  The man, an absorbed-
+looking stranger, merely said, 'Importune me not, child.'
+
+'Listen!' said Beranger; 'it imports---'
+
+'Peace,' was the stern answer; but a Norman farmer looked round at
+that moment, and Beranger exclaimed, 'Stop the singing!  The _gens
+d'armes_!' The psalm broke off; the whisper circulated; the words
+'from Leurre' were next conveyed from lip to lip, and, as it were
+in a moment, the dense human mass had broken up and vanished,
+stealing through the numerous paths in the brushwood, or along the
+brook, as it descended through tall sedges and bulrushes.  The
+valley was soon as lonely as it had been populous; the pulpit
+remained a mere mossy bank, more suggestive or fairy dances than of
+Calvinist sermons, and no one remained on the scene save Beranger
+with his pony, Jacques the groom, a stout farmer, the preacher, and
+a tall thin figure in the plainest dark cloth dress that could be
+worn by a gentleman, a hawk on his wrist.
+
+'Thou here, my boy!' he exclaimed, as Beranger came to his side;
+and as the little fellow replied in a few brief words, he took him
+by the hand, and said to the minister, 'Good Master Isaac, let me
+present my young son to you, who under Heaven hath been the means
+of saving many lives this day.'
+
+Maitre Isaac Gardon, a noted preacher, looked kindly at the boy's
+fair face, and said, 'Bless thee, young sir.  As thou hast been
+already a chosen instrument to save life, so mayest thou be ever
+after a champion of the truth.'
+
+'Monsieur le Baron,' interposed Jacques, 'it were best to look to
+yourself.  I already hear sounds upon the wind.'
+
+'And you, good sir?' said the Baron.
+
+'I will see to him,' said the farmer, grasping him as a sort of
+property.  'M. le Baron had best keep up the beck.  Out on the moor
+there he may fly the hawk, and that will best divert suspicion.'
+
+'Farewell, then,' said the Baron, wringing the minister's hand, and
+adding, almost to himself, 'Alas! I am weary of these shifts!' and
+weary indeed he seemed, for as the ground became so steep that the
+beck danced noisily down its channel, he could not keep up the
+needful speed, but paused, gasping for breath, with his hand on his
+side.  'Beranger was off his pony in an instant, assuring Follet
+that it ought to be proud to be ridden by his father, and exhaling
+his own exultant feelings in caresses to the animal as it gallantly
+breasted the hill.  The little boy had never been so commended
+before!  He loved his father exceedingly; but the Baron, while ever
+just towards him, was grave and strict to a degree that the ideas
+even of the sixteenth century regarded as severe.  Little Eustacie
+with her lovely face, her irrepressible saucy grace and audacious
+coaxing, was the only creature to whom he ever showed much
+indulgence and tenderness, and even that seemed almost against his
+will and conscience.  His son was always under rule, often blamed,
+and scarcely ever praised; but it was a hardy vigorous nature, and
+respectful love throve under the system that would have crushed or
+alienated a different disposition.  It was not till the party had
+emerged from the wood upon a stubble field, where a covey of
+partridges flew up, and to Beranger's rapturous delight furnished a
+victim for Ysonde, that M. de Ribaumont dismounted from the pony,
+and walking towards home, called his son to his side, and asked him
+how he had learnt the intentions of the Count and the Chevalier.
+Beranger explained how Eustacie had come to warn him, and also told
+what she had said of Diane de Ribaumont, who had lately, by her
+father's request, spent a few weeks at the chateau with her
+cousins.
+
+'My son,' said the Baron, 'it is hard to ask of babes caution and
+secrecy; but I must know from thee what thy cousin may have heard
+of our doings?'
+
+'I cannot tell, father,' replied Beranger; 'we played more than we
+talked.  Yet, Monsieur, you will not be angry with Eustacie if I
+tell you what she said to me to-day?'
+
+'Assuredly not, my son.'
+
+'She said that her father would take her away if he knew what M. le
+Baron read, and what he sung.'
+
+'Thou hast done well to tell me, my son.  Thinkest thou that this
+comes from Diane, or from one of the servants?'
+
+'Oh, from Diane, my father; none of the servants would dare to say
+such a thing.'
+
+'It is as I suspected then,' said the Baron. 'That child was sent
+amongst us as a spy.'  Tell me, Beranger, had she any knowledge of
+our intended journey to England?'
+
+'To England!  But no, father, I did not even know it was intended.
+To England--to that Walwyn which my mother takes such pains to make
+us speak rightly.  Are we then, going?'
+
+'Listen, my son.  Thou hast to-day proved thyself worthy of trust,
+and thou shalt hear.  My son, ere yet I knew the truth I was a
+reckless disobedient youth, and I bore thy mother from her parents
+in England without their consent.  Since, by Heaven's grace, I have
+come to a better mind, we have asked and obtained their
+forgiveness, and it has long been their desire to see again their
+daughter and her son.  Moreover, since the accession of the present
+Queen, it has been a land where the light is free to shine forth;
+and though I verily believe what Maitre Gardon says, that
+persecution is a blessed means of grace, yet it is grievous to
+expose one's dearest thereto when they are in no state to count the
+cost. Therefore would I thither convey you all, and there amid thy
+mother's family would we openly abjure the errors in which we have
+been nurture. I have already sent to Paris to obtain from the
+Queen-mother the necessary permission to take my family to visit
+thy grand-father, and it must now be our endeavour to start
+immediately on the receipt of the reply, before the Chevalier's
+information can lead to any hindrance or detention of Eustacie.'
+
+'Then Eustacie will go with us, Monsieur?'
+
+'Certainly.  Nothing is more important than that her faith should
+be the same as yours!  But discretion, my son: not a word to the
+little one.'
+
+'And Landry, father?  I had rather Landry went than Eustacie.  And
+Follet, dear father, pray take him.'
+
+After M. de Ribaumont's grave confidence to his son and heir, he
+was a little scandalized at the comparative value that the boy's
+voice indicated for wife, foster-brother, and pony, and therefore
+received it in perfect silence, which silence continued until they
+reached the chateau, where the lady met them at the door with a
+burst of exclamations.
+
+'Ah, there you are, safe, my dear Baron. I have been in despair.
+Here were the Count and his brother come to call on you to join
+them in dispersing a meeting of those poor Huguenots and they would
+not permit me to send out to call you in!  I verily think they
+suspected that you were aware of it.'
+
+M. de Ribaumont made no answer, but sat wearily down and asked for
+his little Eustacie.
+
+'Little vixen!' exclaimed the Baroness, 'she is gone; her father
+took her away with him.'  And as her husband looked extremely
+displeased, she added that Eustacie had been meddling with her
+jewel cabinet and had been put in penitence. Her first impulse on
+seeing her father had been to cling to him and poor out her
+complaints, whereupon he had declared that he should take her away
+with him at once, and had in effect caused her pony to be saddled,
+and he had ridden away with her to his old tower, leaving his
+brother, the Chevalier, to conduct the attack on the Huguenot
+conventicle.
+
+'He had no power or right to remove her,' said the Baron.  'How
+could you let him do so in my absence?  He had made over her
+wardship to me, and has no right to resume it!'
+
+'Well, perhaps I might have insisted on his waiting till your
+return; but, you see, the children have never done anything but
+quarrel and fight, and always by Eustacie's fault; and if ever they
+are to endure each other, it must be by being separated now.'
+
+'Madame,' said the Baron, gravely, 'you have done your utmost to
+ruin your son's chances of happiness.'
+
+That same evening arrived the King's passport permitting the Baron
+de Ribaumont and his family to pay a visit to his wife's friends in
+England. The next morning the Baron was summoned to speak to one of
+his farmers, a Huguenot, who had come to inform him that, through
+the network of intelligence kept up by the members of the
+persecuted faith, it had become known that the Chevalier de
+Ribaumont had set off for court that night, and there was little
+doubt that his interference would lead to an immediate revocation
+of the sanction to the journey, if to no severer measures.  At
+best, the Baron knew that if his own absence were permitted, it
+would be only on condition of leaving his son in the custody of
+either the Queen-mother or the Count.  It had become impossible to
+reclaim Eustacie.  Her father would at once have pleaded that she
+was being bred up in Huguenot errors.  All that could be done was
+to hasten the departure ere the royal mandate could arrive.  A
+little Norman sailing vessel was moored two evenings after in a
+lonely creek on the coast, and into it stepped M. de Ribaumont,
+with his Bible, Marot's Psalter, and Calvin's works, Beranger still
+tenderly kissing a lock of Follet's mane, and Madame mourning for
+the pearls, which her husband deemed too sacred an heirloom to
+carry away to a foreign land.  Poor little Eustacie, with her
+cousin Diane, was in the convent of Bellaise in Anjou.  If any one
+lamented her absence, it was her father-in-law.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.  THE FAMILY COUNCIL
+
+
+
+He counsels a divorce
+       Shakespeare, KING HENRY VIII.
+
+
+In the spring of the year 1572, a family council was assembled in
+Hurst Walwyn Hall.  The scene was a wainscoted oriel chamber closed
+off by a screen from the great hall, and fitted on two sides by
+presses of books, surmounted the one by a terrestrial, the other by
+a celestial globe, the first 'with the addition of the Indies' in
+very eccentric geography, the second with enormous stars studding
+highly grotesque figures, regarded with great awe by most
+beholders.
+
+A solid oaken table stood in the midst, laden with books and
+papers, and in a corner, near the open hearth, a carved desk,
+bearing on one slope the largest copy of the 'Bishops' Bible'; on
+the other, one of the Prayer-book.  The ornaments of the oaken
+mantelpiece culminated in a shield bearing a cross _boutonnee_,
+i.e. with trefoil terminations.  It was supported between a merman
+with a whelk shell and a mermaid with a comb, and another like
+Siren curled her tail on the top of the gaping baronial helmet
+above the shield, while two more upheld the main weight of the
+chimney-piece on either side of the glowing wood-fire.
+
+In the seat of honour was an old gentleman, white-haired, and
+feeble of limb, but with noble features and a keen, acute eye.
+This was Sir William, Baron of Hurst Walwyn, a valiant knight at
+Guingate and Boulogne, a statesman of whom Wolsey had been jealous,
+and a ripe scholar who had shared the friendship of More and
+Erasmus.  The lady who sat opposite to him was several years
+younger, still upright, brisk and active, though her hair was milk-
+white; but her eyes were of undimmed azure, and her complexion
+still retained a beauteous pink and white.  She was highly
+educated, and had been the friend of Margaret Roper and her
+sisters, often sharing their walks in the bright Chelsea garden.
+Indeed, the musk-rose in her own favourite nook at Hurst Walwyn was
+cherished as the gift of Sir Thomas himself.
+
+Near her sat sister, Cecily St. John, a professed nun at Romsey
+till her twenty-eight year, when, in the dispersion of convents,
+her sister's home had received her.  There had she continued, never
+exposed to tests of opinion, but pursuing her quiet course
+according to her Benedictine rule, faithfully keeping her vows, and
+following the guidance of the chaplain, a college friend of Bishop
+Ridley, and rejoicing in the use of the vernacular prayers and
+Scriptures.  When Queen Mary had sent for her to consider of the
+revival of convents, her views had been found to have so far
+diverged from those of the Queen that Lord WalWyn was thankful to
+have her safe at home again; and yet she fancied herself firm to
+old Romsey doctrine.  She was not learned, like Lady Walwyn, but
+her knowledge in all needlework and confectionery was consummate,
+so that half the ladies in Dorset and Wilts longed to send their
+daughters to be educated at Hurst Walwyn.  Her small figure and
+soft cheeks had the gentle contour of a dove's form, nor had she
+lost the conventual serenity of expression; indeed it was curious
+that, let Lady Walwyn array her as she would, whatever she wore
+bore a nunlike air.  Her silken farthingales hung like serge robes,
+her ruffs looked like mufflers, her coifs like hoods, even
+necklaces seemed rosaries, and her scrupulous neatness enhanced the
+pure unearthly air of all belonging to her.
+
+Eager and lively, fair and handsome, sat the Baronne de Ribaumont,
+or rather, since the higher title had been laid aside, Dame Annora
+Thistlewood.  The health of M. de Ribaumont had been shattered at
+St. Quentin, and an inclement night of crossing the Channel had
+brought on an attack on the lungs, from which he only rallied
+enough to amaze his English friends at finding the gay dissipated
+young Frenchman they remembered, infinitely more strict and rigid
+than themselves.  He was never able to leave the house again after
+his first arrival at Hurst Walwyn, and sank under the cold winds of
+the next spring, rejoicing to leave his wife and son, not indeed
+among such strict Puritans as he preferred, but at least where the
+pure faith could be openly avowed without danger.
+
+Sir Marmaduke Thistlewood, the husband to whom Annora Walwyn had
+been destined before M. de Ribaumont had crossed her path, was
+about the same time left a widower with one son and daughter, and
+as soon as a suitable interval had passed, she became a far happier
+wife than she had been in either the Baron's gay or grave days.
+Her son had continued under the roof of his grandfather, to whose
+charge his father had specially committed him, and thus had been
+scarcely separated from his mother, since Combe Manor was not above
+three miles across the downs from Hurst Walwyn, and there was
+almost daily intercourse between the families.  Lucy Thistlewood
+had been brought to Hurst Walwyn to be something between a maid of
+honour and a pupil to the ladies there, and her brother Philip, so
+soon as he was old enough, daily rode thither to share with
+Berenger the instructions of the chaplain, Mr. Adderley, who on the
+present occasion formed one of the conclave, sitting a little apart
+as not quite familiar, though highly esteemed.
+
+With an elbow on the table, and one hand toying with his long
+riding-whip, sat, booted and spurred, the jovial figure of Sir
+Marmaduke, who called out, in his hearty voice, 'A good riddance of
+an outlandish Papist, say I!  Read the letter, Berenger lad.  No,
+no, no!  English it!  I know nothing of your mincing French!  'Tis
+the worst fault I know in you, boy, to be half a Frenchman, and
+have a French name'--a fault that good Sir Marmaduke did his best
+to remedy by always terming his step-son Berenger or Berry
+Ribmount, and we will so far follow his example as henceforth to
+give the youth the English form of his Christian name.  He was by
+this time a tall lad of eighteen, with straight features, honest
+deep blue eyes, very fair hair cut short and brushed up to a crest
+upon the middle of his head, a complexion of red and white that all
+the air of the downs and the sea failed to embrown, and that
+peculiar openness and candour of expression which seems so much an
+English birthright, that the only trace of his French origin was,
+that he betrayed no unbecoming awkwardness in the somewhat
+embarrassing position in which he was placed, literally standing,
+according to the respectful discipline of the time, as the subject
+of discussion, before the circle of his elders.  His colour was
+indeed, deepened, but his attitude was easy and graceful, and he
+used no stiff rigidity nor restless movements to mask his anxiety.
+At Sir Marmaduke's desire, he could not but redden a good deal
+more, but with a clear, unhesitating voice, he translated, the
+letter that he had received from the Chevalier de Ribaumont, who,
+by the Count's death, had become Eustacie's guardian.  It was a
+request in the name of Eustacie and her deceased father, that
+Monsieur le Baron de Ribaumont--who, it was understood, had
+embraced the English heresy--would concur with his spouse in
+demanding from his Holiness the Pope a decree annulling the
+childish marriage, which could easily be declared void, both on
+account of the consanguinity of the parties and the discrepancy of
+their faith; and which would leave each of them free to marry
+again.
+
+'Nothing can be better,' exclaimed his mother.  'How I have longed
+to free him from that little shrew, whose tricks were the plague of
+my life!  Now there is nothing between him and a worthy match!'
+
+'We can make an Englishman of him now to the backbone,' added Sir
+Marmaduke, 'and it is well that it should be the lady herself who
+wants first to be off with it, so that none can say he has played
+her a scurvy trick.'
+
+'What say you, Berenger?'  said Lord Walwyn.  'Listen to me, fair
+nephew.  You know that all my remnant of hope is fixed upon you,
+and that I have looked to setting you in the room of the son of my
+own; and I think that under our good Queen you will find it easier
+to lead a quiet God-fearing life than in your father's vexed
+country, where the Reformed religion lies under persecution.
+Natheless, being a born liegeman of the King of France, and heir to
+estates in his kingdom, meseemeth that before you are come to years
+of discretion it were well that you should visit them, and become
+better able to judge for yourself how to deal in this matter when
+you shall have attained full age, and may be able to dispose of
+them by sale, thus freeing yourself from allegiance to a foreign
+prince.  And at the same time you can take measures, in concert
+with this young lady, for loosing the wedlock so unhappily
+contracted.'
+
+'O sir, sir!' cried Lady Thistlewood, 'send him not to France to be
+burnt by the Papists!'
+
+'Peace, daughter,' returned her mother.  'Know you not that there
+is friendship between the court party and the Huguenots, and that
+the peace is to be sealed by the marriage of the King's sister with
+the King of Navarre?  This is the most suitable time at which he
+could go.'
+
+'Then, madam,' proceeded the lady, 'he will be running about to all
+the preachings on every bleak moor and wet morass he can find,
+catching his death with rheums, like his poor father.'
+
+There was a general smile, and Sir Marmaduke laughed outright.
+
+'Nay, dame,' he said, 'have you marked such a greed of sermons in
+our Berry that you should fear his so untowardly running after
+them?'
+
+'Tilly-vally, Sir Duke,' quoth Dame Annora, with a flirt of her
+fan, learnt at the French court.  'Men will run after a preacher in
+a marshy bog out of pure forwardness, when they will nod at a godly
+homily on a well-stuffed bench between four walls.'
+
+'I shall commit that matter to Mr. Adderley, who is good enough to
+accompany him,' said Lord Walwyn, 'and by whose counsel I trust
+that he will steer the middle course between the pope and Calvin.'
+
+Mr. Adderley bowed in answer, saying he hoped that he should be
+enable to keep his pupil's mind clear between the allurements of
+Popery and the errors of the Reformed; but meanwhile Lady
+Thistlewood's mind had taken a leap, and she exclaimed,--
+
+'And, son, whatever you do, bring home the chaplet of pearls! I
+know they have set their minds upon it.  They wanted me to deck
+Eustacie with it on that unlucky bridal-day, but I would not hear
+of trusting her with it, and now will it rarely become our Lucy on
+your real wedding-day.'
+
+'You travel swiftly, daughter,' said Lord Walwyn.  'Nor have we yet
+heard the thoughts of one who ever thinks wisely.  Sister,' he
+added, turning to Cecily St. John, 'hold not you with us in this
+matter?'
+
+'I scarce comprehend it, my Lord,' was the gentle reply.  'I knew
+not that it was possible to dissolve the tie of wedlock.'
+
+'The Pope's decree will suffice,' said Lord Walwyn.
+
+'Yet, sir,' still said the ex-nun, 'methought you had shown me that
+the Holly Father exceeded his power in the annulling of vows.'
+
+'Using mine own lessons against me, sweet sister?' said Lord
+Walwyn, smiling;  'yet, remember, the contract was rashly made
+between two ignorant babes; and, bred up as they have severally
+been, it were surely best for them to be set free from vows made
+without their true will or knowledge.'
+
+'And yet,' said Cecily, perplexed, 'when I saw my niece here wedded
+to Sir Marmaduke, was it not with the words, 'What God hath joined
+let no man put asunder'?'
+
+'Good lack! aunt,' cried Lady Thistlewood, 'you would not have that
+poor lad wedded to a pert, saucy, ill-tempered little moppet, bred
+up that den of iniquity, Queen Catherine's court, where my poor
+Baron never trusted me after he fell in with the religion, and had
+heard of King Antony's calling me the Swan of England.'
+
+At that moment there was a loud shriek, half-laugh, half-fright,
+coming through the window, and Lady Thistlewood, starting up,
+exclaimed, 'The child will be drowned!  Box their ears, Berenger,
+and bring them in directly.'
+
+Berenger, at her bidding, hurried out of the room into the hall,
+and thence down a flight of steps leading into a square walled
+garden, with a couple of stone male and female marine divinities
+accommodating their fishy extremities as best they might on the
+corners of the wall.  The square contained a bowling-green of
+exquisitely-kept turf, that looked as if cut out of green velvet,
+and was edged on its four sides by a raised broad-paved walk, with
+a trimming of flower-beds, where the earliest blossoms were showing
+themselves.  In the centre of each side another paved path
+intersected the green lawn, and the meeting of these two diameters
+was at a circular stone basin, presided over by another merman,
+blowing a conch on the top of a pile of rocks.  On the gravelled
+margin stood two distressed little damsels of seven and six years
+old, remonstrating with all their might against the proceedings of
+a roguish-looking boy of fourteen of fifteen, who had perched their
+junior--a fat, fair, kitten-like element of mischief, aged about
+five--_en croupe_ on the merman, and was about, according to her
+delighted request, to make her a bower of water, by extracting the
+plug and setting the fountain to play; but as the fountain had been
+still all the winter, the plug was hard of extraction, especially
+to a young gentleman who stood insecurely, with his feet wide apart
+upon pointed and slippery point of rock-work; and Berenger had time
+to hurry up, exclaiming, 'Giddy pate! Dolly would Berenger drenched
+to the skin.'
+
+'And she has on her best blue, made out of mother's French
+farthingale,' cried the discreet Annora.
+
+'Do you know, Dolly, I've orders to box your ears, and send you
+in?' added Berenger, as he lifted his half-sister from her perilous
+position, speaking, as he did so, without a shade of foreign
+accent, though with much more rapid utterance than was usual in
+England.  She clung to him without much alarm, and retaliated by an
+endeavour to box his ears, while Philip, slowly making his way back
+to the mainland, exclaimed, 'Ah there's no chance now!  Here comes
+demure Mistress Lucy, and she is the worst mar-sport of all.'
+
+A gentle girl of seventeen was drawing near, her fair delicately-
+tinted complexion suiting well with her pale golden hair.  It was a
+sweet face, and was well set off by the sky-blue of the
+farthingale, which, with her white lace coif and white ruff, gave
+her something the air of a speedwell flower, more especially as her
+expression seemed to have caught much of Cecily's air of self-
+restrained contentment.  She held a basketful of the orange pistils
+of crocuses, and at once seeing that some riot had taken place, she
+said to the eldest little girl, 'Ah, Nan, you had been safer
+gathering saffron with me.'
+
+'Nay, brother Berry came and made all well,' said Annora; 'and he
+had been shut up so long in the library that he must have been very
+glad to get out.'
+
+'And what came of it?' cried Philip.  'Are you to go and get
+yourself unmarried?'
+
+'Unmarried!' burst out the sisters Annora and Elizabeth.
+
+'What, laughed Philip, 'you knew not that this is an ancient
+husband, married years before your father and mother?'
+
+'But, why?  said Elizabeth, rather inclined to cry.  'What has poor
+Lucy done that you should get yourself unmarried from her?'
+
+There was a laugh from both brothers; but Berenger, seeing Lucy's
+blushes, restrained himself, and said. 'Mine was not such good
+luck, Bess, but they gave me a little French wife, younger than
+Dolly, and saucier still; and as she seems to wish to be quit of
+me, why, I shall be rid of her.'
+
+'See there, Dolly,' said Philip, in a warning voice, 'that is the
+way you'll be served if you do not mend your ways.'
+
+'But I thought,' said Annora gravely, 'that people were married
+once for all, and it could not be undone.'
+
+'So said Aunt Cecily, but my Lord was proving to her out of all law
+that a contract between such a couple of babes went for nought,'
+said Berenger.
+
+'And shall you, indeed, see Paris, and all the braveries there?'
+asked Philip.  'I thought my Lord would never have trusted you out
+of his sight.'
+
+'And now it is to be only with Mr. Adderley,' said Berenger; 'but
+there will be rare doings to be seen at this royal wedding, and
+maybe I shall break a lance there in your honour, Lucy.'
+
+'And you'll bring me a French fan?' cried Bess.
+
+'And me a pouncet-box?' added Annora.
+
+'And me a French puppet dressed Paris fashion?' said Dolly.
+
+'And what shall he bring Lucy?' added Bess.
+
+'I know,' said Annora; 'the pearls that mother is always talking
+about!  I heard her say that Lucy should wear them on her wedding-
+day.'
+
+'Hush!' interposed Lucy, 'don't you see my father yonder on the
+step, beckoning to you?'
+
+The children flew towards Sir Marmaduke, leaving Berenger and Lucy
+together.
+
+'Not a word to wish me good speed, Lucy, now I have my wish?' said
+Berenger.
+
+'Oh, yes,' said Lucy, 'I am glad you should see all those brave
+French gentlemen of whom you used to tell me.'
+
+'Yes, they will be all at court, and the good Admiral is said to be
+in high favour.  He will surely remember my father.'
+
+'And shall you see the lady?' asked Lucy, under her breath.
+
+'Eustacie?  Probably; but that will make no change.  I have heard
+too much of _l'escadron de la Reine-mere_ to endure the thought of
+a wife from thence, were she the Queen of Beauty herself.  And my
+mother says that Eustacie would lose all her beauty as she grew up-
+-like black-eyed Sue on the down; nor did I ever think her brown
+skin and fierce black eyes to compare with you, Lucy.  I could be
+well content never to see her more; but,' and here he lowered his
+voice to a tone of confidence, 'my father, when near his death,
+called me, and told me that he feared my marriage would be a cause
+of trouble and temptation to me, and that I must deal with it after
+my conscience when I was able to judge in the matter.  Something,
+too, he said of the treaty of marriage being a burthen on his soul,
+but I know not what he meant.  If ever I saw Eustacie again, I was
+to give her his own copy of Clement Marot's Psalter, and to tell
+her that he had ever loved and prayed for her as a daughter; and
+moreover, my father added,' said Berenger, much moved at the
+remembrance it brought across him, 'that if this matter proved a
+burthen and perplexity to me, I was to pardon him as one who
+repented of it as a thing done ere he had learnt to weigh the whole
+world against a soul.'
+
+'Yes, you must see her,' said Lucy.
+
+'Well, what more were you going to say, Lucy?'
+
+'I was only thinking,' said Lucy, as she raised her eyes to him,
+'how sorry she will be that she let them write that letter.'
+
+Berenger laughed, pleased with the simplicity of Lucy's admiration,
+but with modesty and common sense enough to answer, 'No fear of
+that, Lucy, for an heiress, with all the court gallants of France
+at her feet.'
+
+'Ah, but you!'
+
+'I am all very well here, when you have never seen anybody but
+lubberly Dorset squires that never went to London, nor Oxford, nor
+beyond their own furrows,' said Berenger; 'but depend upon it, she
+has been bred up to care for all the airs and graces that are all
+the fashion at Paris now, and will be as glad to be rid of an
+honest man and a Protestant as I shall to be quit of a court puppet
+and a Papist.  Shall you have finished my point-cuffs next week,
+Lucy?  Depend upon it, no gentleman of them all will wear such
+dainty lace of such a fancy as those will be.'
+
+And Lucy smiled, well pleased.
+
+Coming from the companionship of Eustacie to that of gentle Lucy
+had been to Berenger a change from perpetual warfareto perfect
+supremacy, and his preference to his little sister, as he had been
+taught to call her from the first, had been loudly expressed.
+Brother and sister they had ever since considered themselves, and
+only within the last few months had possibilities been discussed
+among the elders of the family, which oozing out in some mysterious
+manner, had become felt rather than known among the young people,
+yet without altering the habitual terms that existed between them.
+Both were so young that love was the merest, vaguest dream to them;
+and Lucy, in her quiet faith that Berenger was the most beautiful,
+excellent, and accomplished cavalier the earth could afford, was
+little troubled about her own future share in him.  She seemed to
+be promoted to belong to him just as she had grown up to curl her
+hair and wear ruffs and farthingales.  And to Berenger Lucy was a
+very pleasant feature in that English home, where he had been far
+happier than in the uncertainties of Chateau Leurre, between his
+naughty playfellow, his capricious mother, and morose father.  If
+in England his lot was to be cast, Lucy was acquiesced in willingly
+as a portion of that lot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.  TITHONUS
+
+
+
+A youth came riding towards a palace gate,
+And from the palace came a child of sin
+And took him by the curls and led him in!
+Where sat a company with heated eyes.
+                Tennyson, A VISION OF SIN
+
+
+It was in the month of June that Berenger de Ribaumont first came
+in sight of Paris.  His grandfather had himself begun by taking him
+to London and presenting him to Queen Elizabeth, from whom the
+lad's good mien procured him a most favourable reception.  She
+willingly promised that on which Lord Walwyn's heart was set,
+namely, that his title and rank should be continued to his
+grandson; and an ample store of letter of recommendation to Sir
+Francis Walsingham, the Ambassador, and all others who could be of
+service in the French court, were to do their utmost to provide him
+with a favourable reception there.
+
+Then, with Mr. Adderley and four or five servants, he had crossed
+the Channel, and had gone first to Chateau Leurre, where he was
+rapturously welcomed by the old steward Osbert.  The old man had
+trained up his son Landry, Berenger's foster-brother, to become his
+valet, and had him taught all the arts of hair-dressing and surgery
+that were part of the profession of a gentleman's body-servant; and
+the youth, a smart, acuter young Norman, became a valuable addition
+to the suite, the guidance of which, through a foreign country,
+their young master did not find very easy.  Mr. Adderley thought he
+knew French very well, through books, but the language he spoke was
+not available, and he soon fell into a state of bewilderment rather
+hard on his pupil, who, though a very good boy, and crammed very
+full of learning, was still nothing more than a lad of eighteen in
+all matters of prudence and discretion.
+
+Lord Walwyn was, as we have seen, one of those whose Church
+principles had altered very little and very gradually; and in the
+utter diversity of practice that prevailed in the early years of
+Queen Elizabeth, his chaplain as well as the rector of the parish
+had altered no more than was absolutely enjoined of the old
+ceremonial.  If the poor Baron de Ribaumont had ever been well
+enough to go to church on a Sunday, he would perhaps have thought
+himself still in the realms of what he considered as darkness; but
+as he had never openly broken with the Gallic Church, Berenger had
+gone at once from mass at Leurre to the Combe Walwyn service.
+Therefore when he spent a Sunday at Rouen, and attended a Calvinist
+service in the building that the Huguenots were permitted outside
+the town, he was much disappointed in it; he thought its very
+fervour familiar and irreverent, and felt himself much more at home
+in the cathedral into which he strayed in the afternoon.  And, on
+the Sunday he was at Leurre, he went, as a part of his old home-
+habits, to mass at the old round-arched church, where he and
+Eustacie had played each other so many teasing tricks at his
+mother's feet, and had received so many admonitory nips and strokes
+of her fan.  All he saw there was not congenial to him, but he
+liked it vastly better than the Huguenot meeting, and was not
+prepared to understand or enter into Mr. Adderley's vexation, when
+the tutor assured him that the reverent gestures that came
+naturally to him were regarded by the Protestants as idolatry, and
+that he would be viewed as a recreants from his faith. All Mr.
+Adderley hoped was that no one would hear of it: and in this he
+felt himself disappointed, when, in the midst of his lecture, there
+walked into the room a little, withered, brown, dark-eyed man, in a
+gorgeous dress of green and gold, who doffing a hat with an
+umbrageous plume, precipitated himself, as far as he could reach,
+towards Berenger's neck, calling him fair cousin and dear baron.
+The lad stood taken by surprise for a moment, thinking that
+Tithonus must have looked just like this, and skipped like this,
+just as he became a grasshopper; then he recollected that this must
+be the Chevalier de Ribaumont, and tried to make up for his want of
+cordiality.  The old man had, it appeared, come out of Picardy,
+where he lived on _soupe maigre_ in a corner of the ancestral
+castle, while his son and daughter were at court, the one in
+Monsieur's suite, the other in that of the Queen-mother.  He had
+come purely to meet his dear young cousin, and render him all the
+assistance is his power, conduct him to Paris, and give him
+introductions.
+
+Berenger, who had begun to find six Englishmen a troublesome charge
+in France, was rather relieved at not being the only French scholar
+of the party, and the Chevalier also hinted to him that he spoke
+with a dreadful Norman accent that would never be tolerated at
+court, even if it were understood by the way.  Moreover, the
+Chevalier studied him all over, and talked of Paris tailors and
+posture-masters, and, though the pink of politeness, made it
+evident that there was immensely too much of him.  'It might be the
+custom in England to be so tall; here no one was of anything like
+such a height, but the Duke of Guise.  He, in his position, with
+his air, could carry it off, but we must adapt ourselves as best we
+can.'
+
+And his shrug and look of concern made Berenger for a moment almost
+ashamed of that superfluous height of which they were all so proud
+at home.  Then he recollected himself, and asked, 'And why should
+not I be tall as well as M. de Guise?'
+
+'We shall see, fair cousin,' he answered, with an odd satirical
+bow; 'we are as Heaven made us.  All lies in the management and if
+you had the advantages of training, PERHAPS you could even turn
+your height into a grace.'
+
+'Am I such a great lubber?' wondered Berenger; 'they did not think
+so at home.  No; nor did the Queen.  She said I was a proper
+stripling!  Well, it matters the less, as I shall not stay long to
+need their favour; and I'll show them there is some use in my
+inches in the tilt-yard.  But if they think me such a lout, what
+would they say to honest Philip?'
+
+The Chevalier seemed willing to take on him the whole management of
+his 'fair cousin.'  He inquired into the amount of the rents and
+dues which old Osbert had collected and held ready to meet the
+young Baron's exigencies; and which would, it seemed, be all needed
+to make his dress any way presentable at court.  The pearls, too,
+were inquired for, and handed over by Osbert to his young Lord's
+keeping, with the significant intimation that they had been
+demanded when the young Madame la Baronne went to court; but that
+he had buried them in the orchard, and made answer that they were
+not in the chateau.  The contract of marriage, which Berenger could
+just remember signing, and seeing signed by his father, the King,
+and the Count, was not forthcoming; and the Chevalier explained
+that it was in the hands of a notary at Paris.  For this Berenger
+was not sorry.  His grandfather had desired him to master the
+contents, and he thought he had thus escaped a very dry and useless
+study.
+
+He did not exactly dislike the old Chevalier de Ribaumont.  The
+system on which he had been brought up had not been indulgent, so
+that compliments and admiration were an agreeable surprise to him;
+and rebuffs and rebukes from his elders had been so common, that
+hints, in the delicate dressing of the old knight, came on him
+almost like gracious civilities.  There was no love lost between
+the Chevalier and the chaplain, that was plain; but how could there
+be between an ancient French courtier and a sober English divine?
+However, to Mr. Adderley's great relief, no attempts were made on
+Berenger's faith, his kinsman even was disposed to promote his
+attendance at such Calvinist places of worship as they passed on
+the road, and treated him in all things as a mere guest, to be
+patronized indeed, but as much an alien as if he had been born in
+England.  And yet there was a certain deference to him as head of
+the family, and a friendliness of manner that made the boy feel him
+a real relation, and all through the journey it came naturally that
+he should be the entire manager, and Berenger the paymaster on a
+liberal scale.
+
+Thus had the travellers reached the neighbourhood of Paris, when a
+jingling of chains and a trampling of horses announced the advance
+of riders, and several gentlemen with a troop of servants came in
+sight.
+
+All were gaily dressed, with feathered hats, and short Spanish
+cloaks jauntily disposed over one shoulder; and their horses were
+trapped with bright silvered ornaments.  As they advanced, the
+Chevalier exclaimed: 'Ah! It is my son!  I knew he would come to
+meet me.'  And, simultaneously, father and son leapt from their
+horses, and rushed into each other's arms.  Berenger felt it only
+courteous to dismount and exchange embraces with his cousin, but
+with a certain sense of repulsion at the cloud of perfume that
+seemed to surround the younger Chevalier de Ribaumont; the ear-
+rings in his ears; the general air of delicate research about his
+riding-dress, and the elaborate attention paid to a small, dark,
+sallow face and figure, in which the only tolerable feature was an
+intensely black and piercing pair of eyes.
+
+'Cousin, I am enchanted to welcome you.'
+
+'Cousin, I thank you.'
+
+'Allow me to present you.'  And Berenger bowed low in succession
+several times in reply to salutations, as his cousin Narcisse named
+M. d'O, M. de la Valette, M. de Pibrac, M. l'Abbe de Mericour, who
+had done him the honour to accompany him in coming out to meet his
+father and M. le Baron.  Then the two cousins remounted, something
+was said to the Chevalier of the devoirs of the demoiselles, and
+they rode on together bandying news and repartee so fast, that
+Berenger felt that his ears had become too much accustomed to the
+more deliberate English speech to enter at once into what caused so
+much excitement, gesture, and wit.  The royal marriage seemed
+doubtful--the Pope refused his sanction; nay, but means would be
+found--the King would not be impeded by the Pope; Spanish
+influence--nay, the King had thrown himself at the head of the
+Reformed--he was bewitched with the grim old Coligny--if order were
+not soon taken, the Louvre itself would become a temple.
+
+Then one of the party turned suddenly and said, 'But I forget,
+Monsieur is a Huguenot?'
+
+'I am a Protestant of the English Church,' said Berenger, rather
+stiffly, in the formula of his day.
+
+'Well, you have come at the right moment, 'Tis all for the sermon
+now.  If the little Abbe there wished to sail with a fair wind, he
+should throw away his breviary and study his Calvin.'
+
+Berenger's attention was thus attracted to the Abbe de Mericour, a
+young man of about twenty, whose dress was darker than that of the
+rest, and his hat of a clerical cut, though in other respects he
+was equipped with the same point-device elegance.
+
+'Calvin would never give him the rich abbey of Selicy,' said
+another; 'the breviary is the safer speculation.'
+
+'Ah! M. de Ribaumont can tell you that abbeys are no such
+securities in these days.  Let yonder Admiral get the upper hand,
+and we shall see Mericour, the happy cadet of eight brothers and
+sisters, turned adrift from their convents.  What a fatherly
+spectacle M. le Marquis will present!'
+
+Here the Chevalier beckoned to Berenger, who, riding forward,
+learnt that Narcisse had engaged lodgings for him and his suite at
+one of the great inns, and Berenger returned his thanks, and a
+proposal to the Chevalier to become his guest.  They were by this
+time entering the city, where the extreme narrowness and dirt of
+the streets contrasted with the grandeur of the palatial courts
+that could be partly seen through their archways.  At the hostel
+they rode under such an arch, and found themselves in a paved yard
+that would have been grand had it been clean.  Privacy had scarcely
+been invented, and the party were not at all surprised to find that
+the apartment prepared for them was to serve both day and night for
+Berenger, the Chevalier, and Mr. Adderley, besides having a
+truckle-bed on the floor for Osbert.  Meals were taken in public,
+and it was now one o'clock--just dinner-time; so after a hasty
+toilette the three gentlemen descended, the rest of the party
+having ridden off to their quarters, either as attendants of
+Monsieur or to their families.  It was a sumptuous meal, at which a
+great number of gentlemen were present, coming in from rooms hired
+over shops, &c--all, as it seemed, assembled at Paris for the
+marriage festivities; but Berenger began to gather that they were
+for the most part adherents of the Guise party, and far from
+friendly to the Huguenot interest.  Some of them appeared hardly to
+tolerate Mr. Adderley's presence at the table; and Berenger, though
+his kinsman's patronage secured civil treatment, felt much out of
+his element, confused, unable to take part in the conversation, and
+sure that he was where those at home did not wish to see him.
+
+No sooner was the dinner over than he rose and expressed his
+intention of delivering his letters of introduction in person to
+the English ambassador and to the Admiral de Coligny, whom, as his
+father's old friend and the hero of his boyhood, he was most
+anxious to see.  The Chevalier demurred to this.  Were it not
+better to take measures at once for making himself presentable, and
+Narcisse had already supplied him with directions to the
+fashionable hair-cutter, &c.  It would be taken amiss if he went to
+the Admiral before going to present himself to the King.
+
+'And I cannot see my cousins till I go to court?' asked Berenger.
+
+'Most emphatically No.  Have I not told you that the one is in the
+suite of the young Queen, the other in that of the Queen-mother?  I
+will myself present you, if only you will give me the honour of
+your guidance.'
+
+'With all thanks, Monsieur,' said Berenger; 'my grandfather's
+desire was that I should lose no time in going to his friend Sir
+Francis Walsingham, and I had best submit myself to his judgment as
+to my appearance at court.'
+
+On this point Berenger was resolute, though the Chevalier recurred
+to the danger of any proceeding that might be unacceptable at
+court.  Berenger, harassed and impatient, repeated that he did not
+care about the court, and wished merely to fulfil his purpose and
+return, at which his kinsman shook his head and shrugged his
+shoulders, and muttered to himself, 'Ah, what does he know!  He
+will regret it when too late; but I have done my best.'
+
+Berenger paid little attention to this, but calling Landry Osbert,
+and a couple of his men, he bade them take their swords and
+bucklers, and escort him in his walk through Paris.  He set off
+with a sense of escape, but before he had made many steps, he was
+obliged to turn and warn Humfrey and Jack that they were not to
+walk swaggering along the streets, with hand on sword, as if every
+Frenchman they saw was the natural foe of their master.
+
+Very tall were the houses, very close and extremely filthy the
+streets, very miserable the beggars; and yet here and there was to
+be seen the open front of a most brilliant shop, and the
+thoroughfares were crowded with richly-dressed gallants.  Even the
+wider streets gave little space for the career of the gay horsemen
+who rode along them, still less for the great, cumbrous, though
+gaily-decked coaches, in which ladies appeared glittering with
+jewels and fan in hand, with tiny white dogs on their knees.
+
+The persons of whom Berenger inquired the way all uncapped most
+respectfully, and replied with much courtesy; but when the hotel of
+the English ambassador had been pointed out to him, he hardly
+believed it, so foul and squalid was the street, where a large
+nail-studded door occupied a wide archway.  Here was a heavy iron
+knocker, to which Osbert applied himself.  A little door was at
+once opened by a large, powerful John Bull of a porter, whose looks
+expanded into friendly welcome when he heard the English tongue of
+the visitor.  Inside, the scene was very unlike that without.  The
+hotel was built round a paved court, adorned with statues and stone
+vases, with yews and cypresses in them, and a grand flight of steps
+led up to the grand centre of the house, around which were
+collected a number of attendants, wearing the Walsingham colours.
+Among these Berenger left his two Englishmen, well content to have
+fallen into an English colony.  Landry followed him to announce the
+visitor, Berenger waiting to know whether the Ambassador would be
+at liberty to see him.
+
+Almost immediately the door was re-opened, and a keen-looking
+gentleman, about six-and-thirty years of age, rather short in
+stature, but nevertheless very dignified-looking, came forward with
+out-stretched hands--'Greet you well, my Lord de Ribaumont.  We
+expected your coming.  Welcome, mine honoured friend's grandson.'
+
+And as Berenger bent low in reverent greeting, Sir Francis took his
+hand and kissed his brow, saying, 'Come in, my young friend; we are
+but sitting over our wine and comfits after dinner.  Have you
+dined?'
+
+Berenger explained that he had dined at the inn, where he had taken
+lodgings.
+
+'Nay, but that must not be.  My Lord Walwyn's grandson here, and
+not my guest!  You do me wrong, sir, in not having ridden hither at
+once.'
+
+'Truly, my Lord, I ventured not.  They sent me forth with quite a
+company--my tutor and six grooms.'
+
+'Our chaplain will gladly welcome his reverend brother,' said Sir
+Francis; and as to the grooms, one of my fellows shall go and bring
+them and their horses up.  What!' rather gravely, as Berenger still
+hesitated.  'I have letters for you here, which methinks will make
+your grandfather's wish clear to you.'
+
+Berenger saw the Ambassador was displeased with his reluctance, and
+answered quickly, 'In sooth, my Lord, I would esteem myself only
+too happy to be thus honoured, but in sooth----' he repeated
+himself, and faltered.
+
+'In sooth, you expected more freedom than in my grave house,' said
+Walsingham, displeased.
+
+'Not so, my Lord: it would be all that I could desire; but I have
+done hastily.  A kinsman of mine has come up to Paris with me, and
+I have made him my guest.  I know not how to break with him--the
+Chevalier de Ribaumont.'
+
+'What, the young ruffler in Monsieur's suite?'
+
+'No, my Lord; his father.  He comes on my business.  He is an old
+man, and can ill bear the cost, and I could scarce throw him over.'
+
+Berenger spoke with such earnest, bright, open simplicity, and look
+so boyish and confiding, that Sir Francis's heart was won, and he
+smiled as he said, 'Right, lad, you are a considerate youth.  It
+were not well to cast off your kinsman; but when you have read your
+letters, you may well plead your grandfather's desires, to say
+nothing of a hint from her Grace to have an eye to you.  And for
+the rest, you can acquit yourself gracefully to the gentleman, by
+asking him to occupy the lodging that you had taken.'
+
+Berenger's face brightened up in a manner that spoke for his
+sincerity; and Sir Francis added, 'And where be these lodgings?'
+
+'At the Croix de Lorraine.'
+
+'Ha! Your kinsman has taken you into a nest of Guisards.  But come,
+let me present you to my wife and my other guests, then will I give
+you your letters, and you shall return and make your excuses to
+Monsieur le Chevalier.'
+
+Berenger seemed to himself to be on familiar ground again as his
+host thus assumed the direction of him and ushered him into a large
+dining-hall, where the table had been forsaken in favour of a
+lesser table placed in the ample window, round which sat assembled
+some six or eight persons, with fruit, wine, and conserves before
+them, a few little dogs at their feet or on their laps, and a lute
+lying on the knee of one of the young gentlemen.  Sir Francis
+presented the young Lord de Ribaumont, their expected guest, to
+Lady Walsingham, from whom he received a cordial welcome, and her
+two little daughter, Frances and Elizabeth, and likewise to the
+gentleman with the lute, a youth about a year older than Berenger,
+and of very striking and prepossessing countenance, who was named
+as Mr. Sidney, the son of the Lord Deputy of Ireland.  A couple of
+gentlemen who would in these times have been termed _attaches_, a
+couple of lady attendants upon Lady Walsingham, and the chaplain
+made up the party, which on this day chanced only to include,
+besides the household, the young traveller, Sidney.  Berenger was
+at once seated, and accepted a welcoming-cup of wine (i.e. a long
+slender glass with a beautifully twisted stem), responded to
+friendly inquiries about his relatives at home, and acknowledged
+the healths that were drunk in honour of their names; after which
+Lady Walsingham begged that Mr. Sidney would sing the madrigal he
+had before promised: afterwards a glee was sung by Sidney, one of
+the gentlemen, and Lady Walsingham; and it was discovered that Mr.
+de Ribaumont had a trained ear, and the very voice that was wanting
+to the Italian song they were practising.  And so sped a happy
+hour, till a booted and spurred messenger came in with letters for
+his Excellency, who being thus roused from his dreamy enjoyment of
+the music, carried young Ribaumont off with him to his cabinet, and
+there made over to him a packet, with good news from home, and
+orders that made it clear that he could do no other than accept the
+hospitality of the Embassy.  Thus armed with authority, he returned
+to the Croix de Lorraine, where Mr. Adderley could not contain his
+joy at the change to quarters not only so much more congenial, buts
+so much safer; and the Chevalier, after some polite demur,
+consented to remain in possession of the rooms, being in fact well
+satisfied with the arrangement.
+
+'Let him steep himself up to the lips among the English,' said
+Tithonus to his son.  'Thus will he peaceably relinquish to you all
+that should have been yours from the first, and at court will only
+be looked on as an overgrown English page.'
+
+The change to the Ambassador's made Berenger happy at once.  He was
+not French enough in breeding, or even constitution, to feel the
+society of the Croix de Lorraine congenial; and, kind as the
+Chevalier showed himself, it was with a wonderful sense of relief
+that Berenger shook himself free from both his fawning and his
+patronizing.  There was a constant sense of not understanding the
+old gentleman's aims, whereas in Walsingham's house all was as
+clear, easy, and open as at home.
+
+And though Berenger had been educated in the country, it had been
+in the same tone as that of his new friends.  He was greatly
+approved by Sir Francis as a stripling of parts and modesty.  Mr.
+Sidney made him a companion, and the young matron, Lady Walsingham,
+treated him as neither lout nor lubber.  Yet he could not be at
+ease in his state between curiosity and repulsion towards the wife
+who was to be discarded by mutual consent.  The sight of the scenes
+of his early childhood had stirred up warmer recollections of the
+pretty little playful torment, who through the vista of years
+assumed the air of a tricksy elf rather than the little vixen he
+used to think her.  His curiosity had been further stimulated by
+the sight of his rival, Narcisse, whose effeminate ornaments, small
+stature, and seat on horseback filled Sir Marmaduke's pupil with
+inquisitive disdain as to the woman who could prefer anything so
+unmanly.
+
+Sidney was to be presented at the after-dinner reception at the
+Louvre the next day, and Sir Francis proposed to take young
+Ribaumont with him.  Berenger coloured, and spoke of his equipment,
+and Sidney good-naturedly offered to come and inspect.  That young
+gentleman was one of the daintiest in apparel of his day; but he
+was amazed that the suit in which Berenger had paid his devoir to
+Queen Elizabeth should have been set aside--it was of pearl-grey
+velvet, slashed with rose-coloured satin, and in shape and fashion
+point-device--unless, as the Ambassador said good-humouredly, 'my
+young Lord Ribaumont wished to be one of Monsieur's clique.'  Thus
+arrayed, then, and with the chaplet of pearls bound round the small
+cap, with a heron-plume that sat jauntily on one side of his fair
+curled head, Berenger took his seat beside the hazel-eyed, brown-
+haired Sidney, in his white satin and crimson, and with the
+Ambassador and his attendants were rolled off in the great state-
+coach drawn by eight horses, which had no sinecure in dragging the
+ponderous machine through the unsavoury _debris_ of the streets.
+
+Royalty fed in public.  The sumptuous banqueting-room contained a
+barrier, partitioning off a space where Charles IX. sat alone at
+his table, as a State spectacle.  He was a sallow, unhealthy-
+looking youth, with large prominent dark eyes and a melancholy
+dreaminess of expression, as if the whole ceremony, not to say the
+world itself, were distasteful.  Now and then, as though
+endeavouring to cast off the mood, he would call to some gentleman
+and exchange a rough jest, generally fortified with a tremendous
+oath, that startled Berenger's innocent ears.  He scarcely tasted
+what was put on his plate, but drank largely of sherbet, and seemed
+to be trying to linger through the space allotted for the ceremony.
+
+Silence was observed, but not so absolute that Walsingham could not
+point out to his young companions the notabilities present.  The
+lofty figure of Henri, Duke of Guise, towered high above all around
+him, and his grand features, proud lip, and stern eye claimed such
+natural superiority that Berenger for a moment felt a glow on his
+cheek as he remembered his challenge of his right to rival that
+splendid stature.  And yet Guise was very little older than
+himself; but he walked, a prince of men, among a crowd of
+gentlemen, attendants on him rather than on the King.  The elegant
+but indolent-looking Duke de Montmorency had a much more attractive
+air, and seemed to hold a kind of neutral ground between Guise on
+the one hand, and the Reformed, who mustered at the other end of
+the apartment.  Almost by intuition, Berenger knew the fine calm
+features of the gray-haired Admiral de Coligny before he heard him
+so addressed by the King's loud, rough voice.  When the King rose
+from table the presentations took place, but as Charles heard the
+name of the Baron de Ribaumont, he exclaimed, 'What, Monsieur, are
+you presented here by our good sister's representative?'
+
+Walsingham answered for him, alluding to the negotiations for Queen
+Elizabeth's marriage with one of the French princes--'Sire, in the
+present happy conjuncture, it needs not be a less loyal Frenchman
+to have an inheritance in the lands of my royal mistress.'
+
+'What say you, Monsieur?' sharply demanded the King: 'are you come
+here to renounce your country, religion--and love, as I have been
+told?'
+
+'I hope, Sire, never to be unfaithful where I owe faith,' said
+Berenger, heated, startled, and driven to extremity.
+
+'Not ill answered for the English giant,' said Charles aside to an
+attendant: then turning eagerly to Sidney, whose transcendent
+accomplishments had already become renowned, Charles welcomed him
+to court, and began to discuss Ronsard's last sonnet, showing no
+small taste and knowledge of poetry.  Greatly attracted by Sidney,
+the King detained the whole English party by an invitation to
+Walsingham to hear music in the Queen-mother's apartments; and
+Berenger, following in the wake of his friends, found himself in a
+spacious hall, with a raised gallery at one end for the musicians,
+the walls decorated with the glorious paintings collected by
+Francois I., Greek and Roman statues clustered at the angles, and
+cabinets with gems and antiques disposed at intervals.  Not that
+Berenger beheld much of this: he was absolutely dazzled with the
+brilliant assembly into which he was admitted.  There moved the
+most beautiful women in France, in every lovely-coloured tint that
+dress could assume: their bosoms, arms, and hair sparkling with
+jewels; their gossamer ruffs surrounding their necks like fairy
+wings; their light laugh mingling with the music, as they sat,
+stood, or walked in graceful attitudes conversing with one another
+or with the cavaliers, whose brilliant velvet and jewels fifty
+mixed with their bright array.  These were the sirens he had heard
+of, the 'squadron of the Queen-mother,' the dangerous beings
+against whom he was to steel himself.  And which of them was the
+child he had played with, to whom his vows had been plighted?  It
+was like some of the enchanting dreams of romance merely to look at
+these fair creatures; and he stood as if gazing into a magic-glass
+till Sir Francis Walsingham, looking round for him, said, 'Come,
+then, my young friend, you must do your devoirs to the Queens.
+Sidney, I see, is as usual in his element; the King has seized upon
+him.'
+
+Catherine de Medicis was seated on a large velvet chair, conversing
+with the German ambassador.  Never beautiful, she appeared to more
+advantage in her mature years than in her girlhood, and there was
+all the dignity of a lifetime of rule in demeanour and gestures,
+the bearing of her head, and motion of her exquisite hands.  Her
+eyes were like her son's, prominent, and gave the sense of seeing
+all round at once, and her smile was to the highest degree
+engaging.  She received the young Baron de Ribaumont far more
+graciously than Charles has done, held out her hand to be kissed,
+and observed 'that the young gentleman was like Madame _sa mere_
+whom she well remembered as much admired.  Was it true that she was
+married in England?'
+
+Berenger bowed assent.
+
+'Ah! You English make good spouses,' she said, with a smile.  'Ever
+satisfied with home!  But, your Excellency,' added she, turning to
+Walsingham, 'what stones would best please my good sister for the
+setting of the jewel my son would send her with his portrait?  He
+is all for emeralds, for the hue of hope; but I call it the colour
+of jealousy.'
+
+Walsingham made a sign that Berenger had better retreat from
+hearing the solemn coquetting carried on by the maiden Queen
+through her gravest ambassadors.  He fell back, and remained
+watching the brilliant throng, trying in vain to discover the
+bright merry eyes and velvet cheek he remembered of old.  Presently
+a kind salutation interrupted him, and a gentleman who perceived
+him to be a stranger began to try to set him at ease, pointed out
+to him the handsome, foppishly-dressed Duke of Anjou, and his ugly,
+spiteful little brother of Alengon, then designated as Queen
+Elizabeth's future husband, who was saying something to a lady that
+made her colour and bite her lips.  'Is that the younger Queen?'
+asked Berenger, as his eye fell on a sallow, dark-complexioned,
+sad-looking little creature in deep mourning, and with three or
+four such stately-looking, black-robed, Spanish-looking duennas
+round her as to prove her to be a person of high consequence.
+
+'That?  Oh no; that is Madame Catherine of Navarre, who has resided
+here ever since her mother's death, awaiting her brother, our royal
+bridegroom.  See, here is the bride, Madame Marguerite, conversing
+with M. de Guise.'
+
+Berenger paid but little heed to Marguerite's showy but already
+rather coarse beauty, and still asked where was the young Queen
+Elizabeth of Austria.  She was unwell, and not in presence.  'Ah!
+then,' he said, 'her ladies will not be here.'
+
+'That is not certain.  Are you wishing to see any one of them?'
+
+'I would like to see----' He could not help colouring till his
+cheeks rivaled the colour of his sword-knot.  'I want just to know
+if she is here.  I know not if she be called Madame or Mademoiselle
+de Ribaumont.'
+
+'The fair Ribaumont!  Assuredly; see, she is looking at you.  Shall
+I present you?'
+
+A pair of exceedingly brilliant dark eyes were fixed on Berenger
+with a sort of haughty curiosity and half-recognition.  The face
+was handsome and brilliant, but he felt indignant at not perceiving
+a particle of a blush at encountering him, indeed rather a look of
+amusement at the deep glow which his fair complexion rendered so
+apparent.  He would fain have escaped from so public an interview,
+but her eye was upon him, and there was no avoiding the meeting.
+As he moved nearer he saw what a beautiful person she was, her rich
+primrose-coloured dress setting off her brunette complexion and her
+stately presence.  She looked older than he had expected; but this
+was a hotbed where every one grew up early, and the expression and
+manner made him feel that an old intimacy was here renewed, and
+that they were no strangers.
+
+'We need no introduction, cousin,' she said, giving a hand to be
+saluted.  'I knew you instantly.  It is the old face of Chateau
+Leurre, only gone up so high and become so handsome.'
+
+'Cousins,' thought he.  'Well, it makes things easier! but what
+audacity to be so much at her ease, when Lucy would have sunk into
+the earth with shame.'  His bow had saved him the necessity of
+answering in words, and the lady continued:
+
+'And Madame _votre mere_.  Is she well?  She was very good to me.'
+
+Berenger did not think that kindness to Eustacie had been her chief
+perfection, but he answered that she was well and sent her
+commendations, which the young lady acknowledged by a magnificent
+curtsey.  'And as beautiful as ever?' she asked.
+
+'Quite as beautiful,' he said, 'only somewhat more _embonpoint_.'
+
+'Ah!' she said, smiling graciously, and raising her splendid eyes
+to his face, 'I understand better what that famous beauty was now,
+and the fairness that caused her to be called the Swan.'
+
+It was so personal that the colour rushed again into his cheek.  No
+one had ever so presumed to admire him; and with a degree gratified
+and surprised, and sensible more and more of the extreme beauty of
+the lady, there was a sort of alarm about him as if this were the
+very fascination he had been warned against, and as if she were
+casting a net about him, which, wife as she was, it would be
+impossible to him to break.
+
+'Nay, Monsieur,' she laughed, 'is a word from one so near too much
+for your modesty?  Is it possible that no one has yet told you of
+your good mien?  Or do they not appreciate Greek noses and blue
+eyes in the land of fat Englishmen?  How have you ever lived _en
+province?_  Our  princes are ready to hang themselves at the
+thought of being in such banishment, even at court--indeed,
+Monsieur has contrived to transfer the noose to M. d'Alengon.  Have
+you been at court, cousin?'
+
+'I have been presented to the Queen.'
+
+She then proceeded to ask questions about the chief personages with
+a rapid intelligence that surprised him as well as alarmed him, for
+he felt more and more in the power of a very clever as well as
+beautiful woman, and the attraction she exercised made him long the
+more to escape; but she smiled and signed away several cavaliers
+who would have gained her attention.  She spoke of Queen Mary of
+Scotland, then in the fifth years of her captivity, and asked if he
+did not feel bound to her service by having been once her partner.
+Did not he remember that dance?
+
+'I have heard my mother speak of it far too often to forget it,'
+said Berenger, glowing again for her who could speak of that
+occasion without a blush.
+
+'You wish to gloss over your first inconstancy, sir,' she said,
+archly; but he was spared from further reply by Philip Sidney's
+coming to tell him that the Ambassador was ready to return home.
+He took leave with an alacrity that redoubled his courtesy so much
+that he desired to be commended to his cousin Diane, whom he had
+not seen.
+
+'To Diane?' said the lady, inquiringly.
+
+'To Mademoiselle Diane de Ribaumont,' he corrected himself, ashamed
+of his English rusticity.  'I beg pardon if I spoke too familiarly
+of her.'
+
+'She should be flattered by M. le Baron's slightest recollection,'
+said the lady, with an ironical tone that there was no time to
+analyze, and with a mutual gesture of courtesy he followed Sidney
+to where Sir Francis awaited them.
+
+'Well, what think you of the French court?' asked Sidney, so soon
+as the young men were in private.
+
+'I only know that you may bless your good fortune that you stand in
+no danger from a wife from thence.'
+
+'Ha!' cried Sidney, laughing, 'you found your lawful owner.  Why
+did you not present me?'
+
+'I was ashamed of her bold visage.'
+
+'What!--was she the beauteous demoiselle I found you gallanting,'
+said Philip Sidney, a good deal entertained, 'who was gazing at you
+with such visible admiration in her languishing black eyes?'
+
+'The foul fiend seize their impudence!'
+
+'Fie! for shame! thus to speak of your own wife,' said the
+mischievous Sidney, 'and the fairest----'
+
+'Go to, Sidney.  Were she fairer than Venus, with a kingdom to her
+dower, I would none of a woman without a blush.'
+
+'What, in converse with her wedded husband,' said Sidney.  'Were
+not that over-shamefastness?'
+
+'Nay, now, Sidney, in good sooth give me your opinion.  Should she
+set her fancy on me, even in this hour, am I bound in honour to
+hold by this accursed wedlock--lock, as it may well be called?'
+
+'I know no remedy,' said Sidney, gravely, 'save the two enchanted
+founts of love and hate.  They cannot be far away, since it was at
+the siege of Paris that Rinaldo and Orlando drank thereof.'
+
+Another question that Berenger would fain have asked Sidney, but
+could not for very shame and dread of mockery, was, whether he
+himself were so dangerously handsome as the lady had given him to
+understand.  With a sense of shame, he caught up the little mirror
+in his casket, and could not but allow to himself that the features
+he there saw were symmetrical--the eyes azure, the complexion of a
+delicate fairness, such as he had not seen equaled, except in those
+splendid Lorraine princes; nor could he judge of the further effect
+of his open-faced frank simplicity and sweetness of expression--
+contemptible, perhaps, to the astute, but most winning to the
+world-weary.  He shook his head at the fair reflection, smiled as
+he saw the colour rising at his own sensation of being a fool, and
+then threw it aside, vexed with himself for being unable not to
+feel attracted by the first woman who had shown herself struck by
+his personal graces, and yet aware that this was the very thing he
+had been warned against, and determined to make all the resistance
+in his power to a creature whose very beauty and enchantment gave
+him a sense of discomfort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.  THE CONVENT BIRD
+
+
+
+Young knight, whatever that dost armes professe,
+And through long labours huntest after fame,
+Beware of fraud, beware of ficklenesse,
+In choice and change of thy beloved dame.
+                     Spenser, FAERY QUEENE
+
+
+Berenger' mind was relieved, even while his vanity was mortified,
+when the Chevalier and his son came the next day to bring him the
+formal letter requesting the Pope's annulment of his marriage.
+After he had signed it, it was to be taken to Eustacie, and so soon
+as he should attain his twenty-first year he was to dispose of
+Chateau Leurre, as well as of his claim to the ancestral castle in
+Picardy, to his cousin Narcisse, and thus become entirely free to
+transfer his allegiance to the Queen of England.
+
+It was a very good thing--that he well knew; and he had a strong
+sense of virtue and obedience, as he formed with his pen the words
+in all their fullness, Henri Beranger Eustache, Baron de Ribaumont
+et Seigneur de Leurre.  He could not help wondering whether the lady
+who looked at him so admiringly really preferred such a mean-looking
+little fop as Narcisse, whether she were afraid of his English home
+and breeding, or whether all this open coquetry were really the court
+manners of ladies towards gentlemen, and he had been an absolute
+simpleton to be flattered.  Any way, she would have been a most
+undesirable wife, and he was well quit of her; but he did feel a
+certain lurking desire that, since the bonds were cut and he was no
+longer in danger from her, he might see her again, carry home a
+mental inventory of the splendid beauties he had renounced, and
+decide what was the motive that actuated her in rejecting his own
+handsome self.  Meantime, he proceeded to enjoy the amusements and
+advantage of his sojourn at Paris, of which by no means the least was
+the society of Philip Sidney, and the charm his brilliant genius
+imparted to every pursuit they shared.  Books at the University,
+fencing and dancing from the best professors, Italian poetry,
+French sonnets, Latin epigrams; nothing came amiss to Sidney, the
+flower of English youth: and Berenger had taste, intelligence, and
+cultivation enough to enter into all in which Sidney led the way.
+The good tutor, after all his miseries on the journey, was delighted
+to write to Lord Walwyn, that, far from being a risk and temptation,
+this visit was a school in all that was virtuous and comely.
+
+If the good man had any cause of dissatisfaction, it was with the
+Calvinistic tendencies of the Ambassador's household.  Walsingham
+was always on the Puritanical side of Elizabeth's court, and such
+an atmosphere as that of Paris, where the Roman Catholic system was
+at that time showing more corruption than it has ever done before
+or since in any other place, naturally threw him into sympathy with
+the Reformed.  The reaction that half a century later filled the
+Gallican Church with saintliness had not set in; her ecclesiastics
+were the tools of a wicked and bloodthirsty court, who hated virtue
+as much as schism in the men whom they persecuted.  The Huguenots
+were for the most part men whose instincts for truth and virtue had
+recoiled from the popular system, and thus it was indeed as if
+piety and morality were arrayed on one side, and superstition and
+debauchery on the other.  Mr. Adderley thus found the tone of the
+Ambassador's chaplain that of far more complete fellowship with the
+Reformed pastors than he himself was disposed to admit.  There were
+a large number of these gathered at Paris; for the lull in
+persecution that had followed the battle of Moncontour had given
+hopes of a final accommodation between the two parties, and many
+had come up to consult with the numerous lay nobility who had
+congregated to witness the King of Navarre's wedding.  Among them,
+Berenger met his father's old friend Isaac Gardon, who had come to
+Paris for the purpose of giving his only surviving son in marriage
+to the daughter of a watchmaker to whom he had for many years been
+betrothed.  By him the youth, with his innocent face and gracious
+respectful manners, was watched with delight, as fulfilling the
+fairest hopes of the poor Baron, but the old minister would have
+been sorely disappointed had he known how little Berenger felt
+inclined towards his party.
+
+The royal one of course Berenger could not love, but the rigid
+bareness, and, as he thought, irreverence of the Calvinist, and the
+want of all forms, jarred upon one used to a ritual which retained
+much of the ancient form.  In the early years of Elizabeth, every
+possible diversity prevailed in parish churches, according to the
+predilections of rector and squire; from forms scarcely altered
+from those of old times, down to the baldest, rudest neglect of all
+rites; and Berenger, in his country home, had been used to the
+first extreme.  He could not believe that what he heard and saw
+among the _Sacrementaires_, as they were called, was what his
+father had prized; and he greatly scandalized Sidney, the pupil of
+Hubert Languet, by openly expressing his distaste and dismay when
+he found their worship viewed by both Walsingham and Sidney as a
+model to which the English Protestants ought to be brought.
+
+However, Sidney excused all this as more boyish distaste to sermons
+and love of externals, and Berenger himself reflected little on the
+subject.  The aspect of the venerable Coligny, his father's friend,
+did far more towards making him a Huguenot than any discussion of
+doctrine.  The good old Admiral received him affectionately, and
+talked to him warmly of his father, and the grave, noble
+countenance and kind manner won his heart.  Great projects were on
+foot, and were much relished by the young King, for raising an army
+and striking a blow at Spain by aiding the Reformed in the
+Netherlands; and Coligny was as ardent as a youth in the cause,
+hoping at once to aid his brethren, to free the young King from
+evil influences, and to strike one good stroke against the old
+national enemy.  He talked eagerly to Sidney of alliances with
+England, and then lamented over the loss of so promising a youth as
+young Ribaumont to the Reformed cause in France. If the marriage
+with the heiress could have taken effect, he would have obtained
+estates near enough to some of the main Huguenot strongholds to be
+very important, and these would now remain under the power of
+Narcisse de Ribaumont, a determined ally of the Guise faction.  It
+was a pity, but the Admiral could not blame the youth for obeying
+the wish of his guardian grandfather; and he owned, with a sigh,
+that England was a more peaceful land than his own beloved country.
+Berenger was a little nettled at this implication, and began to
+talk of joining the French standard in a campaign in their present
+home and described the conversation, Walsingham said,--
+
+'The Admiral's favourite project!  He would do wisely not to brag
+of it so openly.  The King of Spain has too many in his interest in
+this place not to be warned, and to be thus further egged on to
+compass the ruin of Coligny.'
+
+'I should have thought.' Said Sidney. 'that nothing could add to
+his hatred of the Reformed.'
+
+'Scarcely,' said Walsingham; 'save that it is they who hinder the
+Duke of Guise from being a good Frenchman, and a foe to Spain.'
+
+Politics had not developed themselves in Berenger's mind, and he
+listened inattentively while Walsingham talked over with Sidney the
+state of parties in France, where natural national enmity to Spain was
+balanced by the need felt by the Queen-mother of the support of that
+great Roman Catholic power against the Huguenots; whom Walsingham
+believed her to dread and hate less for their own sake than from the
+fear of loss of influence over her son. He believed Charles IX. himself
+to have much leaning towards the Reformed, but the late victories has
+thrown the whole court entirely into the power of the Guises, the truly
+unscrupulous partisans of Rome. They were further inflamed against the
+Huguenots by the assassination of the last Duke of Guise, and by the
+violences that had been committed by some of the Reformed party, in
+especial a massacre of prisoners at _Nerac_.
+
+Sidney exclaimed that the Huguenots had suffered far worse
+cruelties.
+
+'That is true,' replied Sir Francis, 'but, my young friend, you
+will find, in all matters of reprisals, that a party has no memory
+for what it may commit, only for what it may receive.'
+
+The conversation was interrupted by an invitation to the
+Ambassador's family and guests to a tilting-match and subsequent
+ball at the Louvre.  In the first Berenger did his part with
+credit; to the second he went feeling full of that strange
+attraction of repulsion.  He knew gentlemen enough in Coligny's
+suite for it to be likely that he might remain unperceived among
+them, and he knew this would be prudent, but he found himself
+unexpectedly near the ranks of ladies, and smile and gesture
+absolutely drew him towards his semi-spouse, so that he had no
+alternative but to lead her out to dance.
+
+The stately measure was trod in silence as usual, but he felt the
+dark eyes studying him all the time.  However, he could bear it
+better now that the deed was done, and she had voluntarily made him
+less to her than any gallant parading or mincing about the room.
+
+'So you bear the pearls, sir?' she said, as the dance finished.
+
+'The only heirloom I shall take with me,' he said.
+
+'Is a look at them too great a favour to ask from their jealous
+guardian?' she asked.
+
+He smiled, half ashamed of his own annoyance at being obliged to
+place them in her hands.  He was sure she would try to cajole him
+out of them, and by way of asserting his property in them he did
+not detach them from the band of his black velvet cap, but gave it
+with them into her hand.  She looked at each one, and counted them
+wistfully.
+
+'Seventeen!' she said;' and how beautiful!  I never saw them so
+near before.  They are so becoming to that fair cheek that I
+suppose no offer from my--my uncle, on our behalf, would induce you
+to part with them?'
+
+An impulse of open-handed gallantry would have made him answer, 'No
+offer from your uncle, but a simple request from you;' but he
+thought in time of the absurdity of returning without them, and
+merely answered, 'I have no right to yield them, fair lady.  They
+are the witness to my forefather's fame and prowess.'
+
+'Yes, sir, and to those of mine also,' she replied. 'And you would
+take them over to the enemy from whom that prowess extorted them?'
+
+'The country which honoured and rewarded that prowess!' replied
+Berenger.
+
+She looked at him with an interrogative glance of surprise at the
+readiness of his answer; then, with half a sigh, said, 'There are
+your pearls, sir; I cannot establish our right, though I verily
+believe it was the cause of our last quarrel;' and she smiled
+archly.
+
+'I believe it was,' he said, gravely; but added, in the moment of
+relief at recovering the precious heirloom, 'though it was Diane
+who inspired you to seize upon them.'
+
+'Ah! poor Diane! you sometimes recollect her then?  If I remember
+right, you used to agree with her better than with your little
+spouse, cousin!'
+
+'If I quarrelled with her less, I liked her less,' answered
+Berenger--who, since the act of separation, had not been so guarded
+in his demeanour, and began to give way to his natural frankness.
+
+'Indeed!  Diane would be less gratified than I ought to be.  And
+why, may I ask?'
+
+'Diane was more caressing, but she had no truth.'
+
+'Truth! that was what _feu_ M. le Baron ever talked of; what
+Huguenots weary one with.'
+
+'And the only thing worth seeking, the real pearl,' said Berenger,
+'without which all else is worthless.'
+
+'Ah!' she said, 'who would have thought that soft, youthful face
+could be so severe!  You would never forgive a deceit?'
+
+'Never,' he said, with the crystal hardness of youth; 'or rather I
+might forgive; I could never esteem.'
+
+'What a bare, rude world yours must be,' she said, shivering. 'And
+no weak ones in it!  Only the strong can dare to be true.'
+
+'Truth is strength!' said Berenger. 'For example: I see yonder a
+face without bodily strength, perhaps, but with perfect candour.'
+
+'Ah! some Huguenot girl of Madame Catherine's, no doubt--from the
+depths of Languedoc, and dressed like a fright.'
+
+'No, no; the young girl behind the pale, yellow-haired lady.'
+
+'Comment, Monsieur.  Do you not yet know the young Queen?'
+
+'But who is the young demoiselle!--she with the superb black eyes,
+and the ruby rose in her black hair?'
+
+'Take care, sir, do you not know I have still a right to be
+jealous?' she said, blushing, bridling, and laughing.
+
+But this pull on the cords made him the more resolved; he would not
+be turned from his purpose. 'Who is she?' he repeated; 'have I ever
+seen her before? I am sure I remember that innocent look of
+_espieglerie_.'
+
+'You may see it on any child's face fresh out of the convent; it
+does not last a month!' was the still displeased, rather jealous
+answer.  'That little thing--I believe they call her Nid-de-Merle--
+she has only just been brought from her nunnery to wait on the
+young Queen.  Ah! your gaze was perilous, it is bringing on you one
+of the jests of Madame Marguerite.'
+
+With laughter and gaiety, a troop of gentlemen descended on M. de
+Ribaumont, and told him that Madame Marguerite desired that he
+should be presented to her.  The princess was standing by her pale
+sister-in-law, Elizabeth of Austria, who looked grave and annoyed
+at the mischievous mirth flashing in Marguerite's dark eyes.
+
+'M. de Ribaumont,' said the latter, her very neck heaving with
+suppressed fun, 'I see I cannot do you a greater favour than by
+giving you Mademoiselle de Nid-de-Merle for your partner.'
+
+Berenger was covered with confusion to find that he had been guilty
+of such a fixed stare as to bring all this upon the poor girl. He
+feared that his vague sense of recognition had made his gaze more
+open than he knew, and he was really and deeply ashamed of this as
+his worst act of provincial ill-breeding.
+
+Poor little convent maid, with crimson cheeks, flashing eyes,
+panting bosom, and a neck evidently aching with proud dignity and
+passion, she received his low bow with a sweeping curtsey, as lofty
+as her little person would permit.
+
+His cheeks burnt like fire, and he would have found words to
+apologize, but she cut him short by saying, hastily and low, 'Not a
+word, Monsieur!  Let us go through it at once.  No one shall make
+game of us.'
+
+He hardly durst look at her again; but as he went through his own
+elaborate paces he knew that the little creature opposite was
+swimming, bending, turning, bounding with the fluttering fierceness
+of an angry little bird, and that the superb eyes were casting
+flashes on him that seemed to carry him back to days of early
+boyhood.
+
+Once he caught a mortified, pleading, wistful glance that made him
+feel as if he had inflicted a cruel injury by his thoughtless gaze,
+and he resolved to plead the sense of recognition in excuse; but no
+sooner was the performance over than she prevented all conversation
+by saying, 'Lead me back at once to the Queen, sir; she is about to
+retire.'  They were already so near that there was no time to say
+anything; he could only hold as lightly as possible the tiny
+fingers that he felt burning and quivering in his hand, and then,
+after bringing her to the side of the chair of state, he was forced
+to release her with the mere whisper of 'Pardon, Mademoiselle;' and
+the request was not replied to, save by the additional stateliness
+of her curtsey.
+
+It was already late, and the party was breaking up; but his head
+and heart were still in a whirl when he found himself seated in the
+ambassadorial coach, hearing Lady Walsingham's well-pleased
+rehearsal of all the compliments she had received on the
+distinguished appearance of both her young guests. Sidney, as the
+betrothed of her daughter, was property of her own; but she also
+exulted in the praises of the young Lord de Ribaumont, as proving
+the excellence of the masters whom she had recommended to remove
+the rustic clownishness of which he had been accused.
+
+'Nay,' said Sir Francis; 'whoever called him too clownish for court
+spake with design.'
+
+The brief sentence added to Berenger's confused sense of being in a
+mist of false play.  Could his kinsman be bent on keeping him from
+court?  Could Narcisse be jealous of him?  Mademoiselle de
+Ribaumont was evidently inclined to seek him, and her cousin might
+easily think her lands safer in his absence. He would have been
+willing to hold aloof as much as his uncle and cousin could wish,
+save for an angry dislike to being duped and cajoled; and,
+moreover, a strong curiosity to hear and see more of that little
+passionate bird, fresh from the convent cage.  Her gesture and her
+eyes irresistibly carried him back to old times, though whether to
+an angry blackbird in the yew-tree alleys at Leurre, or to the
+eager face that had warned him to save his father, he could not
+remember with any distinctness. At any rate, he was surprised to
+find himself thinking so little in comparison about the splendid
+beauty and winning manners of his discarded spouse, though he quite
+believed that, now her captive was beyond her grasp, she was
+disposed to catch at him again, and try to retain him, or, as his
+titillated vanity might whisper, his personal graces might make her
+regret the family resolution which she had obeyed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.  FOULLY COZENED
+
+
+
+I was the more deceived.--HAMLET
+
+
+The unhappy Charles IX. had a disposition that in good hands might
+have achieved great nobleness; and though cruelly bound and trained
+to evil, was no sooner allowed to follow its natural bent than it
+reached out eagerly towards excellence.  At this moment, it was his
+mother's policy to appear to leave the ascendancy to the Huguenot
+party, and he was therefore allowed to contract friendships which
+deceived the intended victims the more completely, because his
+admiration and attachment were spontaneous and sincere.  Philip
+Sidney's varied accomplishment and pure lofty character greatly
+attracted the young King, who had leant on his arm conversing
+during great part of the ball, and the next morning sent a royal
+messenger to invite the two young gentlemen to a part at pall-mall
+in the Tuileries gardens.
+
+Pall-mall was either croquet or its nearest relative, and was so
+much the fashion that games were given in order to keep up
+political influence, perhaps, because the freedom of a garden
+pastime among groves and bowers afforded opportunities for those
+seductive arts on which Queen Catherine placed so much dependence.
+The formal gardens, with their squares of level turf and clipped
+alleys, afforded excellent scope both for players and spectators,
+and numerous games had been set on foot, from all of which,
+however, Berenger contrived to exclude himself, in his restless
+determination to find out the little Demoiselle de Nid-de-Merle,
+or, at least, to discover whether any intercourse in early youth
+accounted for his undefined sense of remembrance.
+
+He interrogated the first disengaged person he could find, but it
+was only the young Abbe de Mericour, who had been newly brought up
+from Dauphine by his elder brother to solicit a benefice, and who
+knew nobody.  To him ladies were only bright phantoms such as his
+books had taught him to regard like the temptations of St. Anthony,
+but whom he actually saw treated with as free admiration by the
+ecclesiastic as by the layman.
+
+Suddenly a clamour of voices arose on the other side of the
+closely-clipped wall of limes by which the two youths were walking.
+There were the clear tones of a young maiden expostulating in
+indignant distress, and the bantering, indolent determination of a
+male annoyer.
+
+'Hark!' exclaimed Berenger; 'this must be seen to.'
+
+'Have a care,' returned Mericour; 'I have heard that a man needs
+look twice are meddling.'
+
+Scarcely hearing, Berenger strode on as he had done at the last
+village wake, when he had rescued Cis of the Down from the
+impertinence of a Dorchester scrivener.  It was a like case, he
+saw, when breaking through the arch of clipped limed he beheld the
+little Demoiselle de Nid-de-Merle, driven into a corner and
+standing at bay, with glowing cheeks, flashing eyes, and hands
+clasped over her breast, while a young man, dressed in the extreme
+of foppery, was assuring her that she was the only lady who had not
+granted him a token--that he could not allow such _pensionnaire_
+airs, and that now he had caught her he would have his revenge, and
+win her rose-coloured break-knot.  Another gentleman stood by,
+laughing, and keeping guard in the walk that led to the more
+frequented part of the gardens.
+
+'Hold!' thundered Berenger.
+
+The assailant had just mastered the poor girl's hand, but she took
+advantage of his surprise to wrench it away and gather herself up
+as for a spring, but the Abbe in dismay, the attendant in anger,
+cried out, 'Stay--it is Monsieur.'
+
+'Monsieur; be he who he may,' exclaimed Berenger, 'no honest man
+can see a lady insulted.'
+
+'Are you mad?  It is Monsieur the Duke of Anjou,' said Mericour,
+pouncing on his arm.
+
+'Shall we have him to the guardhouse?' added the attendant, coming
+up on the other side; but Henri de Valois waved them both back, and
+burst into a derisive laugh.  'No, no; do you not see who it is?
+Monsieur the English Baron still holds the end of the halter.  His
+sale is not yet made.  Come away, D'O, he will soon have enough on
+his hands without us.  Farewell, fair lady, another time you will
+be free of your jealous giant.'
+
+So saying, the Duke of Anjou strolled off, feigning indifference
+and contempt, and scarcely heeding that he had been traversed in
+one of the malicious adventures which he delighted to recount in
+public before the discomfited victim herself, often with shameful
+exaggeration.
+
+The girl clasped her hands over her brow with a gesture of dismay,
+and cried, 'Oh! if you have only not touched your sword.'
+
+'Let me have the honour of reconducting you, Mademoiselle,' said
+Berenger, offering his hand; but after the first sigh of relief, a
+tempestuous access seized her.  She seemed about to dash away his
+hand, her bosom swelled with resentment, and with a voice striving
+for dignity, though choked with strangled tears, she exclaimed,
+'No, indeed!  Had not M. le Baron forsaken me, I had never been
+thus treated!' and her eyes flashed through their moisture.
+
+'Eustacie!  You are Eutacie!'
+
+'Whom would you have me to be otherwise?  I have the honour to wish
+M. le Baron a good morning.'
+
+'Eustacie!  Stay!  Hear me!  It concerns my honour.  I see it is
+you--but whom have I seen?  Who was she?' he cried, half wild with
+dismay and confusion.  'Was it Diane?'
+
+'You have seen and danced with Diane de Ribaumont,' answered
+Eustacie, still coldly; 'but what of that?  Let me go, Monsieur;
+you have cast me off already.'
+
+'I! when all this has been of your own seeking?'
+
+'Mine?' cried Eustacie, panting with the struggle between her
+dignity and her passionate tears.  'I meddled not.  I heard that M.
+le Baron was gone to a strange land, and had written to break off
+old ties.'  Her face was in a flame, and her efforts for composure
+absolute pain.
+
+'I!' again exclaimed Berenger.  'The first letter came from your
+uncle, declaring that it was your wish!'  And as her face changed
+rapidly, 'Then it was not true!  He has not had your consent?'
+
+'What! would I hold to one who despised me--who came here and never
+even asked to see this hated spouse!'
+
+I did!  I entreated to see you.  I would not sign the application
+till--Oh, there has been treachery!  And have they made you too
+sign it!'
+
+When they showed me your name they were welcome to mine.'
+
+Berenger struck his forehead with wrath and perplexity, then cried,
+joyfully, 'It will not stand for moment.  So foul a cheat can be at
+once exposed. Eutacie, you know--you understand, that it was not
+you but Diane whom I saw and detested; and no wonder, when she was
+acting such a cruel treason!'
+
+'Oh no, Diane would never so treat me,' cried Eustacie.  'I see how
+it was!  You did not know that my father was latterly called
+Marquis de Nid-de-Merle, and when they brought me here, they WOULD
+call me after him: they said a maid of honour must be Demoiselle,
+and my uncle said there was only one way in which I could remain
+Madame de Ribaumont! And the name must have deceived you.  Thou
+wast always a great dull boy,' she added, with a sudden assumption
+of childish intimacy that annihilated the nine years since their
+parting.
+
+'Had I seen thee, I had not mistaken for an instant.  This little
+face stirred my heart; hers repelled me.  And she deceived me
+wittingly, Eustacie, for I asked after her by name.'
+
+'Ah, she wished to spare my embarrassment.  And then her brother
+must have dealt with her.'
+
+'I see,' exclaimed Berenger, 'I am to be palmed off thus that thou
+mayest be reserved for Narcisse.  Tell me, Eustacie, wast thou
+willing?'
+
+'I hate Narcisse!' she cried.  'But oh, I am lingering too long.
+Monsieur will make some hateful tale!  I never fell into his way
+before, my Queen and Madame la Comtesse are so careful.  Only to-
+day, as I was attending her alone, the King came and gave her his
+arm, and I had to drop behind.  I must find her; I shall be
+missed,' she added, in sudden alarm.  'Oh, what will they say?'
+
+'No blame for being with thy husband,' he answered, clasping her
+hand.  'Thou art mine henceforth. I will soon cut our way out of
+the web thy treacherous kindred have woven. Meantime---'
+
+'Hush! There are voices,' cried Eustacie in terror, and, guided by
+something he could not discern, she fled with the swiftness of a
+bird down the alley.  Following, with the utmost speed that might
+not bear the appearance of pursuit, he found that on coming to the
+turn she had moderated her pace, and was more tranquilly advancing
+to a bevy of ladies, who sat perched on the stone steps like great
+butterflies sunning themselves, watching the game, and receiving
+the attentions of their cavaliers.  He saw her absorbed into the
+group, and then began to prowl round it, in the alleys, in a tumult
+of amazement and indignation.  He had been shamefully deceived and
+cheated, and justice he would have!  He had been deprived of a
+thing of his own, and he would assert his right.  He had been made
+to injure and disown the creature he was bound to protect, and he
+must console her and compensate to her, were it only to redeem his
+honour.  He never even thought whether he loved her; he merely felt
+furious at the wrong he had suffered and been made to commit, and
+hotly bent on recovering what belonged to him.  He might even have
+plunged down among the ladies and claimed her as his wife, if the
+young Abbe de Mericour, who was two years older than he, and far
+less of a boy for his years, had not joined him in his agitated
+walk.  He then learnt that all the court knew that the daughter of
+the late Marquis de Nid-de-Merle, Comte de Ribaumont, was called by
+his chief title, but that her marriage to himself had been forgotten
+by some and unknown to others, and thus that the first error between
+the cousins had not been wonderful in a stranger, since the Chevalier's
+daughter had always been Mdlle. de Ribaumont.  The error once made,
+Berenger's distaste to Diane had been so convenient that it had
+been carefully encouraged, and the desire to keep him at a distance
+from court and throw him into the background was accounted for.
+The Abbe was almost as indignant as Berenger, and assured him both
+of his sympathy and his discretion.
+
+'I see no need for discretion,' said Berenger.  'I shall claim my
+wife in the face of the sun.'
+
+'Take counsel first, I entreat,' exclaimed Mericour.  'The
+Ribaumonts have much influence with the Guise family, and now you
+have offended Monsieur.'
+
+'Ah! Where are those traitorous kinsmen?' cried Berenger.
+
+'Fortunately all are gone on an expedition with the Queen-mother.
+You will have time to think.  I have heard my brother say no one
+ever prospered who offended the meanest follower of the house of
+Lorraine.'
+
+'I do not want prosperity, I only want my wife.  I hope I shall
+never see Paris and its deceivers again.'
+
+'Ah! But is it true that you have applied to have the marriage
+annulled at Rome?'
+
+'We were both shamefully deceivers.  That can be nothing.'
+
+'A decree of his Holiness: you a Huguenot; she an heiress.  All is
+against you.  My friend, be cautions, exclaimed the young
+ecclesiastic, alarmed by his passionate gestures.  'To break forth
+now and be accused of brawling in the palace precincts would be
+fatal--fatal--most fatal!'
+
+'I am as calm as possible,' returned Berenger.  'I mean to act most
+reasonably.  I shall stand before the King and tell him openly how
+I have been tamperes with, demanding my wife before the whole
+court.'
+
+'Long before you could get so far the ushers would have dragged you
+away for brawling, or for maligning an honour-able gentlemen.  You
+would have to finish your speech in the Bastille, and it would be
+well if even your English friends could get you out alive.'
+
+'Why, what a place is this!' began Berenger; but again Mericour
+entreated him to curb himself; and his English education had taught
+him to credit the house of Guide with so much mysterious power and
+wickedness, that he allowed himself to be silenced, and promised to
+take no open measures till he had consulted the Ambassador.
+
+'He could not obtain another glimpse of Eustacie, and the hours
+passed tardily till the break up of the party. Charles could
+scarcely release Sidney from his side, and only let him go on
+condition that he should join the next day in an expedition to the
+hunting chateau of Montpipeau, to which the King seemed to look
+forward as a great holiday and breathing time.
+
+When at length the two youths did return, Sir Francis Walsingham
+was completely surprised by the usually tractable, well-behaved
+stripling, whose praises he had been writing to his old friend,
+bursting in on him with the outcry, 'Sir, sir, I entreat your
+counsel!  I have been foully cozened.'
+
+'Of how much?' said Sir Francis, in a tone of reprobation.
+
+'Of my wife.  Of mine honour.  Sir, your Excellency, I crave
+pardon, if I spoke too hotly,' said Berenger, collecting himself;
+'but it is enough to drive a man to frenzy.'
+
+'Sit down, my Lord de Ribaumont.  Take breath, and let me know what
+is this coil.  What hath thus moved him, Mr. Sidney?'
+
+'It is as he says, sir,' replied Sidney, who had beard all as they
+returned; 'he has been greatly wronged.  The Chevalier de Ribaumont
+not only writ to propose the separation without the lady's
+knowledge, but imposed his own daughter on our friend as the wife
+he had not seen since infancy.'
+
+'There, sir,' broke forth Berenger; 'surely if I claim mine own in
+the face of day, no man can withhold her from me!'
+
+'Hold!' said Sir Francis. 'What mean this passion, young sir?
+Methought you came hither convinced that both the religion and the
+habits in which the young lady had been bred up rendered your
+infantine contract most unsuitable.  What hath fallen out to make
+this change in your mind?'
+
+'That I was cheated, sir.  The lady who palmed herself off on me as
+my wife was a mere impostor, the Chevalier's own daughter!'
+
+'That may be; but what known you of this other lady?  Has she been
+bred up in faith or manners such as your parents would have your
+wife?'
+
+'She is my wife,' reiterated Berenger.  'My faith is plighted to
+her.  That is enough for me.'
+
+Sir Francis made a gesture of despair.  'He has seen her, I
+suppose,' said he to Sidney.
+
+'Yes truly, sir,' answered Berenger; 'and found that she had been
+as greatly deceived as myself.'
+
+'Then mutual consent is wanting,' said the statesman, gravely
+musing.
+
+'That is even as I say,' began Berenger, but Walsingham help up his
+hand, and desired that he would make his full statement in the
+presence of his tutor.  Then sounding a little whistle, the
+Ambassador despatched a page to request the attendance of Mr.
+Adderley, and recommended young Ribaumont in the meantime to
+compose himself.
+
+Used to being under authority as Berenger was, the somewhat severe
+tone did much to allay his excitement, and remind him that right
+and reason were so entirely on his side, that he had only to be
+cool and rational to make them prevail.  He was thus able to give a
+collected and coherent account of his discovery that the part of
+his wife had been assumed by her cousin Diane, and that the
+signature of both the young pair to the application to the Pope had
+been obtained on false pretences.  That he had, as Sidney said,
+been foully cozened, in both senses of the word, was as clear as
+daylight; but he was much angered and disappointed to find that
+neither the Ambassador nor his tutor could see that Eustacie's
+worthiness was proved by the iniquity of her relation, or that any
+one of the weighty reasons for the expediency of dissolving the
+marriage was remove.  The whole affair had been in such good train
+a little before, that Mr. Adderley was much distressed that it
+should thus have been crossed, and thought the new phase of affairs
+would be far from acceptable at Combe Walwyn.
+
+'Whatever is just and honourable must be acceptable to my
+grandfather,' said Berenger.
+
+'Even so,' said Walsingham; 'but it were well to consider whether
+justice and honour require you to overthrow the purpose wherewith
+he sent you hither.'
+
+'Surely, sir, justice and require me to fulfil a contract to which
+the other party is constant,' said Berenger, feeling very wise and
+prudent for calling that wistful, indignant creature the other
+party.
+
+'That is also true,' said the Ambassador, 'provided she be
+constant; but you own that she signed the requisition for the
+dissolution.'
+
+'She did so, but under the same deception as myself, and further
+mortified and aggrieved at my seeming faithlessness.'
+
+'So it may easily be represented,' muttered Walsingham.
+
+'How, sir?' cried Berenger, impetuously; 'do you doubt her truth?'
+
+'Heaven forefend,' said Sir Francis, 'that I should discuss any
+fair lady's sincerity!  The question is how far you are bound.
+Have I understood you that you are veritably wedded, not by a mere
+contract of espousal?'
+
+'Berenger could produce no documents, for they had been left at
+Chateau Leurre, and on his father's death the Chevalier had claimed
+the custody of them; but he remembered enough of the ceremonial to
+prove that the wedding had been a veritable one, and that only the
+papal intervention could annul it.
+
+Indeed an Englishman, going by English law, would own no power in
+the Pope, nor any one on earth, to sever the sacred tie of wedlock;
+but French courts of law would probably ignore the mode of
+application, and would certainly endeavour to separate between a
+Catholic and a heretic.
+
+'I am English, sir, in heart and faith,' said Berenger, earnestly.
+'Look upon me as such, and tell me, am I married or single at this
+moment?'
+
+'Married assuredly.  More's the pity,' said Sir Francis.
+
+'And no law of God or man divides us without our own consent.'
+There was no denying that the mutual consent of the young pair at
+their present age was all that was wanting to complete the
+inviolability of their marriage contract.
+
+Berenger was indeed only eighteen, and Eustacie more than a year
+younger, but there was nothing in their present age to invalidate
+their marriage, for persons of their rank were usually wedded quite
+as young or younger.  Walsingham was only concerned at his old
+friend's disappointment, and at the danger of the young man running
+headlong into a connection probably no more suitable than that with
+Diane de Ribaumont would have been.  But it was not convenient to
+argue against the expediency of a man's loving his own wife; and
+when Berenger boldly declared he was not talking of love but of
+justice, it was only possible to insist that he should pause and
+see where true justice lay.
+
+And thus the much-perplexed Ambassador broke up the conference with
+his hot and angry young guest.
+
+'And Mistress Lucy---?' sighed Mr. Adderley, in rather an
+_inapropos_ fashion it must be owned; but then he had been fretted
+beyond endurance by his pupil striding up and down his room,
+reviling Diane, and describing Eustacie, while he was trying to
+write these uncomfortable tidings to Lord Walwyn.
+
+'Lucy!  What makes you bring her up to me?' exclaimed Berenger.
+'Little Dolly would be as much to the purpose!'
+
+'Only, sir, no resident at Hurst Walwyn could fail to know that has
+been planned and desired.'
+
+'Pshaw!' cries Berenger; 'have you not heard that it was a mere
+figment, and that I could scarce have wedded Lucy safely, even had
+this matter gone as you wish?  This is the luckiest chance that
+could have befallen her.'
+
+'That may be,' said Mr. Adderley; 'I wish she may think so--sweet
+young lady!'
+
+'I tell you, Mr. Adderley, you should know better!  Lucy has more
+sense.  My aunt, whom she follows more than any other creature,
+ever silenced the very sport or semblance of love passages between
+us even as children, by calling them unseemly in one wedded as I
+am.  Brother and sister we have ever been, and have loved as such--
+ay, and shall!  I know of late some schemes have crossed my
+mother's mind---'
+
+'Yea, and that of others.'
+
+'But they have not ruffled Lucy's quiet nature--trust me! And for
+the rest?  What doth she need me in comparison of this poor child?
+She--like a bit of her own gray lavender in the shadiest nook of
+the walled garden, tranquil there--sure not to be taken there, save
+to company with fine linen in some trim scented coffer, whilst this
+fresh glowing rosebud has grown up pure and precious in the very
+midst of the foulest corruption Christendom can show, and if I
+snatch her not from it, I, the innocence and sweetness, what is to
+be her fate?  The very pity of a Christian, the honour of a
+gentleman, would urge me, even if it were not my most urgent duty!'
+
+'Mr. Adderley argued no more.  When Berenger came to his duty in
+the matter he was invincible, and moreover all the more provoking,
+because he mentioned it with a sort of fiery sound of relish, and
+looked so very boyish all the time.  Poor Mr. Adderley!' feeling as
+if his trust were betrayed, loathing the very idea of a French
+court lady, saw that his pupil had been allured into a headlong
+passion to his own misery, and that of all whose hopes were set on
+him, yet preached to by this stripling scholar about duties and
+sacred obligations!  Well might he rue the day he ever set foot in
+Paris.
+
+Then, to his further annoyance, came a royal messenger to invite
+the Baron de Ribaumont to join the expedition to Montpipeau.  Of
+course he must go, and his tutor must be left behind, and who could
+tell into what mischief he might not be tempted!
+
+Here, however, Sidney gave the poor chaplain some comfort.  He
+believed that no ladies were to be of the party, and that the
+gentlemen were chiefly of the King's new friends among the
+Huguenots, such as Coligny, his son-in-law Teligny, Rochefoucauld,
+and the like, among whom the young gentleman could not fall into
+any very serious harm, and might very possibly be influenced
+against a Roman Catholic wife.  At any rate, he would be out of the
+way, and unable to take any dangerous steps.
+
+This same consideration so annoyed Berenger that he would have
+declined the invitation, if royal invitations could have been
+declined.  And in the morning, before setting out, he dressed
+himself point device, and with Osbert behind him marched down to
+the Croix de Larraine, to call upon the Chevalier de Ribaumont.  He
+had a very fine speech at his tongue's end when he set out, but a
+good deal of it had evaporated when he reached the hotel, and
+perhaps he was not very sorry not to find the old gentleman within.
+
+On his return, he indited a note to the Chevalier, explaining that
+he had now seen his wife, Madame la Baronne de Ribaumont, and had
+come to an understanding with her, by which he found that it was
+under a mistake that the application to the Pope had been signed,
+and that they should, therefore, follow it up with a protest, and
+act as if no such letter had been sent.
+
+Berenger showed this letter to Walsingham, who, though much
+concerned, could not forbid his sending it.  'Poor lad,' he said to
+the tutor; ''tis an excellently writ billet for one so young.  I
+would it were in a wiser cause.  But he has fairly the bit between
+his teeth, and there is no checking him while he has this show of
+right on his side.'
+
+And poor Mr. Adderley could only beseech Mr. Sidney to take care of
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.  THE QUEEN'S PASTORAL
+
+
+
+Either very gravely gay,
+Or very gaily grave,--W. M. PRAED
+
+
+Montpipeau, though in the present day a suburb of Paris, was in the
+sixteenth century far enough from the city to form a sylvan
+retreat, where Charles IX, could snatch a short respite from the
+intrigues of his court, under pretext of enjoying his favourite
+sport.  Surrounded with his favoured associates of the Huguenot
+party, he seemed to breathe a purer atmosphere, and to yield
+himself up to enjoyment greater than perhaps his sad life had ever
+known.
+
+He rode among his gentlemen, and the brilliant cavalcade passed
+through poplar-shaded roads, clattered through villages, and
+threaded their way through bits of forest still left for the royal
+chase.  The people thronged out of their houses, and shouted not
+only 'Vive le Roy,' but 'Vive l'Amiral,' and more than once the cry
+was added, 'Spanish war, or civil war!'  The heart of France was,
+if not with the Reformed, at least against Spain and the
+Lorrainers, and Sidney perceived, from the conversation of the
+gentlemen round him, that the present expedition had been devised
+less for the sake of the sport, than to enable the King to take
+measures for emancipating himself from the thraldom of his mother,
+and engaging the country in a war against Philip II.  Sidney
+listened, but Berenger chafed, feeling only that he was being
+further carried out of reach of his explanation with his kindred.
+And thus they arrived at Montpipeau, a tower, tall and narrow, like
+all French designs, but expanded on the ground floor by wooden
+buildings capable of containing the numerous train of a royal
+hunter, and surrounded by an extent of waste land, without fine
+trees, though with covert for deer, boars, and wolves sufficient
+for sport to royalty and death to peasantry. Charles seemed to sit
+more erect in his saddle, and to drink in joy with every breath of
+the thyme-scented breeze, from the moment his horse bounded on the
+hollow-sounding turf; and when he leapt to the ground, with the
+elastic spring of youth, he held out his hands to Sidney and to
+Teligny, crying 'Welcome, my friends.  Here I am indeed a king!'
+
+It was a lovely summer evening, early in August, and Charles bade
+the supper to be spread under the elms that shaded a green lawn in
+front of the chateau.  Etiquette was here so far relaxed as to
+permit the sovereign to dine with his suite, and tables, chairs,
+and benches were brought out, drapery festooned in the trees to
+keep off sun and wind, the King lay down in the fern and let his
+happy dogs fondle him, and as a hers-girl passed along a vista in
+the distance, driving her goats before her, Philip Sidney marvelled
+whether it was not even thus in Arcadia.
+
+Presently there was a sound of horses trampling, wheels moving, a
+party of gaily gilded archers of the guard jingled up, and in their
+midst was a coach.  Berenger's heart seemed to leap at once to his
+lips, as a glimpse of ruffs, hats, and silks dawned on him through
+the windows.
+
+The king rose from his lair among the fern, the Admiral stood
+forward, all heads were bared, and from the coach-door alighted the
+young Queen; no longer pale, subdued, and indifferent, but with a
+face shining with girlish delight, as she held out her hand to the
+Admiral.  'Ah! This is well, this is beautiful,' she exclaimed; 'it
+is like our happy chases in the Tyrol.  Ah, Sire!' to the King,
+'how I thank you for letting me be with you.'
+
+After her Majesty descended her gentleman-usher.  Then came the
+lady-in-waiting, Madame de Sauve, the wife of the state secretary
+in attendance on Charles, and a triumphant, coquettish beauty, than
+a fat, good-humoured Austrian dame, always called Madame la
+Comtesse, because her German name was unpronounceable, and without
+whom the Queen never stirred, and lastly a little figure, rounded
+yet slight, slender yet soft and plump, with a kitten-like
+alertness and grace of motion, as she sprang out, collected the
+Queen's properties of fan, kerchief, pouncet-box, mantle, &c., and
+disappeared in to the chateau, without Berenger's being sure of
+anything but that her little black hat had a rose-coloured feather
+in it.
+
+The Queen was led to a chair placed under one of the largest trees,
+and there Charles presented to her such of his gentlemen as she was
+not yet acquainted with, the Baron de Ribaumont among the rest.
+
+'I have heard of M. de Ribaumont,' she said, in a tone that made
+the colour mantle in his fair cheek; and with a sign of her hand
+she detained him at her side till the King had strolled away with
+Madame la Sauve, and no one remained near but her German countess.
+Then changing her tone to one of confidence, which the high-bred
+homeliness of her Austrian manner rendered inexpressibly engaging,
+she said, 'I must apologize, Monsieur, for the giddiness of my
+sister-in-law, which I fear caused you some embarrassment.'
+
+'Ah, Madame,' said Berenger, kneeling on one knee as she addressed
+him, and his heart bounding with wild, undefined hope, 'I cannot be
+grateful enough.  It was that which led to my being undeceived.'
+
+'It was true, then, that you were mistaken?' said the Queen.
+
+'Treacherously deceived, Madame, by those whose interest it is to
+keep us apart,' said Berenger, colouring with indignation; 'they
+imposed my other cousin on me as my wife, and caused her to think
+me cruelly neglectful.'
+
+'I know,' said the Queen.  'Yet Mdlle. de Ribaumont is far more
+admired than my little blackbird.'
+
+'That may be, Madame, but not by me.'
+
+'Yet is it true that you came to break off the marriage?'
+
+'Yes, Madame,' said Berenger, honestly, 'but I had not seen her.'
+
+'And now?' said the Queen, smiling.
+
+'I would rather die than give her up,' said Berenger.  'Oh, Madame,
+help us of your grace.  Every one is trying to part us, every one
+is arguing against us, but she is my own true wedded wife, and if
+you will but give her to me, all will be well.'
+
+'I like you, M. de Ribaumont,' said the Queen, looking him full in
+the face.  'You are like our own honest Germans at my home, and I
+think you mean all you say.  I had much rather my dear little Nid
+de Merle were with you than left here, to become like all the
+others.  She is a good little _Liegling_,--how do you call it in
+French? She has told me all, and truly I would help you with all my
+heart, but it is not as if I were the Queen-mother.  You must have
+recourse to the King, who loves you well, and at my request
+included you in the hunting-party.'
+
+Berenger could only kiss her hand in token of earnest thanks before
+the repast was announced, and the King came to lead her to the
+table spread beneath the trees.  The whole party supped together,
+but Berenger could have only a distant view of his little wife,
+looking very demure and grave by the side of the Admiral.
+
+But when the meal was ended, there was a loitering in the woodland
+paths, amid healthy openings or glades trimmed into discreet
+wildness fit for royal rusticity; the sun set in parting glory on
+one horizon, the moon rising in crimson majesty on the other.  A
+musician at intervals touched the guitar, and sang Spanish or
+Italian airs, whose soft or quaint melody came dreamily through the
+trees.  Then it was that with beating heart Berenger stole up to
+the maiden as she stood behind the Queen, and ventured to whisper
+her name and clasp her hand.
+
+She turned, their eyes met, and she let him lead her apart into the
+wood.  It was not like a lover's tryst, it was more like the
+continuation of their old childish terms, only that he treated her
+as a thing of his own, that he was bound to secure and to guard,
+and she received him as her own lawful but tardy protector, to be
+treated with perfect reliance but with a certain playful
+resentment.
+
+'You will not run away from me now,' he said, making full prize of
+her hand and arm.
+
+'Ah! is not she the dearest and best of queens?' and the large eyes
+were lifted up to him in such frank seeking of sympathy that he
+could see into the depths of their clear darkness.
+
+'It is her doing then.  Though, Eustacie, when I knew the truth,
+not flood nor fire should keep me long from you, my heart, my love,
+my wife.'
+
+'What! wife in spite of those villainous letter?' she said, trying
+to pout.
+
+'Wife for ever, inseparably! Only you must be able to swear that
+you knew nothing of the one that brought me here.'
+
+'Poor me!  No, indeed!  There was Celine carried off at fourteen,
+Madame de Blanchet a bride at fifteen; all marrying hither and
+thither; and I--' she pulled a face irresistibly droll--'I growing
+old enough to dress St. Catherine's hair, and wondering where was
+M. le Baron.'
+
+'They thought me too young,' said Berenger, 'to take on me the
+cares of life.'
+
+'So they were left to me?'
+
+'Cares! What cares have you but finding the Queen's fan?'
+
+'Little you know!' she said, half contemptuous, half mortified.
+
+'Nay, pardon me, _ma mie_.  Who has troubled you?'
+
+'Ah! you would call it nothing to be beset by Narcisse; to be told
+one's husband is faithless, till one half believes it; to be looked
+at by ugly eyes; to be liable to be teased any day by Monsieur, or
+worse, by that mocking ape, M. d'Alecon, and to have nobody who can
+or will hinder it.'
+
+She was sobbing by this time, and he exclaimed, 'Ah, would that I
+could revenge all!  Never, never shall it be again!  What blessed
+grace has guarded you through all?'
+
+'Did I not belong to you?' she said exultingly.  'And had not
+Sister Monique, yes, and M. le Baron, striven hard to make me good?
+Ah, how kind he was!'
+
+'My father?  Yes, Eustacie, he loved you to the last.  He bade me,
+on his deathbed, give you his own Book of Psalms, and tell you he
+had always loved and prayed for you.'
+
+'Ah! his Psalms!  I shall love them!  Even at Bellaise, when first
+we came there, we used to sing them, but the Mother Abbess went out
+visiting, and when she came back she said they were heretical.  And
+Soeur Monique would not let me say the texts he taught me, but I
+WOULD not forget them.  I say them often in my heart.'
+
+'Then,' he cried joyfully, 'you will willingly embrace my
+religion?'
+
+'Be a Huguenot?' she said distastefully.
+
+'I am not precisely a Huguenot; I do not love them,' he answered
+hastily; 'but all shall be made clear to you at my home in
+England.'
+
+'England!' she said.  'Must we live in England?  Away from every
+one?'
+
+'Ah, they will love so much! I shall make you so happy there,' he
+answered. 'There you will see what it is to be true and
+trustworthy.'
+
+'I had rather live at Chateau Leurre, or my own Nid de Merle,' she
+replied.  'There I should see Soeur Monique, and my aunt, the
+Abbess, and we would have the peasants to dance in the castle
+court.  Oh! if you could but see the orchards at Le Bocage, you
+would never want to go away.  And we could come now and then to see
+my dear Queen.
+
+'I am glad at least you would not live at court.'
+
+'Oh, no, I have been more unhappy here than ever I knew could be
+borne.'
+
+And a very few words from him drew out all that had happened to her
+since they parted.  Her father had sent her to Bellaise, a convent
+founded by the first of the Angevin branch, which was presided over
+by his sister, and where Diane was also educated.  The good sister
+Monique had been mistress of the _pensionnaires_, and had evidently
+taken much pains to keep her charge innocent and devout.  Diane had
+been taken to court about two years before, but Eustacie had
+remained at the convent till some three months since, when she had
+been appointed maid of honour to the recently-married Queen; and
+her uncle had fetched her from Anjou, and had informed her at the
+same time that her young husband had turned Englishman and heretic,
+and that after a few formalities had been complied with, she would
+become the wife of her cousin Narcisse.  Now there was no person
+whom she so much dreaded as Narcisse, and when Berenger spoke of
+him as a feeble fop, she shuddered as though she knew him to have
+something of the tiger.
+
+'Do you remember Benoit?' she said; 'poor Benoit, who came to
+Normandy as my _laquais_?  When I went back to Anjou he married a
+girl from Leurre, and went to aid his father at the farm.  The poor
+fellow had imbibed the Baron's doctrine--he spread it.  It was
+reported that there was a nest of Huguenots on the estate.  My
+cousin came to break it up with his _gens d'armes_ O Berenger, he
+would hear no entreaties, he had no mercy; he let them assemble on
+Sunday, that they might be all together.  He fired the house; shot
+down those who escaped; if a prisoner were made, gave him up to the
+Bishop's Court.  Benoit, my poor good Benoit, who used to lead my
+palfrey, was first wounded, then tried, and burnt--burnt in the
+PLACE at Lucon!  I heard Narcisse laugh--laugh as he talked of the
+cries of the poor creatures in the conventicler.  My own people,
+who loved me!  I was but twelve years old, but even then the wretch
+would pay me a half-mocking courtesy, as one destined to him; and
+the more I disdained him and said I belonged to you, the more both
+he and my aunt, the Abbess, smiled, as though they had their bird
+in a cage; but they left me in peace till my uncle brought me to
+court, and then all began again: and when they said you gave me up,
+I had no hope, not even of a convent.  But ah, it is all over now,
+and I am so happy!  You are grown so gentle and so beautiful,
+Berenger, and so much taller than I ever figured you to myself, and
+you look as if you could take me up in your arms, and let no harm
+happen to me.'
+
+'Never, never shall it!' said Berenger, felling all manhood,
+strength, and love stir within him, and growing many years in heart
+in that happy moment.  'My sweet little faithful wife, never fear
+again now you are mine.'
+
+Alas! poor children.  They were a good way from the security they
+had begun to fancy for themselves.  Early the next morning,
+Berenger went in his straightforward way to the King, thanked him,
+and requested his sanction for at once producing themselves to the
+court as Monsieur le Baron and Madame la Baronne de Ribaumont.
+
+At this Charles swore a great oath, as one in perplexity, and bade
+him not go so fast.
+
+'See here,' said he, with the rude expletives only too habitual
+with him; 'she is a pretty little girl, and she and her lands are
+much better with an honest man like you than with that _pendard_ of
+a cousin; but you see he is bent on having her, and he belongs to a
+cut-throat crew that halt at nothing.  I would not answer for your
+life, if you tempted him so strongly to rid himself of you.'
+
+'My own sword, Sire, can guard my life.'
+
+'Plague upon your sword!  What does the foolish youth think it
+would do against half-a-dozen poniards and pistols in a lane black
+as hell's mouth?'
+
+The foolish young WAS thinking how could a king so full of fiery
+words and strange oaths bear to make such an avowal respecting his
+own capital and his own courtiers.  All he could do was to bow and
+reply, 'Nevertheless, Sire, at whatever risk, I cannot relinquish
+my wife; I would take her at one to the Ambassador's.'
+
+'How, sir!' interrupted Charles, haughtily and angrily, 'if you
+forget that you are a French nobleman still, I should remember it!
+The Ambassador may protect his own countrymen-none else.'
+
+'I entreat your Majesty's pardon,' said Berenger, anxious to
+retract his false step.  'It was your goodness and the gracious
+Queen's that made me hope for your sanction.'
+
+'All the sanction Charles de Valois can give is yours, and
+welcome,' said the King, hastily.  'The sanction of the King of
+France is another matter!  To say the truth, I see no way out of
+the affair but an elopement.'
+'Sire!' exclaimed the astonished Berenger, whose strictly-
+disciplined education had little prepared him for such counsel.
+
+'Look you!  if I made you known as a wedded pair, the Chevalier and
+his son would not only assassinate you, but down on me would come
+my brother, and my mother, and M. de Guise and all their crew,
+veritably for giving the prize out of the mouth of their satellite,
+but nominally for disregarding the Pope, favouring a heretical
+marriage, and I know not what, but, as things go here, I should
+assuredly get the worst of it; and if you made safely off with your
+prize, no one could gainsay you--I need know nothing about it--and
+lady and lands would be your without dispute.  You might ride off
+from the skirts of the forest; I would lead the hunt that way, and
+the three days' riding would bring you to Normady, for you had best
+cross to England immediately.  When she is one there, owned by your
+kindred, Monsieur le cousin may gnash his teeth as he will, he must
+make the best of it for the sake of the honour of his house, and
+you can safely come back and raise her people and yours to follow
+the Oriflamme when it takes the field against Spain.  What! you are
+still discontented? Speak out! Plain speaking is a treat not often
+reserved for me.'
+
+'Sire, I am most grateful for your kindness, but I should greatly
+prefer going straightforward.'
+
+'Peste!  Well is it said that a blundering Englishman goes always
+right before him!  There, then!  As your King on the one hand, as
+the friend who has brought you and your wife together, sir, it is
+my command that you do not compromise me and embroil greater
+matters than you can understand by publicly claiming this girl.
+Privately I will aid you to the best of my ability; publicly, I
+command you, for my sake, if you heed not your own, to be silent!'
+
+Berenger sought out Sidney, who smiled at his surprise.
+
+'Do you not see,' he said, 'that the King is your friend, and would
+be very glad to save the lady's lands from the Guisards, but that
+he cannot say so; he can only befriend a Huguenot by stealth.'
+
+'I would not be such a king for worlds!'
+
+However, Eustacie was enchanted.  It was like a prince and princess
+in Mere Perinne's fairy tales.  Could they go like a shepherd and
+shepherdess?  She had no fears-no scruples.  Would she not be with
+her husband?  It was the most charming frolic in the world.  So the
+King seemed to think it, though he was determined to call it all
+the Queen's doing--the first intrigue of her own, making her like
+all the rest of us--the Queen's little comedy.  He undertook to
+lead the chase as far as possible in the direction of Normandy,
+when the young pair might ride on to an inn, meet fresh horses, and
+proceed to Chateau Leurre, and thence to England.  He would himself
+provide a safe-conduct, which, as Berenger suggested, would
+represent them as a young Englishman taking home his young wife.
+Eustacie wanted at least to masquerade as an Englishwoman, and
+played off all the fragments of the language she had caught as a
+child, but Berenger only laughed at her, and said they just fitted
+the French bride.  It was very pretty to laugh at Eustacie; she
+made such a droll pretence at pouting with her rosebud lips, and
+her merry velvety eyes belied them so drolly.
+
+Such was to be the Queen's pastoral; but when Elisabeth found the
+responsibility so entirely thrown on her, she began to look grave
+and frightened.  It was no doubt much more than she had intended
+when she brought about the meeting between the young people, and
+the King, who had planned the elopement, seemed still resolved to
+make all appear her affair.  She looked all day more like the
+grave, spiritless being she was at court than like the bright young
+rural queen of the evening before, and she was long in her little
+oratory chapel in the evening.  Berenger, who was waiting in the
+hall with the other Huguenot gentlemen, thought her devotions
+interminable since they delayed all her ladies.  At length,
+however, a page came up to him, and said in a low voice, 'The Queen
+desires the presence of M. le Baron de Ribaumont.'
+
+He followed the messenger, and found himself in the little chapel,
+before a gaily-adorned altar, and numerous little shrines and
+niches round.  Sidney would have dreaded a surreptitious attempt to
+make him conform, but Berenger had no notion of such perils,--he
+only saw that Eustacie was standing by the Queen's chair, and a
+kindly-looking Austrian priest, the Queen's confessor, held a book
+in his hand.
+
+The Queen came to meet him.  'For my sake,' she said, with all her
+sweetness, 'to ease my mind, I should like to see my little
+Eustacie made entirely your own ere you go.  Father Meinhard tells
+me it is safer that, when the parties were under twelve years old,
+the troth should be again exchanged.  No other ceremony is needed.'
+
+'I desire nothing but to have her made indissolubly my own,' said
+Berenger, bowing.
+
+'And the King permits,' added Elisabeth.
+
+The King growled out, 'It is your comedy, Madame; I meddle not.'
+
+The Austrian priest had no common language with Berenger but Latin.
+He asked a few questions, and on hearing the answers, declared that
+the sacrament of marriage had been complete, but that--as was often
+done in such cases--he would once more hear the troth-plight of the
+young pair.  The brief formula was therefore at once exchanged--the
+King, when the Queen looked entreatingly at him, rousing himself to
+make the bride over to Berenger.  As soon as the vows had been
+made, in the briefest manner, the King broke in boisterously:
+'There, you are twice marred, to please Madame there; but hold your
+tongues all of you about this scene in the play.'
+
+Then almost pushing Eustacie over to Berenger, he added, 'There she
+is! Take your wife, sir; but mind, she was as much yours before as
+she is now.'
+
+But for all Berenger had said about 'his wife,' it was only now
+that he really FELT her his own, and became husband rather than
+lover-man instead of boy.  She was entirely his own now, and he
+only desired to be away with her; but some days' delay was
+necessary.  A chase on the scale of the one that was to favour
+their evasion could not be got up without some notice; and,
+moreover, it was necessary to procure money, for neither Sidney nor
+Ribaumont had more than enough with them for the needful
+liberalities to the King's servants and huntsmen.  Indeed Berenger
+had spent all that remained in his purse upon the wares of an
+Italian pedlar whom he and Eustacie met in the woods, and whose
+gloves 'as sweet as fragrant posies,' fans, scent-boxes, pocket
+mirrors, Genoa wire, Venice chains, and other toys, afforded him
+the mean of making up the gifts that he wished to carry home to his
+sisters; and Eustacie's counsel was merrily given in the choice.
+And when the vendor began with a meaning smile to recommend to the
+young pair themselves a little silver-netted heart as a love-token,
+and it turned out that all Berenger's money was gone, so that it
+could not be bought without giving up the scented casket destined
+for Lucy, Eustacie turned with her sweetest, proudest smile, and
+said, 'No, no; I will not have it; what do we two want with love-
+tokens now?'
+
+Sidney had taken the youthful and romantic view of the case, and
+considered himself to be taking the best possible bare of is young
+friend, by enabling him to deal honourably with so charming a
+little wife as Eustacie.  Ambassador and tutor would doubtless be
+very angry; but Sidney could judge for himself of the lady, and he
+therefore threw himself into her interests, and sent his servant
+back to Paris to procure the necessary sum for the journey of
+Master Henry Berenger and Mistress Mary, his wife.  Sidney was, on
+his return alone to Paris, to explain all to the elders, and pacify
+them as best he could; and his servant was already the bearer of a
+letter from Berenger that was to be sent at once to England with
+Walsingham's dispatches, to prepare Lord Walwyn for the arrival of
+the runaways.  The poor boy laboured to be impressively calm and
+reasonable in his explanation of the misrepresentation, and of his
+strong grounds for assuming his rights, with his persuasion that
+his wife would readily join the English church--a consideration
+that he knew would greatly smooth the way for her.  Indeed, his own
+position was impregnable: nobody could blame him for taking his own
+wife to himself, and he was so sure of her charms, that he troubled
+himself very little about the impression she might make on his
+kindred.  If they loved her, it was all right; if not, he could
+take her back to his own castle, and win fame and honour under the
+banner of France in the Low Countries.  As the Lucy Thistlewood,
+she was far too discreet to feel any disappointment or displeasure;
+or if she should, it was her own fault and that of his mother, for
+all her life she had known him to be married.  So he finished his
+letter with a message that the bells should be ready to ring, and
+that when Philip heard three guns fired on the coast, he might
+light the big beacon pile above the Combe.
+
+Meantime 'the Queen's Pastoral' was much relished by all the
+spectators.  The state of things was only avowed to Charles,
+Elisabeth, and Philip Sidney, and even the last did not know of the
+renewed troth which the King chose to treat as such a secret; but
+no one had any doubt of the mutual relations of M. de Ribaumont and
+Mdlle. de Nid de Merle, and their dream of bliss was like a
+pastoral for the special diversion of the holiday of Montpipeau.
+The transparency of their indifference in company, their meeting
+eyes, their trysts with the secrecy of an ostrich, were the
+subjects of constant amusement to the elders, more especially as
+the shyness, blushes, and caution were much more on the side of the
+young husband than on that of the lady.  Fresh from her convent,
+simple with childishness and innocence, it was to her only the
+natural completion of her life to be altogether Berenger's, and the
+brief concealment of their full union added a certain romantic
+enchantment, which added to her exultation in her victory over her
+cruel kindred.  She had been upon her own mind, poor child, for her
+few weeks of court life.  She had been upon her own mind, poor
+child, for her few weeks of court life, but not long enough to make
+her grow older, though just so long as to make the sense of her
+having her own protector with her doubly precious.  He, on the
+other hand, though full of happiness, did also feel constantly
+deepening on him the sense of the charge and responsibility he had
+assumed, hardly knowing how.  The more dear Eustacie became to him,
+the more she rested on him and became entirely his, the more his
+boyhood and INSOUCIANCE drifted away behind him; and while he could
+hardly bear to heave his darling a moment out of his sight, the
+less he could endure any remark or jest upon his affection for her.
+His home had been a refined one, where Cecile's convent purity
+seemed to diffuse an atmosphere of modest reserve such as did not
+prevail in the court of the Maiden Queen herself, and the lad of
+eighteen had not seem enough of the outer world to have rubbed off
+any of that grace. His seniority to his little wife seemed to show
+itself chiefly in his being put out of countenance for her, when
+she was too innocent and too proud of her secret matronhood to
+understand or resent the wit.
+
+Little did he know that this was the ballet-like interlude in a
+great and terrible tragedy, whose first act was being played out on
+the stage where they schemed and sported, like their own little
+drama, which was all the world to them, and noting to the others.
+Berenger knew indeed that the Admiral was greatly rejoiced that the
+Nid de Merle estates should go into Protestant hands, and that the
+old gentleman lost no opportunity of impressing on him that they
+were a heavy trust, to be used for the benefit of 'the Religion,'
+and for the support of the King in his better mind.  But it may be
+feared that he did not give a very attentive ear to all this.  He
+did not like to think of those estates; he would gladly have left
+them all the Narcisse, so that he might have their lady, and though
+quite willing to win his spurs under Charles and Coligny against
+the Spaniard, his heart and head were far too full to take in the
+web of politics.  Sooth to say, the elopement in prospect seemed to
+him infinitely more important than Pope or Spaniard, Guise or
+Huguenot, and Coligny observed with a sigh to Teligny that he was a
+good boy, but nothing but the merest boy, with eyes open only to
+himself.
+
+When Charles undertook to rehearse their escape with them, and the
+Queen drove out in a little high-wheeled litter with Mne. la
+Comtesse, while Mme. De Sauve and Eustacie were mounted on gay
+palfreys with the pommelled side-saddle lately invented by the
+Queen-mother, Berenger, as he watched the fearless horsemanship and
+graceful bearing of his newly-won wife, had no speculations to
+spend on the thoughtful face of the Admiral.  And when at the
+outskirts of the wood the King's bewildering hunting-horn--sounding
+as it were now here, now there, now low, now high--called every
+attendant to hasten to its summons, leaving the young squire and
+damsel errant with a long winding high-banked lane before them,
+they reckoned the dispersion to be all for their sakes, and did not
+note, as did Sidney's clear eye, that when the entire company had
+come straggling him, it was the King who came up with Mme. De Sauve
+almost the last; and a short space after, as if not to appear to
+have been with him, appeared the Admiral and his son-in-law.
+
+Sidney also missed one of the Admiral's most trusted attendants,
+and from this and other symptoms he formed his conclusions that the
+King had scattered his followers as much for the sake of an
+unobserved conference with Coligny as for the convenience of the
+lovers, and that letters had been dispatched in consequence of that
+meeting.
+
+Those letters were indeed of a kind to change the face of affairs
+in France.  Marshal Strozzi, then commanding in the south-west, was
+bidden to embark at La Rochelle in the last week of August, to
+hasten to the succour of the Prince of Orange against Spain, and
+letters were dispatched by Coligny to all the Huguenot partisans
+bidding them assemble at Melun on the third of September, when they
+would be in the immediate neighbourhood of the court, which was
+bound for Fontainebleau.  Was the star of the Guises indeed waning?
+Was Charles about to escape from their hands, and commit himself to
+an honest, high-minded policy, in which he might have been able to
+purify his national Church, and wind back to her those whom her
+corruptions had driven to seek truth and morality beyond her pale?
+
+Alas! there was a bright pair of eyes that saw more than Philip
+Sidney's, a pair of ears that heard more, a tongue and pen less
+faithful to guard a secret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.  'LE BROUILON'
+
+
+
+But never more the same two sister pearls
+Ran down the silken thread to kiss each other.--Tennyson
+
+
+Berenger was obliged to crave permission from the King to spend
+some hours in riding with Osbert to the first hostel on their way,
+to make arrangements for the relay of horses that was to meet them
+there, and for the reception of Veronique, Eustacie's maid, who was
+to be sent off very early in the morning on a pillion behind
+Osbert, taking with her the articles of dress that would be wanted
+to change her mistress from the huntress maid of honour to the
+English dame.
+
+It was not long after he had been gone that a sound of wheels and
+trampling horses was heard in one of the forest drives.  Charles,
+who was amusing himself with shooting at a mark together with
+Sidney and Teligny, handed his weapon to an attendant, and came up
+with looks of restless anxiety to his Queen, who was placed in her
+chair under the tree, with the Admiral and her ladies round her, as
+judges of the prize.
+
+'Here is _le brouillon_,' he muttered.  'I thought we had been left
+in peace too long.'
+
+Elisabeth, who Brantome says was water, while her husband was fire,
+tried to murmur some hopeful suggestion; and poor little Eustacie,
+clasping her hands, could scarcely refrain from uttering the cry,
+'Oh, it is my uncle!  Do not let him take me!'
+
+The next minute there appeared four horses greatly heated and
+jaded, drawing one of the court coaches; and as it stopped at the
+castle gate, two ladies became visible within it--the portly form
+of Queen Catherine, and on the back seat the graceful figure of
+Diane de Ribaumont.
+
+Charles swore a great oath under his breath.  He made a step
+forward, but then his glance falling on Eustacie's face, which had
+flushed to the rosiest hue of the carnation, he put his finger upon
+his lip with a menacing air, and then advanced to greet his mother,
+followed by his gentlemen.
+
+'Fear not, my dear child,' said the young Queen, taking Eustacie's
+arm as she rose for the same purpose.  'Obey the King, and he will
+take care that all goes well.'
+
+The gentle Elisabeth was, however, the least regarded member of the
+royal family.  Her mother-in-law had not even waited to greet her,
+but had hurried the King into his cabinet, with a precipitation
+that made the young Queen's tender heart conclude that some
+dreadful disaster had occurred, and before Mademoiselle de
+Ribaumont had had time to make her reverence, she exclaimed,
+breathlessly, 'Oh, is it ill news?  Not from Vienna?'
+
+'No, no, Madame; reassure yourself,' replied Diane; 'it is merely
+that her Majesty, being on the way to Monceaux with Mesdames,
+turned out of her road to make a flying visit to your graces, and
+endeavour to persuade you to make her party complete.'
+
+Elisabeth looked as if questioning with herself if this would
+possibly be the whole explanation.  Monceaux was a castle belonging
+to the Queen Dowager at no great distance from Montpipeau, but
+there had been no intention of leaving Paris before the wedding,
+which was fixed for the seventeenth of August, and the bridegroom
+was daily expected.  She asked who was the party at Monceaux, and
+was told that Madame de Nemours had gone thither the evening
+before, with her son, M. de Guise, to make ready; and that Monsieur
+was escorting thither his two sisters, Madame de Lorraine and
+Madame Marguerite.  The Queen-mother had set out before them very
+early in the morning.
+
+'You must have made great speed,' said Elisabeth; 'it is scarcely
+two o'clock.'
+
+'Truly we did, Madame; two of our horses even died upon the road;
+but the Queen was anxious to find the King ere he should set off on
+one of his long chases.'
+
+Diane, at every spare moment, kept her eyes interrogatively fixed
+on her cousin, and evidently expected that the taciturn Queen, to
+whom a long conversation, in any language but Spanish, was always a
+grievance, would soon dismiss them both; and Eustacie did not know
+whether to be thankful or impatient, as Elisabeth, with tardy,
+hesitating, mentally-translated speech, inquired into every
+circumstance of the death of the poor horses, and then into all the
+court gossip, which she was currently supposed neither to hear nor
+understand; and then bethought herself that this good Mademoiselle
+de Ribaumont could teach her that embroidery stitch she had so long
+wished to learn.  Taking her arm, she entered the hall, and
+produced her work, so as effectually to prevent any communication
+between the cousins; Eustacie, meanwhile her heart clinging to her
+friend, felt her eyes filling with tears at the thoughts of how
+unkind her morrow's flight would seem without one word of farewell
+or of confidence, and was already devising tokens of tenderness to
+be left behind for Diane's consolation, when the door of the
+cabinet opened, and Catherine sailed down the stairs, with her
+peculiar gliding step and sweep of dignity.  The King followed her
+with a face of irresolution and distress.  He was evidently under
+her displeasure; but she advanced to the young Queen with much
+graciousness, and an air of matronly solicitude.
+
+'My daughter,' she said, 'I have just assured the King that I
+cannot leave you in these damp forests.  I could not be responsible
+for the results of the exposure any longer.  It is for him to make
+his own arrangements, but I brought my coach empty on purpose to
+transport you and your ladies to Monceaux.
+
+The women may follow with the mails.  You can be ready as soon as
+the horses are harnessed.'
+
+Elisabeth was used to passiveness.  She turned one inquiring look
+to her husband, but he looked sullen, and, evidently cowed by his
+mother, uttered not a word. She could only submit, and Catherine
+herself add that there was room for Madame de Sauve and
+Mademoiselle de Nid de Merle.  Madame la Comtesse should follow!
+It was self-evident that propriety would not admit of the only
+demoiselle being left behind among the gentlemen.  Poor Eustacie,
+she looked mutely round as if she hoped to escape!  What was the
+other unkindness to this?  And ever under the eyes of Diane too,
+who followed her to their chamber, when she went to prepare, so
+that she could not even leave a token for him where he would have
+been most certain to find it. Moments were few; but at the very
+last, while the queens were being handed in the carriage, she
+caught the eye of Philip Sidney.  He saw the appealing look, and
+came near.  She tried to laugh.  'Here is my gage, Monsieur
+Sidney,' she said, and held out a rose-coloured knot of ribbon;
+then, as he came near enough, she whispered imploringly three of
+her few English words--
+
+'Give to HIM.'
+
+'I take the gage as it is meant,' said Sidney, putting a knee to
+the ground, and kissing the trembling fingers, ere he handed her
+into the carriage.  He smiled and waved his hand as he met her
+earnest eyes.  One bow contained a scrap of paper pricked with
+needle-holes.  Sidney would not have made out those pricks for the
+whole world, even had he been able to do more than hastily secure
+the token, before the unhappy King, with a paroxysm of violent
+interjections, demanded of him whether the Queen of England, woman
+though she were, ever were so beset, and never allowed a moment to
+herself; then, without giving time for an answer, he flung away to
+his cabinet, and might be heard pacing up and down there in a
+tempest of perplexity.  He came forth only to order his horse, and
+desire M. de Sauve and a few grooms to be ready instantly to ride
+with him.  His face was full of pitiable perplexity--the smallest
+obstacle was met with a savage oath; and he was evidently in all
+the misery of a weak yet passionate nature, struggling with
+impotent violence against a yoke that evidently mastered it.
+
+He flung a word to his guests that he should return ere night, and
+they thus perceived that he did not intend their dismissal.
+
+'Poor youth,' said Coligny, mildly, 'he will be another being when
+we have him in our camp with the King of Navarre for his
+companion.'
+
+And then the Admiral repaired to his chamber to write one of his
+many fond letters to the young wife of his old age; while his son-
+in-law and Philip Sidney agreed to ride on, so as to met poor young
+Ribaumont, and prepare him for the blow that had befallen him
+personally, while they anxiously debated what this sudden descent
+of the Queen-mother might portend.  Teligny was ready to believe in
+any evil intention on her part, but he thought himself certain of
+the King's real sentiments, and in truth Charles had never treated
+any man with such confidence as this young Huguenot noble, to whom
+he had told his opinion of each of his counsellors, and his
+complete distrust of all.  That pitying affection which clings to
+those who cling to it, as well as a true French loyalty of heart,
+made Teligny fully believe that however Catherine might struggle to
+regain her ascendancy, and whatever apparent relapses might be
+caused by Charles's habitual subjection to her, yet the high
+aspirations and strong sense of justice inherent in the King were
+asserting themselves as his youth was passing into manhood; and
+that the much-desired war would enable him to develop all his
+higher qualities.  Sidney listened, partially agreed, talked of
+caution, and mused within himself whether violence might not
+sometimes be mistaken for vigour.
+
+Ere long, the merry cadence of an old English song fell with a
+homelike sound upon Sidney's ear, and in another moment they were
+in sight of Berenger, trotting joyously along, with a bouquet of
+crimson and white heather-blossoms in his hand, and his bright
+young face full of exultation in his arrangements.  He shouted
+gaily as he saw them, calling out, 'I thought I should meet you!
+but I wondered not to have heard the King's bugle-horn.  Where are
+the rest of the hunters?'
+
+'Unfortunately we have had another sort of hunt to-day,' said
+Sidney, who had ridden forward to meet him; 'and one that I fear,
+will disquiet you greatly.'
+
+'How!  Not her uncle?' exclaimed Berenger.
+
+'No, cheer up, my friend, it was not she who was the object of the
+chase; it was this unlucky King,' he added, speaking English, 'who
+has been run to earth by his mother.'
+
+'Nay, but what is that to me?' said Berenger, with impatient
+superiority to the affairs of the nation.  'How does it touch us?'
+
+Sidney related the abstraction of the young Queen and her ladies,
+and then handed over the rose-coloured token, which Berenger took
+with vehement ardour; then his features quivered as he read the
+needle-pricked words-two that he had playfully insisted on her
+speaking and spelling after him in his adopted tongue, then not
+vulgarized, but the tenderest in the language, 'Sweet heart.'  That
+was all, but to him they conveyed constancy to him and his,
+whatever might betide, and an entreaty not to leave her to her
+fate.
+
+'My dearest! never!' he muttered; then turning hastily as he put
+the precious token into his bosom, he exclaimed, 'Are their women
+yet gone?' and being assured that they were not departed when the
+two friends had set out, he pushed his horse on at speed, so as to
+be able to send a reply by Veronique.  He was barely in time: the
+clumsy wagon-like conveyance of the waiting-women stood at the door
+of the castle, in course of being packed with the Queen's wardrobe,
+amid the janglings of lackeys, and expostulating cries of _femmes
+de chambre_, all in the worst possible humour at being crowded up
+with their natural enemies, the household of the Queen-mother.
+
+Veronique, a round-faced Angevin girl--who, like her lady, had not
+parted with all her rustic simplicity and honesty, and who had been
+necessarily taken into their confidence--was standing apart from
+the whirl of confusion, holding the leashes of two or three little
+dogs that had been confided to her care, that their keepers might
+with more ease throw themselves into the _melee_.  Her face lighted
+up as she saw the Baron de Ribaumont arrive.
+
+'Ah, sir, Madame will be so happy that I have seen Monsieur once
+more,' she exclaimed under her breath, as he approached her.
+
+'Alas! there is not a moment to write,' he said, looking at the
+vehicle, already fast filling, 'but give her these flowers; they
+were gathered for her; give her ten thousand thanks for her token.
+Tell her to hold firm, and that neither king nor queen, bolt nor
+bar, shall keep me from her.  Tell her, our watchword is HOPE.'
+
+The sharp eyes of the duenna of the Queen's household, a rigid
+Spanish dame, were already searching for stray members of her
+flock, and Veronique had to hurry to her place, while Berenger
+remained to hatch new plans, each wilder than the last, and torment
+himself with guesses whether his project had been discovered.
+Indeed, there were moments when he fancied the frustration of his
+purpose the special object of Queen Catherine's journey, but he had
+the wisdom to keep any such suggestion to himself.
+
+The King came back by supper-time, looking no longer in a state of
+indecision, but pale and morose.  He spoke to no one as he entered,
+and afterwards took his place at the head of the supper-table in
+silence, which he did not break till the meal was nearly over.
+Then he said abruptly, 'Gentlemen, our party has been broken up,
+and I imagine that after our great hunt tomorrow, no one will have
+any objection to return to Paris.  We shall have merrier sport at
+Fontainebleau when this most troublesome of weddings is over.'
+
+There was nothing to be done but to bow acquiescence, and the King
+again became grimly silent.  After supper he challenged Coligny to
+a game of chess, and not a word passed during the protracted
+contest, either from the combatants or any other person in the
+hall.  It was as if the light had suddenly gone out to others
+besides the disappointed and anxious Berenger, and a dull shadow
+had fallen on the place only yesterday so lively, joyous, and
+hopeful.
+
+Berenger, chained by the etiquette of the royal presence, sat like
+a statue, his back against the wall, his arms crossed on his
+breast, his eyes fixed, chewing the cud of the memories of his
+dream of bliss, or striving to frame the future to his will, and to
+decide what was the next reasonable step he could take, or whether
+his irrepressible longing to ride straight off to Monceaux, claim
+his wife, and take her on horseback behind him, were a mere
+impracticable vision.
+
+The King, having been checkmated twice out of three times by the
+Admiral, too honest a man not truly to accept his declaration of
+not wanting courtly play, pushed away the board, and was attended
+by them all to his COUCHER, which was usually made in public; and
+the Queen being absent, the gentlemen were required to stand around
+him till he was ready to fall asleep.  He did not seem disposed to
+talk, but begged Sidney to fetch his lute, and sing to him some
+English airs that had taken his fancy much when sung by Sidney and
+Berenger together.
+
+Berenger felt as if they would choke him in his present turbid
+state of resentful uncertainty; but even as the unhappy young King
+spoke, it was with a heavy, restless groan, as he added, 'If you
+know any lullaby that will give rest to a wretch tormented beyond
+bearing, let us have it.'
+
+'Alas, Sire!' said the Admiral, seeing that no perilous ears
+remained in the room; 'there are better and more soothing words
+than any mundane melody.'
+
+'_Peste_!  My good father,' said the King, petulantly, 'has not old
+Phlipote, my nurse, rocked me to the sound of your Marot's Psalms,
+and crooned her texts over me? I tell you I do not want to think.
+I want what will drive thought away--to dull---'
+
+'Alas! what dulls slays,' said the Admiral.
+
+'Let it.  Nothing can be worse than the present,' said the wretched
+Charles; then, as if wishing to break away from Coligny, he threw
+himself round towards Berenger, and said, 'Here; stoop down,
+Ribaumont; a word with you.  Your matters have gone up the
+mountains, as the Italians say, with mine.  But never fear.  Keep
+silence, and you shall have the bird in your hand, only you must be
+patient.  Hold! I will make you and Monsieur Sidney gentlemen of my
+bed-chamber, which will give you the _entree_ of the Louvre; and if
+you cannot get her out of it without an _eclat_, then you must be a
+much duller fellow than half my court.  Only that it is not their
+own wives that they abstract.
+
+With this Berenger must needs content himself; and the certainty of
+the poor King's good-will did enable him to do his part with Sidney
+in the songs that endeavoured to soothe the torments of the evil
+spirit which had on that day effected a fresh lodgment in that
+weak, unwilling heart.
+
+It was not till the memoirs of the secret actors in this tragedy
+were brought to light that the key to these doings was discovered.
+M. de Sauve, Charles's secretary, had disclosed his proceedings to
+his wife; she, flattered by the attentions of the Duke of Anjou,
+betrayed them to him; and the Queen-mother, terrified at the change
+of policy, and the loss of the power she had enjoyed for so many
+years, had hurried to the spot.
+
+Her influence over her son resembled the fascination of a snake:
+once within her reach he was unable to resist her; and when in
+their _tete-a-tete_ she reproached him with ill-faith towards her,
+prophesied the overthrow of the Church, the desertion of his
+allies, the ruin of his throne, and finally announced her intention
+of hiding her head in her own hereditary estates in Auvergne,
+begging, as a last favour, that he would give his brother time to
+quit France instead of involving him in his own ruin, the poor
+young man's whole soul was in commotion.  His mother knew her
+strength, left the poison to work, and withdrew in displeasure to
+Monceaux, sure that, as in effect happened, he would not be long in
+following her, imploring her not to abandon him, and making an
+unconditional surrender of himself, his conscience, and his friends
+into her hands.  Duplicity was so entirely the element of the
+court, that, even while thus yielding himself, it was as one
+checked, but continuing the game; he still continued his connection
+with the Huguenots, hoping to succeed in his aims by some future
+counter-intrigue; and his real hatred of the court policy, and the
+genuine desire to make common cause with them, served his mother's
+purpose completely, since his cajolery thus became sincere.  Her
+purpose was, probably, not yet formed.  It was power that she
+loved, and hoped to secure by the intrigues she had played off all
+her life; but she herself was in the hands of an infinitely more
+bloodthirsty and zealous faction, who could easily accomplish their
+ends by working on the womanly terrors of an unscrupulous mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.  THE WEDDING WITH CRIMSON FAVOURS
+
+
+
+And trust me not at all or all in all.--TENNYSON
+
+
+So extensive was the Louvre, so widely separated the different
+suites of apartments, that Diane and Eustacie had not met after the
+pall-mall party till they sat opposite to their several queens in
+the coach driving through the woods, the elder cousin curiously
+watching the eyes of the younger, so wistfully gazing at the
+window, and now and then rapidly winking as though to force back a
+rebellious tear.
+
+The cousins had been bred up together in the convent at Bellaise,
+and had only been separated by Diane's having been brought to court
+two years sooner than Eustacie.  They had always been on very
+kindly, affectionate terms; Diane treating her little cousin with
+the patronage of an elder sister, and greatly contributing to
+shield her from the temptations of the court.  The elder cousin was
+so much the more handsome, brilliant, and admired, that no notion
+of rivalry had crossed her mind; and Eustacie's inheritance was
+regarded by her as reserved for her brother, and the means of
+aggradizement an prosperity for herself and her father.  She looked
+upon the child as a sort of piece of property of the family, to be
+guarded and watched over for her brother; and when she had first
+discovered the error that the young baron was making between the
+two daughters of the house, it was partly in kindness to Eustacie,
+partly to carry out her father's plans, and partly from her own
+pleasure in conversing with anything so candid and fresh as
+Berenger, that she had maintained the delusion.  Her father
+believed himself to have placed Berenger so entirely in the
+background, that he would hardly be at court long enough to
+discover the imposition; and Diane was not devoid of a strong hope
+of winning his affection and bending his will so as to induce him
+to become her husband, and become a French courtier for her sake--a
+wild dream, but a better castle in the air than she had ever yet
+indulged in.
+
+This arrangement was, however, disconcerted by the King's passion
+for Sidney's society, which brought young Ribaumont also to court;
+and at the time of the mischievous introduction by Madame
+Marguerite, Diane had perceived that the mistake would soon be
+found out, and that she should no longer be able to amuse herself
+with the fresh-coloured, open-faced boy who was unlike all her
+former acquaintance; but the magnetism that shows a woman when she
+produces an effect had been experienced by her, and she had been
+sure that a few efforts more would warm and mould the wax in her
+fingers.  That he should prefer a little brown thing, whose beauty
+was so inferior to her own, had never crossed her mind; she did not
+even know that he was invited to the pall-mall party, and was
+greatly taken by surprise when her father sought an interview with
+her, accused her of betraying their interests, and told her that
+this foolish young fellow declared that he had been mistaken, and
+having now discovered his veritable wife, protested against
+resigning her.
+
+By that time the whole party were gone to Montpipeau, but that the
+Baron was among them was not known at the Louvre until Queen
+Catherine, who had always treated Diane as rather a favoured,
+quick-witted _protegee_, commanded her attendance, and on her way
+let her know that Madame de Sauve had reported that, among all the
+follies that were being perpetrated at the hunting-seat, the young
+Queen was absolutely throwing the little Nid-de-Merle into the arms
+of her Huguenot husband, and that if measures were not promptly
+taken all the great estates in the Bocage would be lost to the
+young Chevalier, and be carried over to the Huguenot interest.
+
+Still Diane could not believe that it was so much a matter of love
+as that the young had begun to relish court favour and to value the
+inheritance, and she could quite believe her little cousin had been
+flattered by a few attentions that had no meaning in them.  She was
+not prepared to find that Eustacie shrank from her, and tried to
+avoid a private interview.  In truth, the poor child had received
+such injunctions from the Queen, and so stern a warning look from
+the King, that she durst not utter a syllable of the evening that
+had sealed her lot, and was so happy with her secret, so used to
+tell everything to Diane, so longing to talk of her husband, that
+she was afraid of betraying herself if once they were alone
+together.  Yet Diane, knowing that her father trusted to her to
+learn how far things had gone, and piqued at seeing the transparent
+little creature, now glowing and smiling with inward bliss, now
+pale, pensive, sighing, and anxious, and scorning her as too
+childish for the love that she seemed to affect, was resolved on
+obtaining confidence from her.
+
+And when the whole female court had sat down to the silk embroidery
+in which Catherine de Medicis excelled, Diane seated herself in the
+recess of a window and beckoned her cousin to her side, so that it
+was not possible to disobey.
+
+'Little one,' she said, 'why have you cast off your poor cousin?
+There, sit down'--for Eustacie stood, with her silk in her hand, as
+if meaning instantly to return to her former place; and now, her
+cheeks in a flame, she answered in an indignant whisper, 'You know,
+Diane!  How could you try to keep him from me?'
+
+'Because it was better for thee, my child, than to be pestered with
+an adventurer,' she said, smiling, though bitterly.
+
+'My husband!' returned Eustacie proudly.
+
+'Bah!  You know better than that!'  Then, as Eustacie was about to
+speak, but checked herself, Diane added, 'Yes, my poor friend, he
+has a something engaging about him, and we all would have hindered
+you from the pain and embarrassment of a meeting with him.'
+
+Eustacie smiled a little saucy smile, as though infinitely superior
+to them all.
+
+'_Pauvre petite_,' said Diane, nettled; 'she actually believes in
+his love.'
+
+'I will not hear a word against my husband!' said Eustacie,
+stepping back, as if to return to her place, but Diane rose and
+laid her hand on hers.  'My dear,' she said, 'we must no part thus.
+I only wish to know what touches my darling so nearly.  I thought
+she loved and clung to us; why should she have turned from me for
+the sake of one who forgot her for half his life?  What can he have
+done to master this silly little heart?'
+
+'I cannot tell you, Diane,' said Eustacie, simply; and though she
+looked down, the colour on her face was more of a happy glow than a
+conscious blush.  'I love him too much; only we understand each
+other now, and it is of no use to try to separate us.'
+
+'Ah, poor little thing, so she thinks,' said Diane; and as Eustacie
+again smiled as one incapable of being shaken in her conviction,
+she added, 'And how do you know that he loves you?'
+
+Diane was startled by the bright eyes that flashed on her and the
+bright colour that made Eustacie perfectly beautiful, as she
+answered, 'Because I am his wife!  That is enough!'  Then, before
+her cousin could speak again, 'But, Diane, I promised not to speak
+of it.  I know he would despise me if I broke my word, so I will
+not talk to you till I have leave to tell you all, and I am going
+back to help Gabrielle de Limeuil with her shepherdess.'
+
+Mademoiselle de Ribaumont felt her attempt most unsatisfactory, but
+she knew of old that Eustacie was very determined--all Bellaise
+know that to oppose the tiny Baronne was to make her headstrong in
+her resolution; and if she suspected that she was coaxed, she only
+became more obstinate.  To make any discoveries, Diane must take
+the line of most cautious caresses, such as to throw her cousin off
+her guard; and this she was forced to confess to her father when he
+sought an interview with her on the day of her return to Paris.  He
+shook his head.  She must be on the watch, he said, and get quickly
+into the silly girl's confidence.  What! had she not found out that
+the young villain had been on the point of eloping with her?  If
+such a thing as that should succeed, the whole family was lost, and
+she was the only person who could prevent it.  He trusted to her.
+
+The Chevalier had evidently come to regard his niece as his son's
+lawful property, and the Baron as the troublesome meddler; and
+Diane had much the same feeling, enhanced by sore jealousy at
+Eustacie's triumph over her, and curiosity as to whether it could
+be indeed well founded.  She had an opportunity of judging the same
+evening--mere habit always caused Eustacie to keep under her wing,
+if she could not be near the Queen, whenever there was a reception,
+and to that reception of course Berenger came, armed with his right
+as gentleman of the bedchamber.  Eustacie was colouring and
+fluttering, as if by the instinct of his presence, even before the
+tall fair head became visible, moving forward as well as the crowd
+would permit, and seeking about with anxious eyes.  The glances of
+the blue and the black eyes met at last, and a satisfied radiance
+illuminated each young face; then the young man steered his way
+through the throng, but was caught midway by Coligny, and led up to
+be presented to a hook-nosed, dark-haired, lively-looking young
+man, in a suit of black richly laced with silver.  It was the King
+of Navarre, the royal bridegroom, who had entered Paris in state
+that afternoon.  Eustacie tried to be proud of the preferment, but
+oh! she thought it mistimed, and was gratified to mark certain
+wandering of the eye even while the gracious King was speaking.
+Then the Admiral said something that brought the girlish rosy flush
+up to the very roots of the short curls of flaxen hair, and made
+the young King's white teeth flash out in a mirthful, good-natured
+laugh, and thereupon the way opened, and Berenger was beside the
+two ladies, kissing Eustacie's hand, but merely bowing to Diane.
+
+She was ready to take the initiative.
+
+'My cousins deem me unpardonable,' she said; 'yet I am going to
+purchase their pardon.  See this cabinet of porcelain _a le Reine_,
+and Italian vases and gems, behind this curtain.  There is all the
+siege of Troy, which M. le Baron will not doubt explain to
+Mademoiselle, while I shall sit on this cushion, and endure the
+siege of St. Quentin from the _bon_ Sieur de Selinville.'
+
+Monsieur de Selinville was the court bore, who had been in every
+battle from Pavia to Montcontour, and gave as full memoirs of each
+as did Blaise de Monluc, only _viva voce_  instead of in writing.
+Diane was rather a favourite of his; she knew her way through all
+his adventures.  So soon as she had heard the description of the
+King of Navarre's entry into Paris that afternoon, and the old
+gentleman's lamentation that his own two nephews were among the
+three hundred Huguenot gentleman who had formed the escort, she had
+only to observe whether his reminiscences had gone to Italy or to
+Flanders in order to be able to put in the appropriate remarks at
+each pause, while she listened all the while to the murmurs behind
+the curtain.  Yet it was not easy, with all her court breeding, to
+appear indifferent, and solely absorbed in hearing of the bad
+lodgings that had fallen to the share of the royal troops at
+Brescia, when such sounds were reaching her.  It was not so much
+the actual words she heard, though these were the phrases--'-mon
+ange_, my heart, my love;' those were common, and Diane had lived
+in the Queen-mother's squadron long enough to despise those who
+uttered them only less than those who believed them.  It was the
+full depth of tenderness and earnestness, in the subdued tones of
+the voice, that gave her a sense of quiet force and reality beyond
+all she had ever known.  She had heard and overheard men pour out
+frantic ravings of passion, but never had listened to anything like
+the sweet protecting tenderness of voice that seemed to embrace and
+shelter its object.  Diane had no doubts now; he had never so
+spoken to her; nay, perhaps he had had no such cadences in his
+voice before.  It was quite certain that Eustacie was everything to
+him, she herself nothing; she who might have had any gallant in the
+court at her feet, but had never seen one whom she could believe
+in, whose sense of esteem had been first awakened by this stranger
+lad who despised her.  Surely he was loving this foolish child
+simply as his duty; his belonging, as his right he might struggle
+hard for her, and if he gained her, be greatly disappointed; for
+how could Eustacie appreciate him, little empty-headed, silly
+thing, who would be amused and satisfied by any court flatterer?
+
+However, Diane held out and played her part, caught scraps of the
+conversation, and pieced them together, yet avoided all appearance
+of inattention to M. de Selinville, and finally dismissed him, and
+manoeuvred first Eustacie, and after a safe interval Berenger, out
+of the cabinet.  The latter bowed as he bade her good night, and
+said, with the most open and cordial of smiles, 'Cousin, I thank
+you with all my heart.'
+
+The bright look seemed to her another shaft.  'What happiness!'
+said she to herself.  'Can I overthrow it?  Bah! it will crumble of
+its own accord, even if I did nothing!  And my father and brother!'
+
+Communication with her father and brother was not always easy to
+Diane, for she lived among the Queen-mother's ladies.  Her brother
+was quartered in a sort of barrack among the gentlemen of
+Monsieur's suite, and the old Chevalier was living in the room
+Berenger had taken for him at the Croix de Lorraine, and it was
+only on the most public days that they attended at the palace.
+Such a day, however, there was on the ensuing Sunday, when Henry of
+Navarre and Marguerite of France were to be wedded.  Their
+dispensation was come, but, to the great relief of Eustacie, there
+was no answer with it to the application for the CASSATION of her
+marriage.  In fact, this dispensation had never emanated from the
+Pope at all.  Rome would not sanction the union of a daughter of
+France with a Huguenot prince; and Charles had forged the document,
+probably with his mother's knowledge, in the hope of spreading her
+toils more completely round her prey, while he trusted that the
+victims might prove too strong for her, and destroy her web, and in
+breaking forth might release himself.
+
+Strange was the pageant of that wedding on Sunday, the 17th of
+August, 1572.  The outward seeming was magnificent, when all that
+was princely in France stood on the splendidly decked platform in
+front of Notre-Dame, around the bridegroom in the bright promise of
+his kingly endowments, and the bride in her peerless beauty.
+Brave, noble-hearted, and devoted were the gallant following of the
+one, splendid and highly gifted the attendants of the other; and
+their union seemed to promise peace to a long distracted kingdom.
+
+Yet what an abyss lay beneath those trappings!  The bridegroom and
+his comrades were as lions in the toils of the hunter, and the lure
+that had enticed them thither was the bride, herself so unwilling a
+victim that her lips refused to utter the espousal vows, and her
+head as force forward by her brother into a sign of consent; while
+the favoured lover of her whole lifetime agreed to the sacrifice in
+order to purchase the vengeance for which he thirsted, and her
+mother, the corrupter of her own children, looked complacently on
+at her ready-dug pit of treachery and bloodshed.
+
+Among the many who played unconscious on the surface of that gulf
+of destruction, were the young creatures whose chief thought in the
+pageant was the glance and smile from the gallery of the Queen's
+ladies to the long procession of the English ambassador's train, as
+they tried to remember their own marriage there; Berenger with
+clear recollection of his father's grave, anxious face, and
+Eustacie chiefly remembering her own white satin and turquoise
+dress, which indeed she had seen on every great festival-day as the
+best raiment of the image of Notre Dame de Bellaise.  She remained
+in the choir during mass, but Berenger accompanied the rest of the
+Protestants with the bridegroom at their head into the nave, where
+Coligny beguiled the time with walking about, looking at the
+banners that had been taken from himself and Conde at Montcontour
+and Jarnac, saying that he hoped soon to see them taken down and
+replaced by Spanish banners.  Berenger had followed because he felt
+the need of doing as Walsingham and Sidney thought right, but he
+had not been in London long enough to become hardened to the
+desecration of churches by frequenting 'Paul's Walk.'  He remained
+bareheaded, and stood as near as he could to the choir, listening
+to the notes that floated from the priests and acolytes at the high
+altar, longing from the time when he and Eustacie should be one in
+their prayers, and lost in a reverie, till a grave old nobleman
+passing near him reproved him for dallying with the worship of
+Rimmon.  But his listening attitude had not passed unobserved by
+others besides Huguenot observers.
+
+The wedding was followed by a ball at the Louvre, from which,
+however, all the stricter Huguenots absented themselves out of
+respect to Sunday, and among them the family and guests of the
+English Ambassador, who were in the meantime attending the divine
+service that had been postponed on account of the morning's
+ceremony.  Neither was the Duke of Guise present at the
+entertainment; for though he had some months previously been piqued
+and entrapped into a marriage with Catherine of Cleves, yet his
+passion for Marguerite was still so strong that he could not bear
+to join in the festivities of her wedding with another.  The
+absence of so many distinguished persons caused the admission of
+many less constantly privileged, and thus it was that Diane there
+met both her father and brother, who eagerly drew her into a
+window, and demanded what she had to tell them, laughing too at the
+simplicity of the youth, who had left for the Chevalier a formal
+announcement that he had dispatched his protest to Rome, and
+considered himself as free to obtain his wife by any means in his
+power.
+
+'Where is _la petite_?' Narcisse demanded.  Behind her Queen, as
+usual?'
+
+'The young Queen keeps her room to-night,' returned Diane.  'Nor do
+I advise you, brother, to thrust yourself in the way of _la petite
+entetee_ just at present.'
+
+'What, is she so besotted with the peach face?  He shall pay for
+it!'
+
+'Brother, no duel.  Father, remind him that she would never forgive
+him.'
+
+'Fear not, daughter,' said the Chevalier; 'this folly can be ended
+by much quieter modes, only you must first give us information.'
+
+'She tells me nothing,' said Diane; 'she is in one of her own
+humours--high and mighty.'
+
+'_Peste_! where is your vaunt of winding the little one round your
+finger?'
+
+'With time, I said,' replied Diane.  Curiously enough, she had no
+compunction in worming secrets from Eustacie and betraying them,
+but she could not bear to think of the trap she had set for the
+unsuspecting youth, and how ingenuously he had thanked her, little
+knowing how she had listened to his inmost secrets.
+
+'Time is everything,' said her father; 'delay will be our ruin.
+Your inheritance will slip through your fingers, my son.  The youth
+will soon win favour by abjuring his heresy; he will play the same
+game with the King as his father did with King Henri.  You will
+have nothing but your sword, and for you, my poor girl, there is
+nothing but to throw yourself on the kindness of your aunt at
+Bellaise, if she can receive the vows of a dowerless maiden.'
+
+'It will never be,' said Narcisse.  'My rapier will soon dispose of
+a big rustic like that, who knows just enough of fencing to make
+him an easy prey.  What! I verily believe the great of entreaty.
+'And yet the fine fellow was willing enough to break the marriage
+when he took her for the bride.'
+
+'Nay, my son,' argued the Chevalier, will apparently to spare his
+daughter from the sting of mortification, 'as I said, all can be
+done without danger of bloodshed on either side, were we but aware
+of any renewed project of elopement.  The pretty pair would be
+easily waylaid, the girl safely lodged at Bellaise, the boy sent
+off to digest his pride in England.'
+
+'Unhurt?' murmured Diane.
+
+Her father checked Narcisse's mockery at her solicitude, as he
+added, 'Unhurt? Yes.  He is a liberal-hearted, gracious, fine young
+man, whom I should much grieve to harm; but if you know of any plan
+of elopement and conceal it, my daughter, then upon you will lie
+either the ruin and disgrace of your family, or the death of one or
+both of the youths.'
+
+Diane saw that her question had betrayed her knowledge.  She spoke
+faintly.  'Something I did overhear, but I know not how to utter a
+treason.'
+
+'There is no treason where there is no trust, daughter,' said the
+Chevalier, in the tone of a moral sage.  'Speak!'
+
+Diane never disobeyed her father, and faltered, 'Wednesday; it is
+for Wednesday.  They mean to leave the palace in the midst of the
+masque; there is a market-boat from Leurre to meet them on the
+river; his servants will be in it.'
+
+'On Wednesday!'  Father and son looked at each other.
+
+'That shall be remedied,' said Narcisse.
+
+'Child,' added her father, turning kindly to Diane, 'you have saved
+our fortunes.  There is put one thing more that you must do.  Make
+her obtain the pearls from him.'
+
+'Ah!' sighed Diane, half shocked, half revengeful, as she thought
+how he had withheld them from her.
+
+'It is necessary,' said the Chevalier.  'The heirloom of our house
+must not be risked.  Secure the pearls, child, and you will have
+done good service, and earned the marriage that shall reward you.'
+
+When he was gone, Diane pressed her hands together with a strange
+sense of misery.  He, who had shrunk from the memory of little
+Diane's untruthfulness, what would he think of the present Diane's
+treachery?  Yet it was to save his life and that of her brother--
+and for the assertion of her victory over the little robber,
+Eustacie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.  MONSIEUR'S BALLET.
+
+
+
+The Styx had fast bound her
+Nine times around her.
+         POPE, ODE ON ST.CECILIA'S DAY
+
+
+Early on Monday morning came a message to Mademoiselle Nid de Merle
+that she was to prepare to act the part of a nymph of Paradise in
+the King's masque on Wednesday night, and must dress at once to
+rehearse her part in the ballet specially designed by Monsieur.
+
+Her first impulse was to hurry to her own Queen, whom she entreated
+to find some mode of exempting her.  But Elisabeth, who was still
+in bed, looked distressed and frightened, made signs of caution,
+and when the weeping girl was on the point of telling her of the
+project that would thus be ruined, silenced her by saying, 'Hush!
+my poor child, I have but meddled too much already.  Our Lady grant
+that I have not done you more harm than good!  Tell me no more.'
+
+'Ah!  Madame, I will be discreet, I will tell you nothing; but if
+you would only interfere to spare me from this ballet!  It is
+Monsieur's contrivance!  Ah!  Madame, could you but speak to the
+King!'
+
+'Impossible, child,' said the Queen.  'Things are not her as they
+were at happy Montpipeau.'
+
+And the poor young Queen turned her face in to her pillow, and
+wept.
+
+Every one who was not in a dream of bliss like poor little Eustacie
+knew that the King had been in so savage a mood ever since his
+return that no one durst ask anything from him.  a little while
+since, he had laughed at his gentle wife for letting herself, and
+Emperor's daughter, be trampled on where his brother Francis's
+Queen, from her trumpery, beggarly realm, had held up her head, and
+put down _la belle Mere_; he had amused himself with Elisabeth's
+pretty little patronage of the young Ribaumonts as a promising
+commencement in intriguing like other people; but now he was
+absolutely violent at any endeavour to make him withstand his
+mother, and had driven his wife back into that cold, listless,
+indifferent shell of apathy from which affection and hope had begun
+to rouse her.  She knew it would only make it the worse for her
+little Nid de Merle for her to interpose when Monsieur had made the
+choice.
+
+And Eustacie was more afraid of Monsieur than even of Narcisse, and
+her Berenger could not be there to protect her.  However, there was
+protection in numbers.  With twelve nymphs, and cavaliers to match,
+even the Duke of Anjou could not accomplish the being very
+insulting.  Eustacie--light, agile, and fairy-like--gained
+considerable credit for ready comprehension and graceful
+evolutions.  She had never been so much complimented before, and
+was much cheered by praise.  Diane showed herself highly pleased
+with her little cousin's success, embraced her, and told her she
+was finding her true level at court.  She would be the prettiest of
+all the nymphs, who were all small, since fairies rather than
+Amazons were wanted in their position.  'And, Eustacie,' she added,
+'you should wear the pearls.'
+
+'The pearls!' said Eustacie.  'Ah! but HE always wears them.  I
+like to see them on his bonnet--they are hardly whiter than his
+forehead.'
+
+'Foolish little thing!' said Diane, 'I shall think little of his
+love if he cares to see himself in them more than you.'
+
+The shaft seemed carelessly shot, but Diane knew that it would
+work, and so it did.  Eustacie wanted to prove her husband's love,
+not to herself, but to her cousin.
+
+He made his way to her in the gardens of the Louvre that evening,
+greatly dismayed at the report that had reached him that she was to
+figure as a nymph of Elysium.  She would thus be in sight as a
+prominent figure the whole evening, even till an hour so late that
+the market boat which Osbert had arranged for their escape could
+not wait for them without exciting suspicion, and besides, his
+delicate English feelings were revolted at the notion of her
+forming a part of such a spectacle.  She could not understand his
+displeasure.  If they could not go on Wednesday, they could go on
+Saturday; and as to her acting, half the noblest ladies in the
+court would be in piece, and if English husbands did not like it,
+they must be the tyrants she had always heard of.
+
+'To be a gazing-stock---' began Berenger.
+
+'Hush! Monsieur, I will hear no more, or I shall take care how I
+put myself in your power.'
+
+'That has been done for you, sweetheart,' he said, smiling with
+perhaps a shade too much superiority; 'you are mine entirely now.'
+
+'that is not kind,' she pouted, almost crying--for between
+flattery, excitement, and disappointment she was not like herself
+that day, and she was too proud to like to be reminded that she was
+in any one's power.
+
+'I thought,' said Berenger, with the gentleness that always made
+him manly in dealing with her, 'I thought you like to own yourself
+mine.'
+
+'Yes, sir, when you are good, and do not try to hector me for what
+I cannot avoid.'
+
+Berenger was candid enough to recollect that royal commands did not
+brook disobedience, and, being thoroughly enamoured besides of his
+little wife, he hastened to make his peace by saying, 'True, _ma
+mie_, this cannot be helped.  I was a wretch to find fault.  Think
+of it no more.'
+
+'You forgive me?' she said, softened instantly.
+
+'Forgive you?  What for, pretty one?  For my forgetting that you
+are still a slave to a hateful Court?'
+
+'Ah! then, if you forgive me, let me wear the pearls.'
+
+'The poor pearls,' said Berenger, taken aback for a moment, 'the
+meed of our forefather's valour, to form part of the pageant and
+mummery?  But never mind, sweetheart,' for he could not bear to vex
+her again: 'you shall have them to-night: only take care of them.
+My mother would look back on me if she knew I had let them out of
+my care, but you and I are one after all.'
+
+Berenger could not bear to leave his wife near the Duke of Anjou
+and Narcisse, and he offered himself to the King as an actor in the
+masque, much as he detested all he heard of its subject.  The King
+nodded comprehension, and told him it was open to him either to be
+a demon in a tight suit of black cloth, with cloven-hoof shoes, a
+long tail, and a trident; or one of the Huguenots who were to be
+repulsed from Paradise for the edification of the spectators.  As
+these last were to wear suits of knightly armour, Berenger much
+preferred making one of them in spite of their doom.
+
+The masque was given at the hall of the Hotel de Bourbon, where a
+noble gallery accommodated the audience, and left full space
+beneath for the actors.  Down the centre of the stage flowed a
+stream, broad enough to contain a boat, which was plied by the Abbe
+de Mericour--transformed by a gray beard and hair and dismal mask
+into Charon.
+
+But so unused to navigation was he, so crazy and ill-trimmed his
+craft, that his first performance would have been his submersion in
+the Styx had not Berenger, better accustomed to boats than any of
+the _dramatis personoe_, caught him by the arms as he was about to
+step in, pointed out the perils, weighted the frail vessel, and
+given him a lesson in paddling it to and fro, with such a masterly
+hand, that, had there been time for a change of dress, the part of
+Charon would have been unanimously transferred to him; but the
+delay could not be suffered, and poor Mericour, in fear of a
+ducking, or worse, of ridicule, balanced himself, pole in hand, in
+the midst of the river.  To the right of the river was Elysium--a
+circular island revolving on a wheel which was an absolute orrery,
+representing in concentric circles the skies, with the sun, moon,
+the seven planets, twelve signs, and the fixed stars, all
+illuminated with small lamps.  The island itself was covered with
+verdure, in which, among bowers woven of gay flowers, reposed
+twelve nymphs of Paradise, of whom Eustacie was one.
+
+On the other side of the stream was another wheel, whose grisly
+emblems were reminders of Dante's infernal circles, and were
+lighted by lurid flames, while little bells were hung round so as
+to make a harsh jangling sound, and all of the court who had any
+turn for buffoonery were leaping and dancing about as demons
+beneath it, and uttering wild shouts.
+
+King Charles and his two brothers stood on the margin of the
+Elysian lake.  King Henry, the Prince of Conde, and a selection of
+the younger and gayer Huguenots, were the assailants,--storming
+Paradise to gain possession of the nymphs.  It was a very illusive
+armour that they wore, thin scales of gold or silver as cuirasses
+over their satin doublets, and the swords and lances of festive
+combat in that court had been of the bluntest foil ever since the
+father of these princes had died beneath Montgomery's spear.  And
+when the King and his brothers, one of them a puny crooked boy,
+were the champions, the battle must needs be the merest show,
+though there were lookers-on who thought that, judging by
+appearances, the assailants ought to have the best chance of
+victory, both literal and allegorical.
+
+However, these three guardian angels had choice allies in the shape
+of the infernal company, who, as fast as the Huguenots crossed
+swords or shivered lances with their royal opponents, encircled
+them with their long black arms, and dragged them struggling away
+to Tartarus.  Henry of Navarre yielded himself with a good-will to
+the horse-play with which this was performed, resisting just enough
+to give his demoniacal captors a good deal of trouble, while
+yielding all the time, and taking them by surprise by agile
+efforts, that showed that if he were excluded from Paradise it was
+only by his own consent, and that he heartily enjoyed the
+merriment.  Most of his comrades, in especial the young Count de
+Rochefoucauld, entered into the sport with the same heartiness, but
+the Prince of Conde submitted to his fate with a gloomy, disgusted
+countenance, that added much to the general mirth; and Berenger,
+with Eustacie before his eyes, looking pale, distressed, and ill at
+ease, was a great deal too much in earnest.  He had so veritable an
+impulse to leap forward and snatch her from that giddy revolving
+prison, that he struck against the sword of Monsieur with a hearty
+good-will.  His silvered lath snapped in his hand, and at that
+moment he was seized round the waist, and, when his furious
+struggle was felt to be in earnest, he was pulled over on his back,
+while yells and shouts of discordant laughter rang round him, as
+demons pinioned him hand and foot.
+
+He thought he heard a faint cry from Eustacie, and, with a sudden,
+unexpected struggle, started into a sitting posture; but a derisive
+voice, that well he knew, cried, 'Ha, the deadly sin of pride!
+Monsieur thinks his painted face pleases the ladies.  To the depths
+with him--' and therewith one imp pulled him backwards again, while
+others danced a war-dance round him, pointing their forks at him;
+and the prime tormentor, whom he perfectly recognized, not only
+leapt over him, but spurned at his face with a cloven foot, giving
+a blow, not of gay French malice, but of malignity. It was too much
+for the boy's forbearance.  He struggled free, dashing his
+adversaries aside fiercely, and as they again gathered about him,
+with the leader shouting, 'Rage, too, rage!  To the prey, imps--'
+he clenched his fist, and dealt the foremost foe such a blow in the
+chest as to level him at once with the ground.
+
+'Monsieur forgets,' said a voice, friendly yet reproachful, 'that
+this is but sport.
+
+It was Henry of Navarre himself who spoke, and bent to give a hand
+to the fallen imp.  A flush of shame rushed over Berenger's face,
+already red with passion.  He felt that he had done wrong to use
+his strength at such a moment, and that, though there had been
+spite in is assailant, he had not been therefore justified.  He was
+glad to see Narcisse rise lightly to his feet, evidently unhurt,
+and, with the frankness with which he had often made it up with
+Philip Thistlewood or his other English comrades after a sharp
+tussle, he held out his hand, saying, 'Good demon, your pardon.
+You roused my spirit, and I forgot myself.'
+
+'Demons forget not,' was the reply.  'At him, imps!'  And a whole
+circle of hobgoblins closed upon with their tridents, forks, and
+other horrible implements, to drive him back within two tall barred
+gates, which, illuminated by red flames, were to form the ghastly
+prison of the vanquished.  Perhaps fresh indignities would have
+been attempted, had not the King of Navarre thrown himself on his
+side, shared with him the brunt of all the grotesque weapons, and
+battled them off with infinite spirit and address, shielding him as
+it were from their rude insults by his own dexterity and
+inviolability, though retreating all the time till the infernal
+gates were closed on both.
+
+Then Henry of Navarre, who never forgot a face, held out his hand,
+saying, 'Tartarus is no region of good omen for friendships, M. de
+Ribaumont, but, for lack of yonder devil's claw, here is mine.  I
+like to meet a comrade who can strike a hearty blow, and ask a
+hearty pardon.'
+
+'I was too hot, Sire,' confessed Berenger, with one of his
+ingenuous blushes, 'but he enraged me.'
+
+'He means mischief.' said Henry.  'Remember, if you are molested
+respecting this matter, that you have here a witness that you did
+the part of a gentleman.'
+
+Berenger bowed his thanks, and began something about the honour,
+but his eye anxiously followed the circuit on which Eustacie was
+carried and the glance was quickly remarked.
+
+'How?  Your heart is spinning in that Mahometan paradise, and that
+is what put such force into your fists.  Which of the houris is it?
+The little one with the wistful eyes, who looked so deadly white,
+and shrieked out when the devilry overturned you?  Eh! Monsieur,
+you are a happy man.'
+
+'I should be, Sire;' and Berenger was on the point of confiding the
+situation of his affairs to this most engaging of princes, when a
+fresh supply of prisoners, chased with wild antics and fiendish
+yells by the devils, came headlong in on them; and immediately,
+completing, as Henry said, the galimatias of mythology, a
+pasteboard cloud was propelled on the stage, and disclosed the
+deities Mercury and Cupid, who made a complimentary address to the
+three princely brothers, inciting them to claim the nymphs whom
+their valour had defended, and lead them through the mazes of a
+choric celestial dance.
+
+This dance had been the special device of Monsieur and the ballet-
+master, and during the last three days the houris had been almost
+danced off their legs with rehearsing it morning, noon, and night,
+but one at least of them was scarcely in a condition for its
+performance.  Eustacie, dizzied at the first minute by the whirl of
+her Elysian merry-go-round, had immediately after become conscious
+of that which she had been too childish to estimate merely in
+prospect, the exposure to universal gaze.  Strange staring eyes,
+glaring lights, frightful imps seemed to wheel round her in an
+intolerable delirious succession.  Her only refuge was in closing
+her eyes, but even this could not long be persevered in, so
+necessary a part of the pageant was she; and besides, she had
+Berenger to look for, Berenger, whom she had foolishly laughed at
+for knowing how dreadful it would be.  But of course the endeavour
+to seek for one object with her eyes made the dizziness even more
+dreadful; and when, at length, she beheld him dragged down by the
+demoniacal creatures, whose horrors were magnified by her confused
+senses, and the next moment she was twirled out of sight, her cry
+of distracted alarm was irrepressible.  Carried round again and
+again, on a wheel that to her was far more like Ixion's than that
+of the spheres, she never cleared her perceptions as to where he
+was, and only was half-maddened by the fantastic whirl of
+incongruous imagery, while she barely sat out Mercury's lengthy
+harangue; and when her wheel stood still, and she was released, she
+could not stand, and was indebted to Charon and one of her fellow-
+nymphs for supporting her to a chair in the back of the scene.
+Kind Charon hurried to bring her wine, the lady revived her with
+essences, and the ballet-master clamoured for his performers.
+
+Ill or well, royal ballets must be danced.  One long sob, one gaze
+round at the refreshing sight of a room no longer in motion, one
+wistful look at the gates of Tartarus, and the misery of the
+throbbing, aching head must be disregarded.  The ballet-master
+touched the white cheeks with rouge, and she stepped forward just
+in time, for Monsieur himself was coming angrily forward to learn
+the cause of the delay.
+
+Spectators said the windings of that dance were exquisitely
+graceful.  It was well that Eustacie's drilling had been so
+complete, for she moved through it blindly, senselessly, and when
+it was over was led back between the two Demoiselles de Limeuil to
+the apartment that served as a green-room, drooping and almost
+fainting.  They seated her in a chair, and consulted round her, and
+her cousin Narcisse was among the first to approach; but no sooner
+had she caught sight of his devilish trim than with a little shriek
+she shut her eyes, and flung herself to the other side of the
+chair.
+
+'My fair cousin,' he said, opening his black vizard, 'do you not
+see me?  I am no demon, remember!  I am your cousin.'
+
+'That makes it no better,' said Eustacie, too much disordered and
+confused to be on her guard, and hiding her face with her hands.
+'Go, go, I entreat.'
+
+In fact he had already done this, and the ladies added their
+counsel; for indeed the poor child could scarcely hold up her head,
+but she said, 'I should like to stay, if I could: a little, a
+little longer.  Will they not open those dreadful bars?' she added,
+presently.
+
+'They are even now opening them,' said Mdlle. de Limeuil.  'Hark!
+they are going to fight _en melle_.  Mdlle. de Nid de Merle is
+better now?'
+
+'Oh yes; let not detain you.'
+
+Eustacie would have risen, but the two sisters had fluttered back,
+impatient to lose nothing of the sports; and her cousin in his grim
+disguise stood full before her.  'No haste, cousin,' he said; 'you
+are not fit to move.'
+
+'Oh, then go,' said Eustacie, suffering too much not to be
+petulant.  'You make me worse.'
+
+'And why? It was not always thus,' began Narcisse, so eager to
+seize an opportunity as to have little consideration for her
+condition; but she was unable to bear any more, and broke out:
+'Yes, it was; I always detested you more than ever, since you
+deceived me so cruelly.  Oh, do but leave me!'
+
+'You scorn me, then!  You prefer to me--who have loved you so long-
+-that childish new-comer, who was ready enough to cast you off.'
+
+'Prefer!  He is my husband!  It is an insult for any one else to
+speak to me thus!' said Eustacie, drawing herself up, and rising to
+her feet; but she was forced to hold by the back of her chair, and
+Diane and her father appearing at that moment, she tottered towards
+the former, and becoming quite passive under the influence of
+violent dizziness and headache, made no objection to being half
+led, half carried, through galleries that connected the Hotel de
+Bourbon with the Louvre.
+
+And thus it was that when Berenger had fought out his part in the
+_melle_ of the prisoners released, and had maintained the honours
+of the rose-coloured token in his helmet, he found that his lady-
+love had been obliged by indisposition to return home; and while he
+stood, folding his arms to restrain their strong inclination to
+take Narcisse by the throat and demand whether this were another of
+his deceptions, a train of fireworks suddenly exploded in the
+middle of the Styx--a last surprise, especially contrived by King
+Charles, and so effectual that half the ladies were shrieking, and
+imagining that they and the whole hall had blown up together.
+
+A long supper, full of revelry, succeeded, and at length Sidney ad
+Ribaumont walked home together in the midst of their armed servants
+bearing torches.  All the way home Berenger was bitter in
+vituperation of the hateful pageant and all its details.
+
+'Yea, truly,' replied Sidney; 'methought that it betokens disease
+in the mind of a nation when their festive revelry is thus ghastly,
+rendering the most awful secrets made known by our God in order to
+warm man from sin into a mere antic laughing-stock.  Laughter
+should be moved by what is fair and laughter-worthy--even like such
+sports as our own "Midsummer Night's Dream."  I have read that the
+bloody temper of Rome fed itself in gladiator shows, and verily,
+what we beheld to-night betokens something at once grisly and
+light-minded in the mood of this country.'
+
+Sidney thought so the more when on the second ensuing morning the
+Admiral de Coligny was shot through both hands by an assassin
+generally known to have been posted by the Duke of Guise, yet often
+called by the sinister sobriquet of _Le Tueur de Roi_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.  THE KING'S TRAGEDY.
+
+
+
+The night is come, no fears disturb
+  The sleep of innocence
+They trust in kingly faith, and kingly oath.
+  They sleep, alas! they sleep
+Go to the palace, wouldst thou know
+  How hideous night can be;
+Eye is not closed in those accursed walls,
+  Nor heart is quiet there!
+                  --Southey, BARTHOLOMEW'S EVE
+
+
+'Young gentlemen,' said Sir Francis Walsingham, as he rose from
+dinner on the Saturday, 'are you bound for the palace this
+evening?'
+
+'I am, so please your Excellency,' returned Berenger.
+
+'I would have you both to understand that you must have a care of
+yourselves,' said the Ambassador.  'The Admiral's wound has justly
+caused much alarm, and I hear that the Protestants are going
+vapouring about in so noisy and incautious a manner, crying out for
+justice, that it is but too likely that the party of the Queen-
+mother and the Guise will be moved to strong measures.'
+
+'They will never dare lay a finger upon us!' said Sidney.
+
+'In a terror-stricken fray men are no respecters of persons,'
+replied Sir Francis.  'This house is, of course, inviolable; and,
+whatever the madness of the people, we have stout hearts enough
+here to enforce respect thereto; but I cannot answer even for an
+Englishman's life beyond its precincts; and you, Ribaumont, whom I
+cannot even claim as my Queen's subject--I greatly fear to trust
+you beyond its bounds.'
+
+'I cannot help it, sir.  Nay, with the most grateful thanks for all
+your goodness to me, I must pray you not to take either alarm or
+offence if I return not this night.'
+
+'No more, my friend,' said Walsingham, quickly; 'let me know
+nothing of your purposes, but take care of yourself.  I would you
+were safe at home again, though the desire may seem inhospitable.
+The sooner the better with whatever you have to do.'
+
+'Is the danger so imminent?' asked Sidney.
+
+'I know nothing, Philip.  All I can tell is that, as I have read
+that dogs and cattle scent an earthquake in the air, so man and
+women seem to breathe a sense of danger in this city.  And to me
+the graciousness with which the Huguenots have been of late treated
+wears a strangely suspicious air.  Sudden and secret is the blow
+like to be, and we cannot be too much on our guard.  Therefore
+remember, my young friends both, that your danger or death would
+fall heavily on those ye love and honour at home.'
+
+So saying, he left the two youths, unwilling to seek further
+confidence, and Berenger held his last consultation with Sidney, to
+whom he gave directions for making full explanation to Walsingham
+in his absence, and expediting Mr. Adderley's return to England.
+Osbert alone was to go to the Louvre with him, after having seen
+the five English grooms on board the little decked market-vessel on
+the Seine, which was to await the fugitives.  Berenger was to
+present himself in the palace as in his ordinary court attendance,
+and, contriving to elude notice among the throng who were there
+lodged, was to take up his station at the foot of the stairs
+leading to the apartments of ladies, whence Eustacie was to descend
+at about eleven o'clock, with her maid Veronique.  Landry Osbert
+was to join them from the lackey's hall below, where he had a
+friend, and the connivance of the porter at the postern opening
+towards the Seine had been secured.
+
+Sidney wished much to accompany him to the palace, if his presence
+could be any aid or protection, but on consideration it was decided
+that his being at the Louvre was likely to attract notice to
+Ribaumont's delaying there.  The two young men therefore shook
+hands and parted, as youths who trusted that they had begun a
+lifelong friendship, with mutual promises to write to one another--
+the one, the adventures of his flight; the other, the astonishment
+it would excite.  And auguries were exchanged of merry meetings in
+London, and of the admiration the lovely little wife would excite
+at Queen Elizabeth's court.
+
+Then, with an embrace such as English friends then gave, they
+separated at the gate; and Sidney stood watching, as Berenger
+walked free and bold down the street, his sword at his side, his
+cloak over one shoulder, his feathered cap on one side, showing his
+bright curling hair, a sunshiny picture of a victorious bridegroom-
+-such a picture as sent Philip Sidney's wits back to Arcadia.
+
+It was not a day of special state, but the palace was greatly
+crowded.  The Huguenots were in an excited mood, inclined to rally
+round Henry of Navarre, whose royal title made him be looked on as
+is a manner their monarch, though his kingdom had been swallowed by
+Spain, and he was no more than a French duke distantly related to
+royalty in the male line, and more nearly through his grandmother
+and bride.  The eight hundred gentlemen he had brought with him
+swarmed about his apartments, making their lodging on staircases
+and in passages; and to Berenger it seemed as if the King's guards
+and Monsieur's gentlemen must have come in in equal numbers to
+balance them.  Narcisse was there, and Berenger kept cautiously
+amid his Huguenot acquaintance, resolved not to have a quarrel
+thrust on him which he could not honourably desert.  It was late
+before he could work his way to the young Queen's reception-room,
+where he found Eustacie.  She looked almost as white as at the
+masque; but there was a graver, less childish expression in her
+face than he had ever seen before, and her eyes glanced confidence
+when they met his.
+
+Behind the Queen's chair a few words could be spoken.
+
+'_Ma mie,_ art thou well again?  Canst bear this journey now?'
+
+'Quite well, now! quite ready.  Oh that we may never have masques
+in England!'
+
+He smiled--'Never such as this!'
+
+'Ah! thou knowest best.  I am glad I am thine already; I am so
+silly, thou wouldest never have chosen me!  But thou wilt teach me,
+and I will strive to be very good!  And oh! let me but give one
+farewell to Diane.'
+
+'It is too hard to deny thee aught to-night, sweetheart, but judge
+for thyself.  Think of the perils, and decide.'
+
+Before Eustacie could answer, a rough voice came near, the King
+making noisy sport with the Count de Rochefoucauld and others.  He
+was louder and ruder than Berenger had ever yet seen him, almost
+giving the notion of intoxication; but neither he nor his brother
+Henry ever tasted wine, though both had a strange pleasure in being
+present at the orgies of their companions: the King, it was
+generally said, from love of the self-forgetfulness of excitement--
+the Duke of Anjou, because his cool brain there collected men's
+secrets to serve afterwards for his spiteful diversion.
+
+Berenger would willingly have escaped notice, but his bright face
+and sunny hair always made him conspicuous, and the King suddenly
+strode up to him: 'You here, sir?  I thought you would have managed
+your affairs so as to be gone long ago!' then before Berenger could
+reply, 'However, since here you are, come along with me to my
+bedchamber!  We are to have a carouse there to-night that will ring
+through all Paris!  Yes, and shake Rochefoucauld out of his bed at
+midnight!  You will be one of us, Ribaumont?  I command it!'
+
+And without waiting for reply he turned away with an arm round
+Rochefoucauld's neck, and boisterously addressed another of the
+company, almost as wildly as if he were in the mood that Scots call
+'fey.'
+
+'Royalty seems determined to frustrate our plans,' said Berenger,
+as soon as the King was out of hearing.
+
+'But you will not go!  His comrades drink till--oh! two, three in
+the morning.  We should never get away.'
+
+'No, I must risk his displeasure.  We shall soon be beyond his
+reach.  But at least I may make his invitation a reason for
+remaining in the Louvre.  People are departing!  Soon wilt thou be
+my own.'
+
+'As soon as the Queen's COUCHER is over!  I have but to change to a
+traveling dress.'
+
+'At the foot of the winding stair.  Sweetest be brave!'
+
+'I fear nothing with thee to guard me.  See, the Queen is rising.'
+
+Elizabeth was in effect rising to make her respectful progress to
+the rooms of the Queen-mother, to bid her good night; and Eustacie
+must follow.  Would Diane be there?  Oh that the command to judge
+between her heart and her caution had not been given!  Cruel
+kindness!
+
+Diane was there, straight as a poplar, cold as marble, with fixed
+eyes.  Eustacie stole up to her, and touched her.  She turned with
+a start.  'Cousin, you have been very good to me!'  Diane started
+again, as if stung.  You will love me still, whatever you hear?'
+
+'Is this meant for farewell?'  said Diane, grasping her wrist.
+
+'Do not ask me, Diane.  I may not.'
+
+'Where there is no trust there is no treason,' said Diane,
+dreamily.  'No, answer me not, little one, there will be time for
+that another day.  Where is he?'
+
+'In the _oeil-de-boeuf_, between the King's and Queen's suites of
+rooms.  I must go.  There is the Queen going.  Diane, one loving
+word.'
+
+'Silly child, you shall have plenty another time,' said Diane,
+breaking away.  'Follow thy Queen now!'
+
+Catherine, who sat between her daughters Claude and Marguerite,
+looked pre-occupied, and summarily dismissed her daughter-in-law,
+Elizabeth, whom Eustacie was obliged to follow to her own state-
+room.  There all the forms of the COUCHER were tediously gone
+through; every pin had its own ceremony, and even when her Majesty
+was safely deposited under her blue satin coverlet the ladies still
+stood round till she felt disposed to fall asleep.  Elisabeth was
+both a sleepy and a considerate person, so that this was not so
+protracted a vigil as was sometimes exacted by the more wakeful
+princesses; but Eustacie could not escape from it till it was
+already almost midnight, the period for her tryst.
+
+Her heart was very full.  It was not the usual flutter and terror
+of an eloping girl.  Eustacie was a fearless little being, and her
+conscience had no alarms; her affections were wholly with Berenger,
+and her transient glimpses of him had been as of something come out
+of a region higher, tenderer, stronger, purer, more trustworthy
+than that where she had dwelt.  She was proud of belonging to him.
+She had felt upheld by the consciousness through years of waiting,
+and now he more than realized her hopes, and she could have wept
+for exulting joy.  Yet it was a strange, stealthy break with all
+she had to leave behind.  The light to which he belonged seemed
+strange, chill, dazzling light, and she shivered at the thought of
+it, as if the new world, new ideas, and new requirements could only
+be endured with him to shield her and help her on.  And withal,
+there seemed to her a shudder over the whole place on that night.
+The King's eyes looked wild and startled, the Queen-mother's calm
+was strained, the Duchess of Lorraine was evidently in a state of
+strong nervous excitement; there were strange sounds, strange
+people moving about, a weight on everything, as if they were under
+the shadow of a thunder-cloud.  'Could it be only her own fancy?'
+she said to herself, because this was to be the great event of her
+life, for surely all these great people could not know or heed that
+little Eustacie de Ribaumont was to make her escape that night!
+
+The trains of royalty were not sumptuously lodged.  France never
+has cared so much for comfort as for display.  The waiting-lady of
+the bedchamber slept in the ante-room of her mistress; the others,
+however high their rank, were closely herded together up a winding
+stair leading to a small passage, with tiny, cell-like recesses,
+wherein the demoiselles slept, often with their maids, and then
+dressed themselves in the space afforded by the passage.
+Eustacie's cell was nearly at the end of the gallery, and
+exchanging 'good-nights' with her companions, she proceeded to her
+recess, where she expected to find Veronique ready to adjust her
+dress.  Veronique, however, was missing; but anxious to lose no
+time, she had taken off her delicate white satin farthingale to
+change it for an unobtrusive dark woolen kirtle, when, to her
+surprise and dismay, a loud creaking, growling sound made itself
+heard outside the door at the other end.  Half-a-dozen heads came
+out of their cells; half-a-dozen voices asked and answered the
+question, 'What is it?'  'They are bolting our door outside.'  But
+only Eustacie sped like lightning along the passage, pulled at the
+door, and cried, 'Open!  Open, I say!'  No answer, but the other
+bolt creaked.
+
+'You mistake, CONCIERGE!  We are never bolted in!  My maid is shut
+out.'
+
+No answer, but the step retreated.  Eustacie clasped her hands with
+a cry that she could hardly have repressed, but which she regretted
+the next moment.
+
+Gabrielle de Limeuil laughed.  'What, Mademoiselle, are you afraid
+they will not let us out to-morrow?'
+
+'My maid!' murmured Eustacie, recollecting that she must give a
+colour to her distress.
+
+'Ah! perhaps she will summon old Pierre to open for us.'
+
+This suggestion somewhat consoled Eustacie, and she stood intently
+listening for Veronique's step, wishing that her companions would
+hold their peace; but the adventure amused them, and they discussed
+whether it were a blunder of the CONCIERGE, or a piece of prudery
+of Madame la Comtesse, or, after all, a precaution.  The palace so
+full of strange people, who could say what might happen?  And there
+was a talk of a conspiracy of the Huguenots.  At any rate, every
+one was too much frightened to go to sleep, and, some sitting on
+the floor, some on a chest, some on a bed, the girls huddled
+together in Gabrielle de Limeuil's recess, the nearest to the door,
+and one after another related horrible tales of blood, murder, and
+vengeance--then, alas! Only too frequent occurrences in their
+unhappy land--each bringing some frightful contribution from her
+own province, each enhancing upon the last-told story, and ever and
+anon pausing with bated breath at some fancied sound, or supposed
+start of one of the others; then clinging close together, and
+renewing the ghastly anecdote, at first in a hushed voice that grew
+louder with the interest of the story.  Eustacie alone would not
+join the cluster.  Her cloak round her shoulders, she stood with
+her back against the door, ready to profit by the slightest
+indication outside of a step that might lead to her release, or at
+least enable her to communicate with Veronique; longing ardently
+that her companions would go to bed, yet unable to avoid listening
+with the like dreadful fascination to each of the terrible
+histories, which added each moment to the nervous horror of the
+whole party.  Only one, a dull and composed girl, felt the
+influence of weariness, and dozed with her head in her companion's
+lap; but she was awakened by one general shudder and suppressed cry
+when the hoarse clang of a bell struck on the ears of the already
+terrified, excited maidens.
+
+'The tocsin!  The bell of St. Germain!  Fire!  No, a Huguenot
+rising!  Fire!  Oh, let us out!  Let us out!  The window!  Where is
+the fire?  Nowhere!  See the lights!  Hark, that was a shot!  It
+was in the palace!  A heretic rising!  Ah!  there was to be a
+slaughter of the heretics!  I heard it whispered.  Oh, let us out!
+Open the door!'
+
+But nobody heard:  nobody opened.  There was one who stood without
+word or cry, close to the door--her eyes dilated, her cheek
+colourless, her whole person, soul and body alike, concentrated in
+that one impulse to spring forward the first moment the bolt should
+be drawn.  But still the door remained fast shut!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.  THE PALACE OF SLAUGHTER
+
+
+
+A human shambles with blood-reeking floor.
+            MISS SWANWICK, Esch. Agamemnon
+
+
+The door was opened at last, but not till full daylight.  It found
+Eustacie as ready to rush forth, past all resistance, as she had
+been the night before, and she was already in the doorway when her
+maid Veronique, her face swollen with weeping, caught her by the
+hands and implored her to turn back and listen.
+
+And words about a rising of the Huguenots, a general destruction,
+corpses lying in the court, were already passing between the other
+maidens and the CONCIERGE.  Eustacie turned upon her servant:
+'Veronique, what means it?  Where is he?'
+
+'Alas!  alas!  Ah!  Mademoiselle, do but lie down!  Woe is me!  I
+saw it all!  Lie down, and I will tell you.'
+
+'Tell!  I will not move till you have told me where my husband is,'
+said Eustacie, gazing with eyes that seemed to Veronique turned to
+stone.
+
+'Ah!  my lady--my dear lady!  I was on the turn of the stairs, and
+saw all.  The traitor--the Chevalier Narcisse--came on him, cloaked
+like you--and--shot him dead--with, oh, such cruel words of
+mockery!  Oh!  woe the day!  Stay, stay, dear lady, the place is
+all blood--they are slaying them all--all the Huguenots!  Will no
+one stop her?--Mademoiselle--ma'm'selle!--'
+
+For Eustacie no sooner gathered the sense of Veronique's words than
+she darted suddenly forwards, and was in a few seconds more at the
+foot of the stairs.  There, indeed, lay a pool of dark gore, and
+almost in it Berenger's black velvet cap, with the heron plume.
+Eustacie, with a low cry, snatched it up, continued her headlong
+course along the corridor, swiftly as a bird, Veronique following,
+and vainly shrieking to her to stop.  Diane, appearing at the other
+end of the gallery, saw but for a moment the little figure, with
+the cloak gathered round her neck, and floating behind her,
+understood Veronique's cry and joined in the chase across hall and
+gallery, where more stains were to be seen, even down to the marble
+stairs, every step slippery with blood.  Others there were who saw
+and stood aghast, not understanding the apparition that flitted on
+so swiftly, never pausing till at the great door at the foot of the
+stairs she encountered a gigantic Scottish archer, armed to the
+teeth.  She touched his arm, and standing with folder arms, looked
+up and said, 'Good soldier, kill me!  I am a Huguenots!'
+
+'Stop her! bring her back!' cried Diane from behind.  'It is Mdlle.
+De Nil-de-Merle!'
+
+'No, no!  My husband is Huguenot!  I am a Huguenot!  Let them kill
+me, I say!'--struggling with Diane, who had now come up with her,
+and was trying to draw her back.
+
+'Puir lassie!' muttered the stout Scotsman to himself, 'this
+fearsome night has driven her demented.'
+
+But, like a true sentinel, he moved neither hand nor foot to
+interfere, as shaking herself loose from Diane, she was springing
+down the steps into the court, when at that moment the young Abbe
+de Mericour was seen advancing, pale, breathless, horrorstruck, and
+to him Diane shrieked to arrest the headlong course.  He obeyed,
+seeing the wild distraction of the white face and widely glaring
+eyes, took her by both hands, and held her in a firm grasp, saying,
+'Alas, lady, you cannot go out.  It is no sight for any one.'
+
+'They are killing the Protestants,' she said; 'I am one!  Let me
+find them and die.'
+
+A strong effort to free herself ensued, but it was so suddenly
+succeeded by a swoon that the Abbe could scarcely save her from
+dropping on the steps.  Diane begged him to carry her in, since
+they were in full view of men-at-arms in the court, and, frightful
+to say, of some of the ladies of the palace, who, in the frenzy of
+that dreadful time, had actually come down to examine the half-
+stripped corpses of the men with whom they had jested not twelve
+hours before.
+
+'Ah! it is no wonder,' said the youthful Abbe, as he tenderly
+lifted the inanimate figure.  'This has been a night of horrors.
+I was coming in haste to know whether the King knows of this
+frightful plot of M. de Guise, and the bloody work that is passing
+in Paris.'
+
+'The King!' exclaimed Diane.  'M. l'Abbe, do you know where he is
+now?  In the balcony overlooking the river, taking aim at the
+fugitives!  Take care!  Even your _soutane_ would not save you if
+M. d'O and his crew heard you.  But I must pray you to aid me with
+this poor child!  I dread that her wild cries should be heard.'
+
+The Abbe, struck dumb with horror, silently obeyed Mdlle. De
+Ribaumont, and brought the still insensible Eustacie to the
+chamber, now deserted by all the young ladies.  He laid her on her
+bed, and finding he could do no more, left her to her cousin and
+her maid.
+
+The poor child had been unwell and feverish ever since the masque,
+and the suspense of these few days with the tension of that
+horrible night had prostrated her.  She only awoke from her swoon
+to turn her head from the light and refuse to be spoken to.
+
+'But, Eustacie, child, listen; this is all in vain--he lives,' said
+Diane.
+
+'Weary me not with falsehoods,' faintly said Eustacie.
+
+'No! no! no!  They meant to hinder your flight, but---'
+
+'They knew of it?' cried Eustacie, sitting up suddenly.  'Then you
+told them.  Go--go; let me never see you more!  You have been his
+death!'
+
+'Listen!  I am sure he lives!  What! would they injure one whom my
+father loved?  I heard my father say he would not have him hurt.
+Depend upon it, he is safe on his way to England.'
+
+Eustacie gave a short but frightful hysterical laugh, and pointed
+to Veronique.  'She saw it,' she said; 'ask her.'
+
+'Saw what?' said Diane, turning fiercely on Veronique.  'What vile
+deceit have you half killed your lady with?'
+
+'Alas!  Mademoiselle, I did but tell her what I had seen,' sighed
+Veronique, trembling.
+
+'Tell me!' said Diane, passionately.
+
+'Yes, everything,' said Eustacie, sitting up.
+
+'Ah!  Mademoiselle, it will make you ill again.'
+
+'I WILL be ill--I WILL die!  Heaven's slaying is better than man's.
+Tell her how you saw Narcisse.'
+
+'False girl!' burst out Diane.
+
+'No, no,' cried Veronique.  'Oh, pardon me, Mademoiselle, I could
+not help it.'
+
+In spite of her reluctance, she was forced to tell that she had
+found herself locked out of her mistress's room, and after losing
+much time in searching for the CONCIERGE, learnt that the ladies
+were locked up by order of the Queen-mother, and was strongly
+advised not to be running about the passages.  After a time,
+however, while sitting with the CONCIERGE'S wife, she heard such
+frightful whispers from men with white badges, who were admitted
+one by one by the porter, and all led silently to a small lower
+room, that she resolved on seeking out the Baron's servant, and
+sending him to warn his master, while she would take up her station
+at her lady's door.  She found Osbert, and with him was ascending a
+narrow spiral leading from the offices--she, unfortunately, the
+foremost.  As she came to the top, a scuffle was going on--four men
+had thrown themselves upon one, and a torch distinctly showed her
+the younger Chevalier holding a pistol to the cheek of the fallen
+man, and she heard the worlds, _'Le baiser d'Eustacie!  Jet e
+barbouillerai ce chien de visage,'_ and at the same moment the
+pistol was discharged.  She sprang back, oversetting, as she
+believed, Osbert, and fled shrieking to the room of the CONCIERGE,
+who shut her in till morning.
+
+'And how--how,' stammered Diane, 'should you know it was the
+Baron?'
+
+Eustacie, with a death-like look, showed for a moment what even in
+her swoon she had held clenched to her bosom, the velvet cap soaked
+with blood.
+
+'Besides,' added Veronique, resolved to defend her assertion, 'whom
+else would the words suit?  Besides, are not all the heretic
+gentlemen dead?  Why, as I sat there in the porter's room, I heard
+M. d'O call each one of them by name, one after the other, into the
+court, and there the white-sleeves cut them down or pistolled them
+like sheep for the slaughter.  They lie all out there on the
+terrace like so many carcases at market ready for winter salting.'
+
+'All slain?' said Eustacie, dreamily.
+
+'All, except those that the King called into his own _garde robe_.'
+
+'Then, I slew him!' Eustacie sank back.
+
+'I tell you, child,' said Diane, almost angrily, 'he lives.  Not a
+hair of his head was to be hurt!  The girl deceives you.'
+
+But Eustacie had again become insensible, and awoke delirious,
+entreating to have the door opened, and fancying herself still on
+the revolving elysium, 'Oh, demons, have pity!' was her cry.
+
+Diane's soothings were like speaking to the winds; and at last she
+saw the necessity of calling in further aid; but afraid of the
+scandal that the poor girl's raving accusations might create, she
+would not send for the Huguenots surgeon, Ambroise Pare, whom the
+King had carefully secured in his own apartments, but employed one
+of the barber valets of the Queen-mother's household.  Poor
+Eustacie was well pleased to see her blood flowing, and sank back
+on her pillow murmuring that she had confessed her husband's faith,
+and would soon be one with him, and Diane feared for a moment lest
+the swoon should indeed be death.
+
+The bleeding was so far effectual that it diminished the fever, and
+Eustacie became rational again when she had dozed and wakened, but
+she was little able or willing to speak, and would not so much as
+listen to Diane's asseverations that Veronique had made a frightful
+error, and that the Baron would prove to be alive.  Whether it were
+that the admission that Diane had known of the project for
+preventing the elopement that invalidated her words, or whether the
+sufferer's instinct made her believe Veronique's testimony rather
+than her cousin's assurances, it was all 'cramming words into her
+ear against the stomach of her sense,' and she turned away from
+them with a piteous, petulant hopelessness: 'Could they not even
+let her alone to die in peace!'
+
+Diane was almost angered at this little silly child being in such
+an agony of sorrow--she, who could never have known how to love
+him.  And after all this persistent grief was willfully thrown
+away.  For Diane spoke in perfect sincerity when she taxed
+Veronique with an injurious, barbarous mistake.  She knew her
+father's strong aversion to violence, and the real predilection
+that Berenger's good mien, respectful manners, and liberal usage
+had won from him, and she believed he had much rather the youth
+lived, provided he were inoffensive.  No doubt a little force had
+been necessary to kidnap one so tall, active, and determined, and
+Veronique had made up her horrible tale after the usual custom of
+waiting-maids.
+
+Nothing else SHOULD be true.  Did she think otherwise, she should
+be even more frantic than Eustacie!  Why, it would be her own
+doing!  She had betrayed the day of the escape--she had held aloof
+from warning.  There was pleasure in securing Nid-de-Merle for her
+brother, pleasure in balking the foolish child who had won the
+heart that disregarded her.  Nay, there might have been even
+pleasure in the destruction of the scorner of her charms--the foe
+of her house--there might have been pride in receiving Queen
+Catherine's dexterous hint that she had been an apt pupil, if the
+young Baron had only been something different--something less fair,
+gracious, bright, and pure.  One bright angel seemed to have
+flitted across her path, and nothing should induce her to believe
+she had destroyed him.
+
+The stripped corpses of the murdered Huguenots of the palace had
+been laid in a line on the terrace, and the ladies who had laughed
+with them the night before went to inspect them in death.  A few
+remnants of Soeur Monique's influence would have withheld Diane,
+but that a frenzy of suspense was growing on her.  She must see for
+herself.  If it were so, she must secure a fragment of the shining
+flaxen hair, if only as a token that anything so pure and bright
+had walked the earth.
+
+She went on the horrible quest, shrinking where others stared.  For
+it was a pitiless time, and the squadron of the Queen-mother were
+as lost to womanhood as the fishwomen of two centuries later.  But
+Diane saw no corpse at once so tall, so young, and so fair, though
+blond Normans and blue-blooded Franks, lads scarce sixteen and
+stalwart warriors, lay in one melancholy rank.  She at least bore
+away the certainly that the English Ribaumont was not there; and if
+not, he MUST be safe!  She could obtain no further certainty, for
+she knew that she must not expect to see either her father or
+brother.  There was a panic throughout the city.  All Paris
+imagined that the Huguenots were on the point of rising and slaying
+all the Catholics, and, with the savagery of alarmed cowardice, the
+citizens and the mob were assisting the armed bands of the Dukes of
+Anjou and Guise to complete the slaughter, dragging their lodgers
+from their hiding-places, and denouncing all whom they suspected of
+reluctance to mass and confession.  But on the Monday, Diane was
+able to send an urgent message to her father that he must come to
+speak with her, for Mdlle. De Nid-de-Merle was extremely ill.  She
+would meet him in the garden after morning mass.
+
+There accordingly, when she stepped forth pale, rigid, but stately,
+with her large fan in her hand to serve as a parasol, she met both
+him and her brother.  She was for a moment sorry, for she had much
+power over her father, while she was afraid of her brother's
+sarcastic tongue and eye; she knew he never scrupled to sting her
+wherever she was most sensitive, and she would have been able to
+extract much more from her father in his absence.  France has never
+been without a tendency to produce the tiger-monkey, or ferocious
+fop; and the GENUS was in its full ascendancy under the sons of
+Catherine de Medicis, when the dregs of Francois the First's
+PSEUDO-chivalry were not extinct--when horrible, retaliating civil
+wars of extermination had made life cheap; nefarious persecutions
+had hardened the heart and steeled the eye, and the licentiousness
+promoted by the shifty Queen as one of her instruments of
+government had darkened the whole understanding.  The most hateful
+heights of perfidy, effeminacy, and hypocrisy were not reached till
+poor Charles IX., who only committed crimes on compulsion, was in
+his grave, and Henry III. on the throne; but Narcisse de Ribaumont
+was one of the choice companions of the latter, and after the night
+and day of murder now stood before his sister with scented hair and
+handkerchief--the last, laced, delicately held by a hand in an
+embroidered glove--emerald pendants in his ears, a moustache
+twisted into sharp points and turned up like an eternal sardonic
+smile, and he led a little white poodle by a rose-coloured ribbon.
+
+'Well, sister,' he said, as he went, through the motions of kissing
+her hand, and she embraced her father; 'so you don't know how to
+deal with megrims and transports?'
+
+'Father,' said Diane, not vouchsafing any attention, 'unless you
+can send her some assurance of his life, I will not answer for the
+consequences.'
+
+Narcisse laughed: 'Take her this dog, with my compliments.  That is
+the way to deal with such a child as that.'
+
+'You do not know what you say, brother,' answered Diane with
+dignity.  'It goes deeper than that.'
+
+'The deeper it goes, child,' said the elder Chevalier, 'the better
+it is that she should be undeceived as soon as possible.  She will
+recover, and be amenable the sooner.'
+
+'Then he lives, father?' exclaimed Diane.  'He lives, though she is
+not to hear it--say----'
+
+'What know I?' said the old man, evasively.  'On a night of
+confusion many mischances are sure to occur!  Lurking in the palace
+at the very moment when there was a search for the conspirators, it
+would have been a miracle had the poor young man escaped.'
+
+Diane turned still whiter.  'Then,' she said, 'that was why you
+made Monsieur put Eustacie into the ballet, that they might not go
+on Wednesday!'
+
+'It was well hinted by you, daughter.  We could not have
+effectually stopped them on Wednesday without making a scandal.'
+
+'Once more,' said Diane, gasping, though still resolute; 'is not
+the story told by Eustacie's woman false--that she saw him--
+pistolled--by you, brother?'
+
+'_Peste_!' cried Narcisse.  'Was the prying wench there?  I thought
+the little one might be satisfied that he had neighbour's fare.  No
+matter; what is done for one's _beaux yeux_ is easily pardoned--and
+if not, why, I have her all the same!'
+
+'Nevertheless, daughter,' said the Chevalier, gravely, 'the woman
+must be silenced.  Either she must be sent home, or taught so to
+swear to having been mistaken, that _la petite_ may acquit your
+brother!  But what now, my daughter?'
+
+'She is livid!'  exclaimed Narcisse, with his sneer.  'What, sir,
+did not you know she was smitten with the peach on the top of a
+pole?'
+
+'Enough, brother,' said Diane, recovering herself enough to speak
+hoarsely, but with hard dignity.  'You have slain--you need not
+insult, one whom you have lost the power of understanding!'
+
+'Shallow schoolboys certainly form no part of my study, save to
+kick them down-stairs when they grow impudent,' said Narcisse,
+coolly.  'It is only women who think what is long must be grand.'
+
+'Come, children, no disputes,' said the Chevalier.  'Of course we
+regret that so fine a youth mixed himself up with the enemies of
+the kingdom, like the stork among the sparrows.  Both Diane and I
+are sorry for the necessity; but remember, child, that when he was
+interfering between your brother and his just right of inheritance
+and destined wife, he could not but draw such a fate on himself.
+Now all is smooth, the estates will be united in their true head,
+and you--you too, my child, will be provided for as suits your
+name.  All that is needed is to soothe the little one, so as to
+hinder her from making an outcry--and silence the maid; my child
+will do her best for her father's sake, and that of her family.'
+
+Diane was less demonstrative than most of her countrywomen.  She
+had had time to recollect the uselessness of giving vent to her
+indignant anguish, and her brother's derisive look held her back.
+The family tactics, from force of habit, recurred to her; she made
+no further objection to her father's commands; but when her father
+and brother parted with her, she tottered into the now empty
+chapel, threw herself down, with her burning forehead on the stone
+step, and so lay for hours.  It was not in prayer.  It was because
+it was the only place where she could be alone.  To her, heaven
+above and earth below seemed alike full of despair, darkness, and
+cruel habitations, and she lay like one sick with misery and
+repugnance to the life and world that lay before her--the hard world
+that had quenched that one fair light and mocked her pity.  It was
+a misery of solitude, and yet no thought crossed her of going to
+weep and sympathize with the other sufferer.  No; rivalry and
+jealousy came in there!  Eustacie viewed herself as his wife, and
+the very thought that she had been deliberately preferred and had
+enjoyed her triumph hardened Diane's heart against her.  Nay, the
+open violence and abandonment of her grief seemed to the more
+restrained and concentrated nature of her elder a sign of
+shallowness and want of durability; and in a certain contemptuous
+envy at her professing a right to mourn, Diane never even
+reconsidered her own resolution to play out her father's game,
+consign Eustacie to her husband's murdered, and leave her to
+console herself with bridal splendours and a choice of admirers
+from all the court.
+
+However, for the present Diane would rather stay away as much as
+possible from the sick-bed of the poor girl; and when an
+approaching step forced her to rouse herself and hurry away by the
+other door of the chapel, she did indeed mount to the ladies' bed-
+chamber, but only to beckon Veronique out of hearing and ask for
+her mistress.
+
+Just the same still, only sleeping to have feverish dreams of the
+revolving wheel or the demons grappling her husband, refusing all
+food but a little drink, and lying silent except for a few moans,
+heedless who spoke or looked at her.
+
+Diane explained that in that case it was needless to come to her,
+but added, with the _vraisemblance_ of falsehood in which she had
+graduated in Catherine's school, 'Veronique, as I told you, you
+were mistaken.'
+
+'Ah, Mademoiselle, if M. le Baron lives, she will be cured at
+once.'
+
+'Silly girl,' said Diane, giving relief to her pent-up feeling by
+asperity of manner, 'how could he live when you and your intrigues
+got him into the palace on such a night?  Dead he is, OF COURSE;
+but it was your own treacherous, mischievous fancy that laid it on
+my brother.  He was far away with M. de Guise at the attack on the
+Admiral.  It was some of Monsieur's grooms you saw.  You remember
+she had brought him into a scrape with Monsieur, and it was sure to
+be remembered.  And look you, if you repeat the other tale, and do
+not drive it out of her head, you need not look to be long with
+her--no, nor at home.  My father will have no one there to cause a
+scandal by an evil tongue.'
+
+That threat convinced Veronique that she had been right; but she,
+too, had learnt lessons at the Louvre, and she was too diplomatic
+not to ask pardon for her blunder, promise to contradict it when
+her mistress could listen, and express her satisfaction that it was
+not the Chevalier Narcisse--for such things were not pleasant, as
+she justly observed, in families.
+
+About noon on the Tuesday the Louvre was unusually tranquil.  All
+the world had gone forth to a procession to Notre Dame, headed by
+the King and all the royal family, to offer thanksgiving for the
+deliverance of the country from the atrocious conspiracy of the
+Huguenots.  Eustacie's chamber was freed from the bustle of all the
+maids of honour arraying themselves, and adjusting curls, feathers,
+ruffs and jewels; and such relief as she was capable of
+experiencing she felt in the quiet.
+
+Veronique hoped she would sleep, and watched like a dragon to guard
+against any disturbance, springing out with upraised finger when a
+soft gliding step and rustling of brocade was heard.  'Does she
+sleep?' said a low voice; and Veronique, in the pale thin face with
+tear-swollen eyes and light yellow hair, recognized the young
+Queen.  'My good girl,' said Elisabeth, with almost a beseeching
+gesture, 'let me see her.  I do not know when again I may be able.'
+
+Veronique stood aside, with the lowest possible of curtseys, just
+as her mistress with a feeble, weary voice murmured, 'Oh, make them
+let me alone!'
+
+'My poor, poor child,' said the Queen, bending over Eustacie, while
+her brimming eyes let the tears fall fast, 'I will not disturb you
+long, but I could not help it.'
+
+'Her Majesty!' exclaimed Eustacie, opening wide her eyes in
+amazement.
+
+'My dear, suffer me here a little moment,' said the meek Elisabeth,
+seating herself so as to bring her face near to Eustacie's; 'I
+could not rest till I had seen how it was with you and wept with
+you.'
+
+'Ah, Madame, you can weep,' said Eustacie slowly, looking at the
+Queen's heavy tearful eyes almost with wonder; 'but I do not weep
+because I am dying, and that is better.'
+
+'My dear, my dear, do not so speak!' exclaimed the gentle but
+rather dull Queen.
+
+'Is it wrong?  Nay, so much the better--then I shall be with HIM,'
+said Eustacie in the same feeble dreamy manner, as if she did not
+understand herself, but a little roused by seeing she had shocked
+her visitor.  'I would not be wicked.  He was all bright goodness
+and truth:  but his does not seem to be goodness that brings to
+heaven, and I do not want to be in the heaven of these cruel false
+men--I think it would go round and round.'  She shut her eyes as if
+to steady herself, and that moment seemed to give her more self-
+recollection, for looking at the weeping, troubled visitor, she
+exclaimed, with more energy, 'Oh!  Madame, it must be a dreadful
+fancy!  Good men like him cannot be shut into those fiery gates
+with the torturing devils.'
+
+'Heaven forbid!' exclaimed the Queen.  'My poor, poor child, grieve
+not yourself thus.  At my home, my Austrian home, we do not speak
+in this dreadful way.  My father loves and honours his loyal
+Protestants, and he trusts that the good God accepts their holy
+lives in His unseen Church, even though outwardly they are separate
+from us.  My German confessor ever said so.  Oh! Child, it would be
+too frightful if we deemed that all those souls as well as bodies
+perished in these frightful days.  Myself, I believe that they have
+their reward for their truth and constancy.'
+
+Eustacie caught the Queen's hand, and fondled it with delight, as
+though those words had veritably opened the gates of heaven to her
+husband.  The Queen went on in her slow gentle manner, the very
+tone of which was inexpressibly soothing and sympathetic: 'Yes, and
+all will be clear there.  No more violence.  At home our good men
+think so, and the King will think the same when these cruel
+counselors will leave him to himself; and I pray, I pray day and
+night, that God will not lay this sin to his account, but open his
+eyes to repent.  Forgive him, Eustacie, and pray for him too.'
+
+'The King would have saved my husband, Madame,' returned Eustacie.
+'He bade him to his room.  It was I, unhappy I, who detained him,
+lest our flight should have been hindered.'
+
+The Queen in her turn kissed Eustacie's forehead with eager
+gratitude.  'Oh, little one, you have brought a drop of comfort to
+a heavy heart.  Alas!  I could sometimes feel you to be a happier
+wife than I, with your perfect trust in the brave pure-spirited
+youth, unwarped by these wicked cruel advisers.  I loved to look at
+his open brow; it was so like our bravest German Junkers.  And,
+child, we thought, both of us, to have brought about your
+happiness; but, ah!  it has but caused all this misery.'
+
+'No, no, dearest Queen,' said Eustacie, 'this month with all its
+woe has been joy--life!  Oh!  I had rather lie here and die for his
+loss than be as I was before he came.  And NOW--now, you have given
+him to me for all eternity--if but I am fit to be with him!'
+
+Eustacie had revived so much during the interview that the Queen
+could not believe her to be in a dying state; but she continued
+very ill, the low fever still hanging about her, and the faintness
+continual.  The close room, the turmoil of its many inhabitants,
+and the impossibility of quiet also harassed her greatly, and
+Elisabeth had little or no power of making any other arrangements
+for her in the palace.  Ladies when ill were taken home, and this
+poor child had no home.  The other maids of honour were a gentler,
+simpler set than Catherine's squadron, and were far from unkind;
+but between them and her, who had so lately been the brightest
+child of them all, there now lay that great gulf.  _'Ich habe
+gelebt und geliebet.'_   That the little blackbird, as they used to
+call her, should have been on the verge of running away with her
+own husband was a half understood, amusing mystery discussed in
+exaggerating prattle.  This was hushed, indeed, in the presence of
+that crushed, prostrate, silent sorrow; but there was still an
+utter incapacity of true sympathy, that made the very presence of
+so many oppressive, even when they were not in murmurs discussing
+the ghastly tidings of massacres in other cities, and the fate of
+acquaintances.
+
+On that same day, the Queen sent for Diane to consult her about the
+sufferer.  Elisabeth longed to place her in her own cabinet and
+attend on her herself; but she was afraid to do this, as the
+unhappy King was in such a frenzied mood, and so constantly excited
+by his brother and Guise, that it was possible that some half-
+delirious complaint from poor Eustacie might lead to serious
+consequences.  Indeed, Elisabeth, though in no state to bear
+agitation, was absorbed in her endeavour to prevent him from adding
+blood to blood, and a few days later actually saved the lives  of
+the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde, by throwing herself before
+him half-dressed, and tearing his weapon from his hand.  Her only
+hope was that if she should give him a son, her influence for mercy
+would revive with his joy.  Meantime she was powerless, and she
+could only devise the sending the poor little sufferer to a
+convent, where the nuns might tend her till she was restored to
+health and composure.  Diane acquiesced, but proposed sending for
+her father, and he was accordingly summoned.  Diane saw him first
+alone, and both agreed that he had better take Eustacie to
+Bellaise, where her aunt would take good care of her, and in a few
+months she would no doubt be weary enough of the country to be in
+raptures to return to Paris on any terms.
+
+Yet even as Diane said this, a sort of longing for the solitude of
+the woods of Nid-de-Merle came over her, a recollection of the good
+Sister Monique, at whose knee she had breathed somewhat of the free
+pure air that her murdered cousin had brought with him; a sense
+that there she could pour forth her sorrow.  She offered herself at
+once to go with Eustacie.
+
+'No, no, my daughter,' said the Chevalier, 'that is unnecessary.
+There is pleasanter employment for you.  I told you that your
+position was secured.  Here is a brilliant offer--M. de
+Selinville,'
+
+_'Le bonhomme de Selinville!'_  exclaimed Diane, feeling rather as
+if the compensation were like the little dog offered to Eustacie.
+
+'Know ye not that his two heretic nephews perished the other night.
+He is now the head of his name, the Marquis, the only one left of
+his house.'
+
+'He begins early,' said Diane.
+
+'An old soldier, my daughter, scarce stays to count the fallen.  He
+has no time to lose.  He is sixty, with a damaged constitution.  It
+will be but the affair of a few years, and then will my beautiful
+Marquise be free to choose for herself.  I shall go from the young
+Queen to obtain permission from the Queen-mother.'
+
+No question was asked.  Diane never even thought objection
+possible.  It was a close to that present life which she had begun
+to loathe; it gave comparative liberty.  It would dull and confuse
+her heart-sick pain, and give her a certain superiority to her
+brother.  Moreover, it would satisfy the old father, whom she
+really loved.  Marriage with a worn-out old man was a simple step
+to full display for young ladies without fortune.
+
+The Chevalier told Queen Elisabeth his purpose of placing his niece
+in the family convent, under the care of her aunt, the Abbess, in a
+foundation endowed by her own family on the borders of her own
+estate.  Elisabeth would have liked to keep her nearer, but could
+not but own that the change to the scenes of her childhood might be
+more beneficial than a residence in a nunnery at Paris, and the
+Chevalier spoke of his niece with a tender solicitude that gained
+the Queen's heart.  She consented, only stipulating that Eustacie's
+real wishes should be ascertained, and herself again made the
+exertion of visiting the patient for the purpose.
+
+Eustacie had been partly dressed, and was lying as near as she
+could to the narrow window.  The Queen would not let her move, but
+took her damp languid hand, and detailed her uncle's proposal.  It
+was plain that it was not utterly distasteful.  'Soeur  Monique,'
+she said, 'Soeur Monique would sing hymns to me, and then I should
+not see the imps at night.'
+
+'Poor child!  And you would like to go?  You could bear the
+journey?'
+
+'It would be in the air!  And then I should not smell blood--
+blood!'  And her cheeks became whiter again, if possible.
+
+'Then you would not rather be at the Carmelites, or Maubuisson,
+near me?'
+
+'Ah!  Madame, there would not be Soeur Monique.  If the journey
+would only make me die, as soon as I came, with Soeur Monique to
+hush me, and keep off dreadful images!'
+
+'Dear child, you should put away the thought of dying.  Maybe you
+are to live, that your prayers may win salvation for the soul of
+him you love.'
+
+'Oh, then!  I should like to go into a convent so strict--so
+strict, cried Eustacie, with renewed vigour.  'Bellaise is nothing
+like strict enough.  Does your Majesty indeed think that my prayers
+will aid him?'
+
+'Alas!  what hope could we have but in praying?' said Elisabeth,
+with tears in her eyes.  'Little one, we will be joined at least in
+our prayers and intercessions: thou wilt not forget in thine one
+who yet lives, unhappier than all!'
+
+'And, oh, my good, my holy Queen, will you indeed pray for him--my
+husband?  He was so good, his faith can surely not long be reckoned
+against him.  He did not believe in Purgatory!  Perhaps----'  Then
+frowning with a difficulty far beyond a fever-clouded brain, she
+concluded--'At least, orisons may aid him!  It is doing something
+for him!  Oh, where are my beads?--I can begin at once.'
+
+The Queen put her arm round her, and together they said the _De
+profundis_,--the Queen understood every word far more for the
+living than the dead.  Again Elisabeth had given new life to
+Eustacie.  The intercession for her husband was something to live
+for, and the severest convent was coveted, until she was assured
+that she would not be allowed to enter on any rule till she had
+time to recover her health, and show the constancy of her purpose
+by a residence at Bellaise.
+
+Ere parting, however, the Queen bent over her, and colouring, as if
+much ashamed of what she said, whispered--'Child, not a word of the
+ceremony at Montpipeau!--you understand?   The King was always
+averse; it would bring him and me into dreadful trouble with THOSE
+OTHERS, and alas! It makes no difference now.  You will be silent?'
+
+And Eustacie signed her acquiescence, as indeed no difficulty was
+made in her being regarded as the widow of the Baron de Ribaumont,
+when she further insisted on procuring a widow's dress before she
+quitted her room, and declared, with much dignity, that she should
+esteem no person her friend who called her Mademoiselle de Nid-de-
+Merle.  To this the Chevalier de Ribaumont was willing to give way;
+he did not care whether Narcisse married her as Berenger's widow or
+as the separated maiden wife, and he thought her vehement
+opposition and dislike would die away the faster the fewer
+impediments were placed in her way.  Both he and Diane strongly
+discouraged any attempt on Narcisse's widow part at a farewell
+interview; and thus unmolested, and under the constant soothing
+influence of reciting her prayers, in the trust that they were
+availing her husband, Eustacie rallied so much that about ten day
+after the dreadful St. Batholomew, in the early morning, she was
+half-led half-carried down the stairs between her uncle and
+Veronique. Her face was close muffled in her thick black veil, but
+when she came to the foot of the first stairs where she had found
+Berenger's cap, a terrible shuddering came on her; she again
+murmured something about the smell of blood, and fell into a swoon.
+
+'Carry her on at once,' said Diane, who was following,--'there will
+be not end to it if you do not remove her immediately.'
+
+And thus shielded from the sight of Marcisse's intended passionate
+gesture of farewell at the palace-door, Eustecie was laid at full
+length on the seat of the great ponderous family coach, where
+Veronique hardly wished to revive her till the eight horses should
+have dragged her beyond the streets of Paris, with their terrible
+associations, and the gibbets still hung with the limbs of the
+murdered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.  THE BRIDEGROOM'S ARRIVAL
+
+
+
+The starling flew to his mother's window stane,
+    It whistled and it sang,
+  And aye, the ower word of the tune
+    Was 'Johnnie tarries lang.'--JOHNNIE OF BREDISLEE
+
+
+There had been distrust and dissatisfaction at home for many a day
+past.  Berenger could hardly be censured for loving his own wife,
+and yet his family were by not means gratified by the prospect of
+his bringing home a little French Papist, of whom Lady Thistlewood
+remembered nothing good.
+
+Lucy was indignantly fetched home by her stepmother, who insisted
+on treating her with extreme pity as a deserted maiden, and thus
+counteracting Aunt Cecily's wise representations, that there never
+should, and therefore never could, have been anything save
+fraternal affection between the young people, and that pity was
+almost an insult to Lucy.  The good girl herself was made very
+uncomfortable by there demonstrations, and avoided them as much as
+possible, chiefly striving in her own gentle way to prepare her
+little sisters to expect numerous charms in brother Berenger's
+wife, and heartily agreeing with Philip that Berenger knew his own
+mind best.
+
+'And at any rate,' quoth Philip, 'we'll have the best bonfire that
+ever was seen in the country! Lucy, you'll coax my father to give
+us a tar-barrel!'
+
+The tar-barrel presided over a monstrous pile of fagots, and the
+fisher-boys were promised a tester to whoever should first bring
+word to Master Philip that the young lord and lady were in the
+creek.
+
+Philip gave his pony no rest, between the lock-out on the downs and
+the borders of the creek; but day after day passed, and still the
+smacks from Jersey held no person worth mentioning; and still the
+sense of expectation kept Lucy starting at every sound, and hating
+herself for her own folly.
+
+At last Philip burst into Combe Manor, fiery red with riding and
+consternation.  'Oh! father, father, Paul Duval's boat is come in,
+and he says that the villain Papists have butchered every
+Protestant in France.'
+
+Sir Marmaduke's asseveration was of the strongest, that he did not
+believe a word of it.  Nevertheless, he took his horse and rode
+down to interrogate Paul Duval, and charge him not to spread the
+report was in the air.  He went to the Hall, and the butler met him
+with a grave face, and took him to the study, where Lord Walwyn was
+sitting over letter newly received from London, giving hints from
+the Low Countries of bloody work in France.  And when he returned
+to his home, his wife burst out upon him in despair.  Here had they
+been certainly killing her poor buy.  Not a doubt that he was dead.
+All from this miserable going to France, that had been quite
+against her will.
+
+Stoutly did Sir Marmaduke persevere in his disbelief; but every day
+some fresh wave of tidings floated in.  Murder wholesale had surely
+been perpetrated.  Now came stories of death-bells at Rouen from
+the fishermen on the coast; now markets and petty sessions
+discussed the foul slaughter of the Ambassador and his household;
+truly related how the Queen had put on mourning, and falsely that
+she had hung the French Ambassador, La Mothe Feneon.  And Burleigh
+wrote to his old friend from London, that some horrible carnage had
+assuredly taken place, and that no news had yet been received of
+Sir Francis Walsingham or of his suite.
+
+All these days seems so many years taken from the vital power of
+Lord Walwyn.  Not only had his hopes and affections would
+themselves closely around his grandson, but he reproached himself
+severely with having trusted him in his youth and inexperience
+among the seductive perils of Paris.  The old man grieved over the
+promising young life cut off, and charged on himself the loss and
+grief to the women, whose stay he had trusted Berenger would have
+been.  He said little, but his hand and head grew more trembling;
+he scarcely ate or slept, and seemed to waste from a vigorous elder
+to a feeble being in the extremity of old age, till Lady Walwyn had
+almost ceased to think of her grandson in her anxiety for her
+husband.
+
+Letters came at last.  The messenger despatched by Sir Francis
+Walsingham had not been able to proceed till the ways had become
+safe, and he had then been delayed; but on his arrival his tidings
+were sent down.  There were letters both from Sir Francis
+Walsingham and from heart-broken Mr. Adderley, both to the same
+effect, with all possible praises of the young Baron de Ribaumont,
+all possible reproach to themselves for having let him be betrayed,
+without even a possibility of recovering his remains for honourable
+burial.  Poor Mr. Adderley further said that Mr. Sidney, who was
+inconsolable for the loss of his friend, had offered to escort him
+to the Low Countries, whence he would make his way to England, and
+would present himself at Hurst Walwyn, if his Lordship could endure
+the sight of his creature who had so miserably failed in his trust.
+
+Lord Walwyn read both letters twice through before he spoke.  Then
+he took off his spectacles, laid them down, and said calmly, 'God's
+will be done.  I thank God that my boy was blameless.  Better they
+slew him than sent him home tainted with their vices.'
+
+The certainty, such as it was, seemed like repose after the
+suspense.  They knew to what to resign themselves, and even Lady
+Thistlewood's tempestuous grief had so spent itself that late in
+the evening the family sat round the fire in the hall, the old lord
+dozing as one worn out with sorrow, the others talking in hushed
+tones of that bright boyhood, that joyous light quenched in the
+night of carnage.
+
+The butler slowly entered the hall, and approached Sir Marmaduke,
+cautiously.  'Can I speak with you, sir?'
+
+'What is it, Davy?' demanded the lady, who first caught the words.
+'What did you say?'
+
+'Madam, it is Humfrey Holt!'
+
+Humfrey Holt was the head of the grooms who had gone with Berenger;
+and there was a general start and suppressed exclamation.  'Humfrey
+Hold!' said Lord Walwyn, feebly drawing himself to sit upright,
+'hath he, then, escaped?'
+
+'Yea, my Lord,' said Davy, 'and he brings news of my young Lord'
+
+'Alack! Davy,' said Lady Walwyn, 'such news had been precious a
+while ago.'
+
+'Nay, so please your Ladyship, it is better than you deem.  Humfley
+says my young Lord is yet living.'
+
+'Living! shrieked Lady  Thistlewood, starting up.  'Living!  My
+son! and where?'
+
+'They are bearing him home, my Lady,' said the butler; 'but I fear
+me, by what Humfley says, that it is but in woeful case.'
+
+'Bringing him home!  Which way?'  Philip darted off like an arrow
+from the bow.  Sir Marmaduke hastily demanded if aid were wanted;
+and Lady Walwyn, interpreting the almost inaudible voice of her
+husband, bade that Humfley should be called in to tell his own
+story.
+
+Hands were held out in greeting, and blessings murmured, as the
+groom entered, looking battered and worn, and bowing low in
+confusion at being thus unusually conspicuous, and having to tell
+his story to the head and body, and slashed about the face so as it
+is a shame to see.  Nor hath he done aught these three weary weeks
+but moan from time to time so as it is enough to break one's heart
+to hear him; and I fear me 'tis but bringing him home to die.'
+
+'Even so, God be thanked; and you too, honest Humfley,' said Lady
+Walwyn.'  'Let us hear when and how this deed was done.'
+
+'Why, that, my Lord, I can't so well say, being that I was not with
+him; more's the pity, or I'd have known the reason why, or even
+they laid a finger on him.  But when Master Landry, his French
+foster-brother, comes, he will resolve you in his own tongue.  I
+can't parleyvoo with him, but he's an honest rogue for a Frenchman,
+and 'twas he brought off my young Lord. You see we were all told to
+be abroad the little French craft.
+
+Master Landry took me down and settled it all with the master, a
+French farmer fellow that came a horse-dealing to Paris.  I knew
+what my young Lord was after, but none of the other varlets did;
+and I went down and made as decent a place as I could between
+decks.  My Lord and Master Landry were gone down to the court
+meantime, and we were to lie off till we heard a whistle like a
+mavis on the bank, then come and take them aboard.  Well, we waited
+and waited, and all the lights were out, and not a sound did we
+hear till just an hour after midnight.  Then a big bell rang out,
+not like a decent Christianable bell, but a great clash, then
+another, and a lot of strokes enough to take away one's breath.
+Then half the windows were lighted up, and we heard shots, and
+screeches, and splashes, till, as I said to Jack Smithers, 'twas as
+if one half the place was murthering the other.  The farmer got
+frightened, and would have been off; but when I saw what he was at,
+"No," says I, "not an inch do we budge without news of my Lord."
+So Jack stood by the rope, and let them see that 'twas as much as
+their life was worth to try to unmoor.  Mercy, what a night it was!
+Shrieks and shouts, and shots and howls, here, there, and
+everywhere, and splashes into the rive; and by and by we saw the
+poor murthered creatures come floating by.  The farmer, he had some
+words with one of the boats near, and I heard somewhat of Huguenot
+and Hereteek, and I knew that was what they called good
+Protestants.  Then up comes the farmer with his sons looking mighty
+ugly at us, and signing that unless we let them be off 'twould be
+set ashore for us; and we began to think as how we had best be set
+ashore, and go down the five of us to see if we could stand by my
+young Lord in some strait, or give notice to my Lord Ambassador.'
+
+'God reward you!' exclaimed Lady Walwyn.
+
+'Twas only our duty, my Lady,' gruffly answered Humfrey; 'but just
+as Hal had got on the quay, what should I see but Master Landry
+coming down the street with my young Lord in his back!  I can tell
+you he was well-nigh spent; and just then half a dozen butcherly
+villains came out on him, bawling, "Tu-y!  tu-y!" which it seems
+means "kill, kill."  He turned about and showed them that he had
+got a white sleeve and white cross in his bonnet, like them, the
+rascals, giving them to understand that he was only going to throw
+the corpse into the river. I doubted him then myself; but he caught
+sight of us, and in his fashion of talk with us, called out to us
+to help, for there was life still.  So two of us took my Lord, and
+the other three gave the beggarly French cut-throats as good as
+they meant for us; while Landry shouted to the farmer to wait, and
+we got aboard, and made right away down the river.  But never a
+word has the poor young gentleman spoken, though Master Landry has
+done all a barber or a sick-nurse could do; and he got us past the
+cities by showing the papers in my Lord's pocket, so that we got
+safe to the farmer's place.  There we lay till we could get a boat
+to Jersey, and thence again home; and maybe my young Lord will mend
+now Mistress Cecily will have the handing of him.'
+
+'That is it the wisest Hands, good Humfrey,' said Lord Walwyn, as
+the tears of feeble age flowed down his cheeks.  'May He who hath
+brought the lad safely so far spare him yet, and raise him up.  But
+whether he live or die, you son and daughter Thistlewood will look
+that the faithfulness of Humfrey Holt and his comrades be never
+forgotten or unrewarded.'
+
+Humfrey again muttered something about no more than his duty; but
+by this time sounds were heard betokening the approach of the
+melancholy procession, who, having been relieved by a relay of
+servants sent at once from the house, were bearing home the wounded
+youth.  Philip first of all dashed in hurrying and stumbling.  He
+had been unprepared by hearing Humfrey's account, and, impetuous
+and affectionate as he was, was entirely unrestrained, and flinging
+himself on his knees with the half-audible words, 'Oh!  Lucy!
+Lucy! He is as good as dead!' hid his face between his arms on his
+sister's lap, and sobbed with the abandonment of a child, and with
+all his youthful strength; so much adding to the consternation and
+confusion, that, finding all Lucy's gentle entreaties vain, his
+father at last roughly pulled up his face by main force, and said,
+'Philip, hold your tongue!  Are we to have you on our hands as well
+as my Lady?  I shall send you home this moment!  Let your sister
+go.'
+
+This threat reduced the boy to silence.  Lucy, who was wanted to
+assist in preparing Berenger's room, disengaged herself; but he
+remained in the same posture, his head buried on the seat of the
+chair, and the loud weeping only forcibly stifled by forcing his
+handkerchief into his mouth, as if he had been in violent bodily
+pain.  Nor did he venture again to look up as the cause of all his
+distress was slowly carried into the hall, corpse-like indeed.  The
+bearers had changed several times, all but a tall, fair Norman
+youth, who through the whole transit had supported the head,
+endeavouring to guard it from shocks.  When the mother and the rest
+came forward, he made a gesture to conceal the face, saying in
+French, 'Ah! Mesdames; this is no sight for you.'
+
+Indeed the head and face were almost entirely hidden by bandages,
+and it was not till Berenger had been safely deposited on a large
+carved bed that the anxious relatives were permitted to perceive
+the number and extent of his hurts; and truly it was only by the
+breath, the vital warmth, and the heavy moans when he was
+disturbed, or the dressings of the wounds were touched, that showed
+him still to be a living man.  There proved to be no less than four
+wounds--a shot through the right shoulder, the right arm also
+broken with a terrible blow with a sword, a broad gash from the
+left temple to the right ear, and worse than all, _'le baiser
+d'Eustacie,'_ a bullet wound where the muzzle of the pistol had
+absolutely been so close as to have burnt and blackened the cheek;
+so that his life was, as Osbert averred, chiefly owing to the
+assassin's jealousy of his personal beauty, which had directed his
+shot to the cheek rather than the head; and thus, though the bullet
+had terribly shattered the upper jaw and roof of the mouth, and had
+passed out through the back of the head, there was a hope that it
+had not penetrated the seat of life or reason.  The other gash on
+the face was but a sword-wound, and though frightful to look at,
+was unimportant, compared with the first wound with the pistol-shot
+in the shoulder, with the arm broken and further injured by having
+served to suspend him round Osbert's neck; but it was altogether so
+appalling a sight, that it was no wonder that Sis Marmaduke
+muttered low but deep curses on the cowardly ruffians; while his
+wife wept in grief as violent, though more silent, than her
+stepson's, and only Cecily gathered the faintest ray of hope.  The
+wounds had been well cared for, the arm had been set, the hair cut
+away, and lint and bandages applied with a skill that surprised
+her, till she remembered that Landry Osbert had been bred up in
+preparation to be Berenger's valet, and thus to practise those
+minor arts of surgery then required in a superior body-servant.
+For his part, though his eyes looked red, and his whole person
+exhausted by unceasing watching, he seemed unable to relinquish the
+care of his master for a moment, and her nunnery French would not
+have perceived her tender touch and ready skill.  These were what
+made him consent to leave his post even for a short meal, and so
+soon as he had eaten it he was called to Lord Walwyn to supply the
+further account which Humfley had been unable to give.  He had
+waited, he explained, with a lackey, a friend of his in the palace,
+till he became alarmed by the influx of armed men, wearing white
+crosses and shirt-sleeves on their left arms, but his friend had
+assured him that his master had been summoned to the royal
+bedchamber, where he would be as safe as in church; and obtaining
+from Landry Osbert himself a perfectly true assurance of being a
+good Catholic, had supplied him with the badges that were needful
+for security.  It was just then that Madame's maid crept down to
+his waiting-place with the intelligence that her mistress had been
+bolted in, and after a short consultation they agreed to go and see
+whether M. le Baron were indeed waiting, and, if he were, to warn
+him of the suspicious state of the lower regions of the palace.
+
+They were just in time to see, but not to prevent the attack upon
+their young master; and while Veronique fled, screaming, Landry
+Osbert, who had been thrown back on the stairs in her sudden
+flight, recovered himself and hastened to his master. The
+murderers, after their blows had been struck, had hurried along the
+corridor to join the body of assassins, whose work they had in
+effect somewhat anticipated.  Landry, full of rage and despair, was
+resolved at least to save his foster-brother's corpse from further
+insult, and bore it down-stairs in his arms.  On the way, he
+perceived that life was not yet extinct, and resolving to become
+doubly cautious, he sought in the pocket for the purse that had
+been well filled for the flight, and by the persuasive argument of
+gold crowns, obtained egress from the door-keeper of the postern,
+where Berenger hoped to have emerged in a far different manner.  It
+was a favourable moment, for the main body of the murderers were at
+that time being poster in the court by the captain of the guard,
+ready to massacre the gentlemen of the King of Navarre's suite, and
+he was therefore unmolested by any claimant of the plunders of the
+apparent corpse he bore on his shoulders.  The citizens of Paris
+who had been engaged in their share of the murders for more than an
+hour before the tragedy began in the Louvre, frequently beset him
+on his way to the quay, and but for the timely aid of his English
+comrades, he would hardly have brought off his foster-brother
+safely.
+
+The pass with which King Charles had provided Berenger for himself
+and his followers when his elopement was first planned, enabled
+Osbert to carry his whole crew safely past all the stations where
+passports were demanded.  He had much wished to procure surgical
+aid at Rouen, but learning from the boatmen on the river that the
+like bloody scenes were there being enacted, he had decide on going
+on to his master's English home as soon as possible, merely
+trusting to his own skill by the way; and though it was the
+slightest possible hope, yet the healthy state of the wounds, and
+the mere fact of life continuing, had given him some faint trust
+that there might be a partial recovery.
+
+Lord Walwyn repeated his agitated thanks and praises for such
+devotion to his grandson.
+
+Osbert bower, laid his hand on his heart, and replied--'Monseigneur
+is good, but what say I?  Monsieur le Baron is my foster-brother!
+Say that, and all is said in one word.'
+
+He was then dismissed, with orders to take some rest, but he
+obstinately refused all commands in French or English to go to bed,
+and was found some time after fast asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.  SWEET HEART
+
+
+
+Ye hae marred a bonnier face than your ain.
+            DYING WORDS OF THE BONNIE EARL OF MORAY
+
+
+One room at Hurst Walwyn, though large, wainscoted, and well
+furnished, bore as pertinaciously the air of a cell as the
+appearance of Sister Cecily St. John continued like that of a nun.
+There was a large sunny oriel, in which a thrush sang merrily in a
+wicker cage; and yet the very central point and leading feature of
+the room was the altar-like table, covered with rich needlework,
+with a carved ebony crucifix placed on it, and on the wall above,
+quaint and stiff, but lovely-featured, delicately tinted pictures
+of Our Lady in the centre, and of St. Anne and St. Cecilia on
+either side, with skies behind of most ethereal blue, and robes
+tenderly trimmed with gold.  A little shrine of purple spar, with a
+crystal front, contained a fragment of sacred bone; a silver shell
+help holy water, perpetuated from some blessed by Bishop Ridley.
+
+             'With velvet bound and broidered o'er,
+                      Her breviary book'
+
+Lay open at 'Sext,' and there, too, lay with its three marks at the
+Daily Lessons, the Bishop's Bible, and the Common Prayer beside it.
+
+The elder Baron de Ribaumont had never pardoned Cecily his single
+glance at that table, and had seriously remonstrated with his
+father-in-law for permitting its existence, quoting Rachel, Achan,
+and Maachah.  Yet he never knew of the hair-cloth smock, the
+discipline, the cord and sack-cloth that lay stored in the large
+carved awmry, and were secretly in use on every fast or vigil, not
+with any notion of merit, but of simple obedience, and with even
+deeper comprehension and enjoyment of their spiritual significance,
+of which, in her cloister life, she had comprehended little.
+
+It was not she, however, who knelt with bowed head and clasped
+hands before the altar-table, the winter sunbeams making the
+shadows of the ivy sprays dance upon the deep mourning dress and
+pale cheek.  The eyelashes were heavy with tear-drops, and veiled
+eyes that had not yet attained to the region of calm, like the
+light quivering of the lips showed that here was the beginning of
+the course of trial through which serenity might be won, and for
+ever.
+
+By and by the latch was raise, and Cecily came forward.  Lucy rose
+quickly to her feet, and while giving and returning a fond embrace,
+asked with her eyes the question that Cecily answered, 'Still in
+the same lethargy.  The only shade of sense that I have seen is an
+unclosing of the eyes, a wistful look whenever the door opened, and
+a shiver through all his frame whenever the great bell rings, till
+my Lord forbade it to be sounded.'
+
+'That frightful bell that the men told us of,' said Lucy,
+shuddering; 'oh, what a heart that murderess must have had!'
+
+'Hold, Lucy!  How should we judge her, who may at this moment be
+weeping in desolation?'
+
+Lucy looked up astonished.  'Aunt,' she said, 'you have been so
+long shut up with him that you hardly can have heard all-how she
+played fast and loose, and for the sake of a mere pageant put off
+the flight from the time when it would have been secure even until
+that dreadful eve!'
+
+'I know it,' said Cecily.  'I fear me much that her sin has been
+great; yet, Lucy, it were better to pray for her than to talk
+wildly against her.'
+
+'Alas!' murmured Lucy, 'I could bear it and glory in it when it
+seemed death for the faith's sake, but,' and the tears burst out,
+'to find he was only trapped and slain for the sake of a faithless
+girl--and that he should love her still.'
+
+'She is his wife,' said Cecily.  'Child, from my soul I grieve for
+you, but none the less must I, if no other will, keep before your
+eyes that our Berenger's faith belongs solely to her.'
+
+'You--you never would have let me forget it,' said Lucy. 'Indeed I
+am more maidenly when not alone with you!  I know verily that he is
+loyal, and that my hatred to her is more than is meet.  I will--I
+will pray for her, but I would that you were in your convent still,
+and that I could hide me there.'
+
+'That were scarce enough,' said Cecily.  'One sister we had who had
+fled to our house to hide her sorrows for her betrothed had wedded
+another.  She took her sorrows for her vocation, strove to hurry on
+her vows, and when they were taken, she chafed and fretted under
+them.  It was she who wrote to the commissioner the letter that led
+to the visitation of our house, and, moreover, she was the only one
+of us who married.'
+
+'To her own lover?'
+
+'No, to a brewer at Winchester!  I say not that you could ever be
+like poor sister Bridget, but only that the cloister has no charm
+to still the heart--prayer and duty can do as much without as
+within.'
+
+'When we deemed her worthy, I was glad of his happiness,' said
+Lucy, thoughtfully.
+
+'You did, my dear, and I rejoiced.  Think now how grievous it must
+be with her, if she, as I fear she may, yielded her heart to those
+who told her that to ensnare him was her duty, or if indeed she
+were as much deceived as he.'
+
+'Then she will soon be comforted,' said Lucy, still with some
+bitterness in her voice; bitterness of which she herself was
+perhaps conscious, for suddenly dropping in her knees, she hid her
+face, and cried. 'Oh, help me to pray for her, Aunt Cecily, and
+that I may do her wrong no more!'
+
+And Cecily, in her low conventual chant, sang, almost under her
+breath, the noonday Latin hymn, the words of which, long familiar
+to Lucy, had never as yet so come home to her.
+
+           'Quench Thou the fires of heat and strife,
+               The wasting fever of the heart;
+            From perils guard our feeble life,
+               And to our souls Thy help impart.'
+
+Cecily's judgment would have been thought weakly charitable by all
+the rest of the family. Mr. Adderley had been forwarded by Sir
+Francis Walsingham like a bale of goods, and arriving in a mood of
+such self-reproach as would be deemed abject, by persons used to
+the modern relations between noblemen and their chaplains, was
+exhilarated by the unlooked-for comfort of finding his young charge
+at least living, and in his grandfather's house.  From his
+narrative, Walsingham's letter, and Osbert's account, Lord Walwyn
+saw no reason to doubt that the Black Ribaumonts had thought that
+massacre a favourable moment for sweeping the only survivor of the
+White or elder branch away, and that not only had royalty lent
+itself to the cruel project, but that as Diane de Ribaumont had
+failed as a bait, the young espoused wife had herself been employed
+to draw him into the snare, and secure his presence at the
+slaughter-house, away from his safe asylum at the Ambassador's or
+even in the King's garde-robe.  It was an unspeakably frightful
+view to take of the case, yet scarcely worse than the reality of
+many of the dealings of those with whom the poor young girl had
+been associated: certainly not worse than the crimes, the suspicion
+of which was resting on the last dowager Queen of France; and all
+that could be felt by the sorrowing family, was comfort that at
+least corruption of mind had either not been part of the game, or
+had been unsuccessful, and, by all testimony, the victim was still
+the same innocent boy.  This was all their relief, while for days,
+for weeks, Berenger de Ribaumont lay in a trance or torpor between
+life and death.  Sometimes, as Cecily had said, his eyes turned
+with a startled wistfulness towards the door, and the sound of a
+bell seemed to thrill him with a start of agony; but for the most
+part he neither appeared to see or hear, and a few moans were the
+only sounds that escaped him.  The Queen, in her affection for her
+old friend, and her strong feeling for the victims of the massacre,
+sent down the court physician, who turned him about, and elicited
+sundry heavy groans, but could do no more than enjoin patient
+waiting on the beneficent powers of nature in early youth.  His
+visit produced one benefit, namely, the strengthening of Cecily St.
+John's hands against the charms, elixirs, and nostrums with which
+Lady Thistlewood's friends supplied her,--plasters from the cunning
+women of Lyme Regis, made of powder of giant's bones, and snakes
+prayed into stone by St. Aldhelm, pills of live woodlice, and
+fomentations of living earthworms and spiders.  Great was the
+censure incurred by Lady Walwyn for refusing to let such remedies
+be tried on HER grandson.  And he was so much more her child than
+his mother's, that Dame Annora durst do no more than maunder.
+
+In this perfect rest, it seemed as if after a time 'the powers of
+nature' did begin to rally, there were appearances of healing about
+the wounds, the difference between sleeping and waking became more
+evident, the eyes lost the painful, half-closed, vacant look, but
+were either shut or opened with languid recognition.  The injuries
+were such as to exclude him from almost every means of expression,
+the wound in his mouth made speech impossible, and his right arm
+was not available for signs.  It was only the clearness of his
+eyes, and their response to what was said, that showed that his
+mind was recovering tone, and then he seemed only alive to the
+present, and to perceive nothing but what related to his suffering
+and its alleviations.  The wistfulness that had shown itself at
+first was gone, and even when he improved enough to establish a
+language of signs with eye, lip, or left hand, Cecily became
+convinced that he has little or no memory of recent occurrences,
+and that finding himself at home among familiar faces, his still
+dormant perceptions demanded no further explanation.
+
+This blank was the most favourable state for his peace and for his
+recovery, and it was of long duration, lasting even till he had
+made so much progress that he could leave his bed, and even speak a
+few words, though his weakness was much prolonged by the great
+difficulty with which he could take nourishment.  About two winters
+before, Cecily had successfully nursed him through a severe attack
+of small-pox, and she thought that he confounded his present state
+with the former illness, when he had had nearly the same attendants
+and surroundings as at present; and that his faculties were not yet
+roused enough to perceive the incongruity.
+
+Once or twice he showed surprise at visits from his mother or
+Philip, who had then been entirely kept away from him, and about
+Christmas he brightened so much, and awoke to things about him so
+much more fully, that Cecily thought the time of recollection could
+not be much longer deferred.  Any noise, however, seemed so painful
+to him, that the Christmas festivities were held at Combe Manor
+instead of Hurst Walwyn; only after church, Sir Marmaduke and Lady
+Thistlewood came in to make him a visit, as he sat in a large easy-
+chair by his bedroom-fire, resting after having gone through as
+much of the rites of the day as he was able for, with Mr. Adderlay.
+The room looked very cheerful with the bright wood-fire on the open
+hearth, shining on the gay tapestry hangings, and the dark wood of
+the carved bed.  The evergreen-decked window shimmered with sun
+shine, and even the patient, leaning back among crimson cushions,
+though his face and head were ghastly enough wherever they were not
+covered with patches and bandages, still had a pleasant smile with
+lip and eye to thank his stepfather for his cheery wishes of 'a
+merry Christmas, at least one better in health.'
+
+'I did not bring the little wenches, Berenger, lest they should
+weary you,' said his mother.
+
+Berenger looked alarmed, and said with the indistinctness with
+which he always spoke, 'Have they caught it?  Are they marked?'
+
+'No, no, not like you, may boy,' said Sir Marmaduke, sufficiently
+aware of Berenger's belief to be glad to keep it up, and yet
+obliged to walk to the window to hide his diversion at the notion
+of his little girls catching the contagion of sword-gashes and
+bullet-wounds.  Dame Annora prattled on, 'But they have sent you
+their Christmas gifts by me. Poor children, they have long been
+busied with them, and I fancy Lucy did half herself.  See, this
+kerchief is hemmed by little Dolly, and here are a pair of bands
+and cuffs to match, that Nanny and Bessy have been broidering with
+their choicest stitchery.'
+
+Berenger smile, took, expressed admiration by gesture, and then
+said in a dreamy, uncertain manner, 'Methought I had some gifts for
+them;' then looking round the room, his eye fell on a small brass-
+bound casket which had travelled with him to hold his valuables; he
+pointed to it with a pleased look, as Sir Marmaduke lifted it and
+placed it on a chair by his side.  The key, a small ornamental
+brass one, was in his purse, not far off, and Lady Thistlewood was
+full of exceeding satisfaction at the unpacking not only of foreign
+gifts, but, as she hoped, of the pearls; Cecily meantime stole
+quietly in, to watch that her patient was not over-wearied.
+
+He was resuming the use of his right arm, though it was still weak
+and stiff, and he evidently had an instinct against letting any one
+deal with that box but himself; he tried himself to unlock it, and
+though forced to leave this to Sir Marmaduke, still leant over it
+when opened, as if to prevent his mother's curious glances from
+penetrating its recesses, and allowed no hands near it but his own.
+He first brought out a pretty feather fan, saying as he held it to
+his mother, 'For Nan, I promised it.  It was bought at the Halles,'
+he added, more dreamily.
+
+Then again he dived, and brought out a wax medallion of Our Lady
+guarded by angels, and made the sign that always brought Cecily to
+him.  He held it up to her with a puzzled smile, saying, 'They
+thought me a mere Papist for buying it--M. de Teligny, I think it
+was.'
+
+They had heard how the good and beloved Teligny had been shot down
+on the roof of his father-in-law's house, by rabid assassins,
+strangers to his person, when all who knew him had spared him, from
+love to his gentle nature; and the name gave a strange thrill.
+
+He muttered something about 'Pedlar,--Montpipeau,'--and still
+continued.  Then came a small silver casket, diffusing an odour of
+attar of roses--he leant back in his chair--and his mother would
+have taken it from him, supposing him overcome by the scent, but he
+held it fast and shook his head, saying, "For Lucy,--but she must
+give it herself.  She gave up any gift for herself for it--she said
+we needed no love-tokens.' And he closed his eyes.  Dame Annora
+plunged into the unpacking, and brought out a pocket-mirror with
+enamelled cupids in the corner, addressed to herself; and then came
+upon Berenger's own.
+
+Again came a fringed pair of gloves among the personal jewellery
+such as gentlemen were wont to wear, the rings, clasps and brooches
+he had carried from home.  Dame Annora's impatience at last found
+vent in the exclamation, 'The pearls, son; I do not see the chaplet
+of pearls.'
+
+'She had them, 'answered Berenger, in a matter-of-fact tone, 'to
+wear at the masque.'
+
+'She----'
+
+Sir Marmaduke's great hand choked, as it were, the query on his
+wife's lips, unseen by her son, who, as if the words had touched
+some chord, was more eagerly seeking in the box, and presently drew
+out a bow of carnation ribbon with a small piece of paper full of
+pin-holes attached to it.  At once he carried it to his lips,
+kissed it fervently, and then, sinking back in his chair, seemed to
+be trying to gather up the memory that had prompted the impulse,
+knitted his brows together, and then suddenly exclaimed, 'Where is
+she?'
+
+His mother tried the last antecedent.  'Lucy? She shall come and
+thank you to-morrow.'
+
+He shook his head with a vehement negative, beckoned Cecily
+impatiently, and said earnestly, 'Is it the contagion?  Is she
+sick?  I will go to her.'
+
+Cecily and Sir Marmaduke both replied with a 'No, no!' and were
+thankful, though in much suspense at the momentary pause, while
+again he leant back on the cushions, looked steadily at the pin-
+holes, that formed themselves into the word 'Sweet heart,' then
+suddenly began to draw up the loose sleeve of his wrapping-gown and
+unbutton the wristband of his right sleeve.  His mother tried to
+help him, asking if he had hurt or tired his arm.  They would have
+been almost glad to hear that it was so, but he shook her off
+impatiently, and the next moment had a view of the freshly skinned
+over, but still wide and gaping gash on his arm.  He looked for a
+brief space, and said, 'It is a sword-cut,'
+
+'Truly it is, lad,' said Sir Marmaduke, 'and a very bad one,
+happily whole!  Is this the first time you have seen it?'
+
+He did not answer, but covered his eyes with his hand, and
+presently burst out again, 'Then it is no dream?  Sir--have I been
+to France?'
+
+'Yes, my son, you have,' said Sir Marmaduke, gently, and with more
+tenderness than could have been looked for; 'but what passed there
+is much better viewed as a dream, and cast behind your back,'
+
+Berenger had, while he spoke, taken up the same little mirror where
+he had once admired himself; and as he beheld the scar and plaster
+that disfigured his face, with a fresh start of recollection,
+muttered over, '_"Barbouiller ce chien de visage"_ --ay, so he
+said.  I felt the pistol's muzzle touch!  Narcisse!  Has God had
+mercy on me?  I prayed Him.  Ah! _"le baiser d'Eustacie"_ --so he
+said.  I was waiting in the dark.  Why did he come instead of her?
+Oh! father, where is she?'
+
+It was a sore task, but Sir Marmaduke went bravely and bluntly,
+though far from unkindly, to the point: 'She remains with her
+friends in France.'
+
+There the youth's look of utter horror and misery shocked and
+startled them all, and he groaned rather than said, 'Left there!
+Left to them!  What have I done to leave her there?'
+
+'Come, Berenger, this will not serve,' said his mother, trying to
+rouse and cheer him.  'You should rather be thankful that when you
+had been so foully ensnared by their wiles, good Osbert brought you
+off with your life away from those bloody doings.  Yes, you may
+thank Heaven and Osbert, for you are the only one of them living
+now.'
+
+'Of whom, mother?'
+
+'Of all the poor Protestants that like you were deluded by the pack
+of murderers over there.  What,'--fancying it would exhilarate him
+to hear of his own escape--'you knew not that the bloody Guise and
+the Paris cut-throats rose and slew every Huguenot they could lay
+hands on?  Why, did not the false wench put off your foolish
+runaway project for the very purpose of getting you into the trap
+on the night of the massacre?'
+
+He looked with a piteous, appealing glance from her to Cecily and
+Sir Marmaduke, as if in hopes that they would contradict.
+
+'Too true, my lad,' said Sir Marmaduke.  'It is Heaven's good mercy
+that Osbert carried you out alive.  No other Protestant left the
+palace alive but the King of Navarre and his cousin, who turned
+renegades.'
+
+'And she is left there?' he repeated.
+
+'Heed her not, my dear boy,' began his mother; 'you are safe, and
+must forget her ill-faith and----'
+
+Berenger seemed scarcely to hear this speech--he held out his hands
+as if stunned and dizzied, and only said, or rather indicated, 'Let
+me lie down.'
+
+His stepfather almost carried him across the room, and laid him on
+his bed, where he turned away from the light and shut his eyes; but
+the knot of ribbon and the pin-pricked word was still in his hand,
+and his mother longed to take away the token of this false love, as
+she believed it.  The great clock struck the hour for her to go.
+'Leave him quiet,' said Cecily, gently; 'he can bear no more now.
+I will send over in the evening to let you know how he fares.'
+
+'But that he should be so set on the little bloodthirsty baggage,'
+sighed Lady Thistlewood; and then going up to her son, she poured
+out her explanation of being unable to stay, as her parents were
+already at the Manor, with no better entertainers than Lucy,
+Philip, and the children.  She thanked him for the gifts, which she
+would take to them with his love. All this passed by him as though
+he heard it not, but when leaning down, she kissed his forehead,
+and at the same time tried to withdraw the knot of ribbon: his
+fingers closed on it with a grasp like steel, so cold were they,
+yet so fast.
+
+Sir Masmaduke lingered a few moments behind her, and Berenger
+opening his eyes, as if to see whether solitude had been achieved,
+found the kind-hearted knight gazing at him with eyes full of
+tears.  'Berry, my lad,' he said, 'bear it like a man.  I know how
+hard it is.  There's not a woman of them all that an honest, plain
+Englishman has a chance with, when a smooth-tongued Frenchman comes
+round her!  But a man may live a true and honest life however sore
+his heart may be, and God Almighty makes it up to him if he faces
+it out manfully.'
+
+Good Sir Marmaduke in his sympathy had utterly forgotten both
+Berenger's French blood, and that he was the son of the very
+smooth-tongued interloper who had robbed his life of its first
+bloom.  Berenger was altogether unequal to do more than murmur, as
+he held out his hand in response to the kindness, 'You do not know
+her.'
+
+'Ah! Poor lad.'  Sir Marmaduke shook his head and left him to
+Cecily.
+
+After the first shock, Berenger never rested till he had made
+Osbert, Mr.Adderley, and Cecily tell him all they knew, and asked
+by name after those whom he had known best at Paris.  Alas! of all
+those, save such as had been in the Ambassador's house, there was
+but one account to give.  Venerable warrior, noble-hearted youth,
+devoted pastor, all alike had perished!
+
+This frightful part of the story was altogether new to him.  He had
+been probably the earliest victim in the Louvre, as being the
+special object of private malice, which had contrived to involve
+him in the general catastrophe; and his own recollections carried
+him only to the flitting of lights and ringing of bells, that has
+made him imagine that an alarm of fire would afford a good
+opportunity of escape if SHE would but come.  A cloaked figure had
+approached, --he had held out his arms--met that deadly stroke--
+heard the words hissed in his ear.
+
+He owned that for some time past strange recollections had been
+flitting though his mind--a perpetual unsatisfied longing for and
+expectation of his wife, and confused impressions of scenes and
+people had harassed him perpetually, even when he could not discern
+between dreams and reality; but knowing that he had been very ill,
+he had endeavoured to account for everything as delirious fancies,
+but had become increasingly distressed by their vividness,
+confusion, and want of outward confirmation.  At last these solid
+tokens and pledges from that time had brought certainty back, and
+with it the harmony and clearness of his memory: and the strong
+affection, that even his oblivion had not extinguished, now
+recurred in all its warmth to its object.
+
+Four months had passed, as he now discovered, since that night when
+he had hoped to have met Euctacie, and she must be believing him
+dead.  His first measure on the following day when he had been
+dressed and seated in his chair was to send for his casket, and
+with his slow stiff arm write thus:--
+
+'Mon Coeur, My own sweetheart,--Hast thou thought me dead, and
+thyself deserted?  Osbert will tell thee all, and why I can scarce
+write.  Trust thyself to him to bring to me.  I shall be whole
+seeing thee.  Or if thou canst not come with him, write or send me
+the least token by him, and I will come and bear thee home so soon
+as I can put foot in stirrup.  Would that I could write all that is
+in my heart!
+                                            'Thy Husband.'
+
+It was all that either head or hand would enable him to say, but he
+had the fullest confidence in Landry Osbert, who was one of the few
+who understood him at half a word.  He desired Osbert to seek the
+lady out wherever she might be, whether still at court or in a
+convent, convey the letter to her if possible, and, if she could by
+any means escape, obtain from Chateau Leurre such an escort as she
+could come to England with.  If, as was too much to be feared, she
+was under too close restraint, Osbert should send intelligence
+home, as he could readily do through the Ambassador's household,
+and Berenger trusted by that time to be able to take measures for
+claiming her in person.
+
+Osbert readily undertook everything, but supplies for his journey
+were needed, and there was an absolute commotion in the house when
+it was known that Berenger had been writing to his faithless
+spouse, and wishing to send for her.  Lord Walwyn came up to visit
+his grandson, and explain to him with much pity and consideration
+that he considered such a step as vain, and only likely to lead to
+further insult.  Berenger's respect forced him to listen without
+interruption, and though he panted to answer, it was a matter of
+much difficulty, for the old lord was becoming deaf, and could not
+catch the indistinct, agitated words--
+
+'My Lord, she is innocent as day.'
+
+'Ah!  Anan, boy.'
+
+'I pledge my life on her love and innocence.'
+
+'Love! Yes, my poor boy; but if she be unworthy?--Eh? Cecily, what
+says he?'
+
+'He is sure of her innocence, sir?'
+
+'That is of course.  But, my dear lad, you will soon learn that
+even a gentle, good woman who has a conscience-keeper is too apt to
+think her very sense of right ought to be sacrificed to what she
+calls her religion.--What is it, what is he telling you, Cecily?'
+
+'She was ready to be one of us,' Berenger said, with a great effort
+to make it clear.
+
+'Ah, a further snare.  Poor child!  The very softest of them become
+the worst deceivers, and the kindred who have had the charge of her
+all their life could no doubt bend her will.'
+
+'Sir,' said Berenger, finding argument impossible, 'if you will but
+let me dispatch Osbert, her answer will prove to you what she is.'
+
+'There is something in that,' said Lord Walwyn, when he had heard
+it repeated by Cecily.  'It is, of course, needful that both she
+and her relations should be aware of Berenger's life, and I trow
+nothing but the reply will convince him.'
+
+'Convince him!' muttered Berenger.  'Oh that I could make him
+understand.  What a wretch I am to have no voice to defend her!'
+
+'What?' said the old lord again.
+
+'Only that I could speak, sir; you should know why it is sacrilege
+to doubt her.'
+
+'Ah! well, we will not wound you, my son, while talk is vain.  You
+shall have the means of sending your groom, if thus you will set
+your mind at rest, though I had rather have trusted to Walsingham's
+dealing.  I will myself give him a letter to Sir Francis, to
+forward him on his way; and should the young lady prove willing to
+hold to her contract and come to you here, I will pray him to do
+everything to aid her that may be consistent with his duty in his
+post.'
+
+This was a great and wonderful concession for Lord Walwyn, and
+Berenger was forced to be contented with it, though it galled him
+terribly to have Eustacie distrusted, and be unable to make his
+vindication even heard or understood, as well as to be forced to
+leave her rescue, and even his own explanation to her, to a mere
+servant.
+
+This revival of his memory had not at all conduced to his progress
+in recovery.  His brain was in no state for excitement or
+agitation, and pain and confusion were the consequence, and were
+counteracted, after the practice of the time, by profuse bleedings,
+which prolonged his weakness.  The splintered state of the jaw and
+roof of the moth likewise produced effects that made him suffer
+severely, and deprived him at times even of the small power of
+speech that he usually possessed; and though he had set his heart
+upon being able to start for Paris so soon as Osbert's answer
+should arrive, each little imprudence he committed, in order to
+convince himself of his progress, threw him back so seriously, that
+he was barely able to walk down-stairs to the hall, and sit
+watching--watching, so that it was piteous to see him--the gates of
+the courtyard, but the time that, on a cold March day, a booted and
+spurred courier (not Osbert) entered by them.
+
+He sprang up, and faster than he had yet attempted to move, met the
+man in the hall, and demanded the packet.  It was a large one, done
+up in canvas, and addressed to the Right Honourable and Worshipful
+Sir William, Baron Walwyn of Hurst Walwyn, and he had further to
+endure the delay of carrying it to his grandfather's library, which
+he entered with far less delay and ceremony than was his wont.
+'Sit down, Berenger,' said the old man, while addressing himself to
+the fastenings; and the permission was needed, for he could hardly
+have stood another minute.  The covering contained a letter to Lord
+Walwyn himself, and a packet addressed to the Baron de Ribaumont
+which his trembling fingers could scarcely succeed in cutting and
+tearing open.
+
+How shall it be told what the contents of the packet were?  Lord
+Walwyn reading on with much concern, but little surprise, was
+nevertheless startled by the fierce shout with which Berenger broke
+out:
+
+'A lie! A lie forged in hell!'  And then seizing the parchment, was
+about to rend it with all the force of passion, when his
+grandfather, seizing his hand, said, in his calm, authoritative
+voice, 'Patience, my poor son.'
+
+'How, how should I have patience when they send me such poisoned
+lies as these of my wife, and she is in the power of the villains?
+Grandfather, I must go instantly---'
+
+'Let me know what you have heard,' said Lord Walwyn, holding him
+feebly indeed, but with all the impressive power and gravity of his
+years.
+
+'Falsehoods,' said Berenger, pushing the whole mass of papers over
+to him, and then hiding his head between his arms on the table.
+
+Lord Walwyn finished his own letter first.  Walsingham wrote with
+much kind compassion, but quite decisively.  He had no doubt that
+the Ribaumont family had acted as one wheel in the great plot that
+had destroyed all the heads of Protestant families and swept away
+among others, as they had hoped, the only scion of the rival house.
+The old Chevalier de Ribaumont had, he said, begun by expressing
+sorrow for the mischance that had exposed his brave young cousin to
+be lost in the general catastrophe, and he had professed
+proportionate satisfaction on hearing of the young man's safety.
+But the Ambassador believed him to have been privy to his son's
+designs; and whether Mdlle. de Nid de Merle herself had been a
+willing agent or not, she certainly had remained in the hands of
+the family.  The decree annulling the marriage had been published,
+the lady was in a convent in Anjou, and Narcisse de Ribaumont had
+just been permitted to assume the title of Marquis de Nid de Merle,
+and was gone into Anjou to espouse her. Sir Francis added a message
+of commiseration for the young Baron, but could not help
+congratulating his old friend on having his grandson safe and free
+from these inconvenient ties.
+
+Berenger's own packet contained, in the first place, a copy of the
+cassation of the marriage, on the ground of its having been
+contracted when the parties were of too tender age to give their
+legal consent, and its having been unsatisfied since they had
+reached ecclesiastical years for lawful contraction of wedlock.
+
+The second was one of the old Chevalier's polite productions.  He
+was perfectly able to ignore Berenger's revocation of his
+application for the separation, since the first letter had remained
+unanswered, and the King's peremptory commands had prevented
+Berenger from taking any open measures after his return from
+Montpipeau.  Thus the old gentleman, after expressing due rejoicing
+at his dear young cousin's recovery, and regret at the unfortunate
+mischance that had led to his confounded with the many suspected
+Huguenots, proceeded as if matters stood exactly as they had been
+before the pall-mall party, and as if the decree that he enclosed
+were obtained in accordance with the young Baron's intentions.  He
+had caused it to be duly registered, and both parties were at
+liberty to enter upon other contracts of matrimony.  The further
+arrangements which Berenger had undertaken to sell his lands in
+Normandy, and his claim on the ancestral castle in Picardy, should
+be carried out, and deeds sent for his signature so soon as he
+should be of age.  In the meantime, the Chevalier courteously
+imparted to his fair cousin the marriage of his daughter,
+Mademoiselle Diane de Ribaumont with M. le Comte de Selinville,
+which had taken place on the last St. Martin's day, and of his
+niece, Mademoiselle Eustacie de Ribaumont de Nid de Merle with his
+son, who had received permission to take her father's title of
+Marquis de Nid de Merle.  The wedding was to take place at Bellaise
+before the end of the Cardinal, and would be concluded before this
+letter came to hand.
+
+Lastly, there was an ill written and spelt letter, running somewhat
+thus--
+
+'Monseigneur,--Your faithful servant hopes that Monsieur le Baron
+will forgive him for not returning, since I have been assured by
+good priests that it is not possible to save my soul in a country
+of heretics.  I have done everything as Monsieur commanded, I have
+gone down into Anjou, and have had the honour to see the young lady
+to whom Monsieur le Baron charged me with a commission, and I
+delivered to her his letter, whereupon the lady replied that she
+thanked M. le Baron for the honour he had done her, but that being
+on the point of marriage to M. le Marquis de Nid de Merle, she did
+not deem it fitting to write to him, nor had she any tokens to send
+him, save what he had received on the St. Barthelemy midnight; they
+might further his suit elsewhere.  These, Monsieur, were her words,
+and she laughed as she said them, so gaily that I thought her
+fairer than ever.  I have prevailed with her to take me into her
+service as intendant of the Chateau de Nid de Merle, knowing as she
+does my fidelity to the name of Ribaumont.  And so, trusting
+Monseigneur will pardon me for what I do solely for the good of my
+soul, I will ever pray for his welfare, and remain,
+
+                               'His faithful menial and valet,
+                                         'LANDRY OSBERT.'
+
+The result was only what Lord Walwyn had anticipated, but he was
+nevertheless shocked at the crushing weight of the blow.  His heart
+was full of compassion for the youth so cruelly treated in these
+his first years of life, and as much torn in his affections as
+mangled in person.  After a pause, while he gathered up the sense
+of the letters, he laid his hand kindly on his grandson's arm, and
+said, 'This is a woeful budget, my poor son; we will do our best to
+help you to bear it.'
+
+'The only way to bear it,' said Berenger, lifting up his face, 'is
+for me to take horse and make for Anjou instantly.  She will hold
+out bravely, and I may yet save her.'
+
+'Madness,' said his grandfather; 'you have then not read your
+fellow's letter?'
+
+'I read no letter from fellow of mine.  Yonder is a vile forgery.
+Narcisse's own, most likely.  No one else would have so profaned
+her as to put such words into her mouth!  My dear faithful foster-
+brother--have they murdered him?'
+
+'Can you point to any proof that it is forged?' said Lord Walwyn,
+aware that handwriting was too difficult an art, and far too
+crabbed, among persons of Osbert's class, for there to be any
+individuality of penmanship.
+
+'It is all forged,' said Berenger.  'It is as false that she could
+frame such a message as that poor Osbert would leave me.'
+
+'These priests have much power over the conscience,' began Lord
+Walwyn; but Berenger, interrupting his grandfather for the first
+time in his life, cried, 'No priest could change her whole nature.
+Oh! my wife! my darling! what may they not be inflicting on her
+now!  Sir, I must go.  She may be saved!  The deadly sin may be
+prevented!'
+
+'This is mere raving, Berenger,' said Lord Walwyn, not catching
+half what he said, and understanding little more than his
+resolution to hasten in quest of the lady.  'You, who have not
+mounted a horse, nor walked across the pleasance yet!'
+
+'My limbs should serve me to rescue her, or they are worth nothing
+to me.'
+
+Lord Walwyn would have argued that he need not regret his
+incapacity to move, since it was no doubt already too late, but
+Berenger burst forth--'She will resist; she will resist to the
+utmost, even if she deems me dead. Tortures will not shake her when
+she knows I live.  I must prepare.'  And he started to his feet.
+
+'Grandson,' said Lord Walwyn, laying a hand on his arm, 'listen to
+me.  You are in not state to judge for yourself.  I therefore
+command you to desist from this mad purpose.'
+
+He spoke gravely, but Berenger was disobedient for the first time.
+'My Lord,' he said, 'you are but my grandfather.  She is my wife.
+My duty is to her.'
+
+He had plucked his sleeve away and was gone, before Lord Walwyn had
+been able to reason with him that there was no wife in the case, a
+conclusion at which the old statesman would not have arrived had he
+known of the ceremony at Montpipeau, and all that had there passed;
+but not only did Berenger deem himself bound to respect the King's
+secret, but conversation was so difficult to him that he had told
+very little of his adventures, and less to Lord Walwyn than any one
+else.  In effect, his grandfather considered this resolution of
+going to France as mere frenzy, and so it almost was, not only on
+the score of health and danger, but because as a ward, he was still
+so entirely under subjection, that his journey could have been
+hindered by absolutely forcible detention; and to this Lord Walwyn
+intended to resort, unless the poor youth either came to a more
+rational mind, or became absolutely unable to travel.
+
+The last--as he had apprehended--came to pass only too surely.  The
+very attempt to argue and to defend Eustacie was too much for the
+injured head; and long before night Berenger full believed himself
+on the journey, acted over its incidents, and struggled wildly with
+difficulties, all the time lying on his bed, with the old servants
+holding him down, and Cecily listening tearfully to his ravings.
+
+For weeks longer he was to lie there in greater danger than ever.
+He only seemed soothed into quiet when Cecily chanted those old
+Latin hymns of her Benedictine rule, and then--when he could speak
+at all--he showed himself to be in imagination praying in
+Eustacie's convent chapel, sure to speak to her when the service
+should be over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.  NOTRE-DAME DE BELLAISE*
+
+
+
+There came a man by middle day,
+He spied his sport and went away,
+And brought the king that very night,
+And brake my bower and slew my knight.
+                        The Border Widow's Lament
+
+
+*[footnote: Bellaise is not meant for a type of all nunneries, but
+of the condition to which many of the lesser ones had come before
+the general reaction and purification of the seventeenth century.]
+
+
+That same Latin hymn which Cecily St. John daily chanted in her own
+chamber was due from the choir of Cistercian sisters in the chapel
+of the Convent of Our Lady at Bellaise, in the Bocage of Anjou; but
+there was a convenient practice of lumping together the entire
+night and forenoon hours at nine o'clock in the morning, and all
+the evening ones at Compline, so that the sisters might have
+undisturbed sleep at night and entertainment by day.  Bellaise was
+a very comfortable little nunnery, which only received richly
+dowered inmates, and was therefore able to maintain them in much
+ease, though without giving occasion to a breath of scandal.
+Founded by a daughter of the first Angevin Ribaumont, it had become
+a sort of appanage for the superfluous daughters of the house, and
+nothing would more have amazed its present head, Eustacie Barbe de
+Ribaumont,--conventually known as La Mere Marie Seraphine de St.-
+Louis, and to the world as Madame de Bellaise,--than to be accused
+of not fulfilling the intentions of the Bienheureuse Barbe, the
+foundress, or of her patron St. Bernard.
+
+Madame de Bellaise was a fine-looking woman of forty, in a high
+state of preservation, owing to the healthy life she had led.  Her
+eyes were of brilliant, beautiful black her complexion had a glow,
+her hair--for she wore it visibly--formed crisp rolls of jetty
+ringlets on her temples, almost hiding her close white cap.  The
+heavy thick veil was tucked back beneath the furred purple silk
+hood that fastened under her chin.  The white robes of her order
+were not of serge, but of the finest cloth, and were almost hidden
+by a short purple cloak with sleeves, likewise lined and edged with
+fur, and fastened on the bosom with a gold brooch.  Her fingers,
+bearing more rings than the signet of her house, were concealed in
+embroidered gauntlets of Spanish leather.  One of them held an
+ivory-handled riding-rod, the other the reins of the well-fed
+jennet, on which the lady, on a fine afternoon, late in the
+Carnival, was cantering home through the lanes of the Bocage, after
+a successful morning's hawking among the wheat-ears.  She was
+attended by a pair of sisters, arrayed somewhat in the same style,
+and by a pair of mounted grooms, the falconer with his charge
+having gone home by a footway.
+
+The sound of horses' feet approaching made her look towards a long
+lane that came down at right angles to that along which she was
+riding, and slacken her pace before coming to its opening.  And as
+she arrived at the intersection, she beheld advancing, mounted on a
+little rough pony, the spare figure of her brother the Chevalier,
+in his home suit, so greasy and frayed, that only his plumed hat
+(and a rusty plume it was) and the old sword at his side showed his
+high degree.
+
+He waved his hand to her as a sign to halt, and rode quickly up,
+scarcely giving time for a greeting ere he said, 'Sister the little
+one is not out with you.'
+
+'No, truly, the little mad thing, she is stricter and more head-
+strong than ever was her preceptress.  Poor Monique!  I had hoped
+that we should be at rest when that _cass-tete_ had carried off her
+scruples to Ste.-Claire, at Lucon, but here is this little droll
+far beyond her, without being even a nun!'
+
+'Assuredly not.  The business must be concluded at once.  She must
+be married before Lent.'
+
+'That will scarce be--in her present frame.'
+
+'It must be.  Listen, sister.  Here is this miserable alive!'
+
+'Her spouse!'
+
+'Folly about her spouse!  The decree from Rome has annulled the
+foolish mummery of her infancy.  It came a week after the
+Protestant conspiracy, and was registered when the Norman peasants
+at Chateau Leurre showed contumacy.  It was well; for, behold, our
+gallant is among his English friends, recovering, and even writing
+a billet.  Anon he will be upon our hands in person.  By the best
+fortune, Gillot fell in with his messenger this morning, prowling
+about on his way to the convent, and brought him to me to be
+examined.  I laid him fat in ward, and sent Gillot off to ride day
+and night to bring my son down to secure the girl at once.'
+
+'You will never obtain her consent.  She is distractedly in love
+with his memory!  Let her guess at his life, and---'
+
+'Precisely.  Therefore must we be speedy.  All Paris knows it by
+this time, for the fellow went straight to the English Ambassador;
+and I trust my son has been wise enough to set off already; for
+should we wait till after Lent, Monsieur le Baron himself might be
+upon us.'
+
+'Poor child!  You men little heed how you make a woman suffer.'
+
+'How, Reverend Mother! you pleading for a heretic marriage, that
+would give our rights to a Huguenot--what say I?--an English
+renegade!'
+
+'I plead not, brother.  The injustice towards you must be repaired;
+but I have a certain love for my niece, and I fear she will be
+heartbroken when she learns the truth, the poor child.'
+
+'Bah!  The Abbess should rejoice in thus saving her soul!  How if
+her heretic treated Bellaise like the convents of England?'
+
+'No threats, brother.  As a daughter of Ribaumont and a mother of
+the Church will I stand by you,' said the Abbess with dignity.
+
+'And now tell me how it has been with the child.  I have not seen
+her since we agreed that the request did but aggravate her.  You
+said her health was better since her nurse had been so often with
+her, and that she had ceased from her austerities.'
+
+'Not entirely; for when first she came, in her transports of
+despair and grief on finding Soeur Monique removed, she extorted
+from Father Bonami a sort of hope that she might yet save her
+husband's, I mean the Baron's soul.  Then, truly, it was a frenzy
+of fasts and prayers.  Father Bonami has made his profit, and so
+have the fathers of Chollet--all her money has gone in masses, and
+in alms to purchase the prayers of the poor, and she herself
+fasting on bread and water, kneeling barefooted in the chapel till
+she was transfixed with cold.  No _chaufferette_, not she!
+Obstinate to the last degree!  Tell her she would die--it was the
+best news one could bring; all her desire, to be in a more rigid
+house with Soeur Monique at Lucon.  At length, Mere Perrine and
+Veronique found her actually fainting and powerless with cold on
+the chapel-floor; and since that time she has been more reasonable.
+There are prayers as much as ever; but the fancy to kill herself
+with fasting has passed.  She begins to recover her looks, nay,
+sometimes I have thought she had an air of hope in her eyes and
+lips; but what know I?  I have much to occupy me, and she persists
+in shutting herself up with her woman.'
+
+'You have not allowed her any communication from without?'
+
+'Mere Perrine has come and gone freely; but she is nothing.  No,
+the child could have no correspondence.  She did, indeed, write a
+letter to the Queen, as you know, brother, six weeks ago; but that
+has never been answered, nor could any letters have harmed you,
+since it is only now that this young man is known to be living.'
+
+'You are right, sister.  No harm can have been done.  All will go
+well.  The child must be wearied with her frenzy of grief and
+devotion!  She will catch gladly at an excuse for change.  A scene
+or two, and she will readily yield!'
+
+'It is true,' said the Abbess, thoughtfully, 'that she has walked
+and ridden out lately.  She has asked questions about her Chateaux,
+and their garrisons.  I have heard nothing of the stricter convent
+for many weeks; but still, brother, you must go warily to work.'
+
+'And you, sister, must show no relenting.  Let her not fancy she
+can work upon you.'
+
+By this time the brother and sister were at the gateway of the
+convent; a lay sister presided there, but there was no _cloture_,
+as the strict seclusion of a nunnery was called, and the Chevalier
+rode into the cloistered quadrangle as naturally as if he had been
+entering a secular Chateau, dismounted at the porch of the hall,
+and followed Madame de Bellaise to the parlour, while she
+dispatched a request that her niece would attend her there.
+
+The parlour had no grating to divide it, but was merely a large
+room furnished with tapestry, carved chests, chairs, and cushions,
+much like other reception-rooms. A large, cheerful wood-fire blazed
+upon the hearth, and there was a certain air of preparation, as
+indeed an ecclesiastical dignity from Saumur was expected to sup
+with the ladies that evening.
+
+After some interval, spent by the Chevalier in warming himself, a
+low voice at the door was heard, saying, '_Deus vobiscum_.'  The
+Abbess answered, '_Et cum spiritu tuo_;' and on this monastic
+substitute for a knock and 'come in,' there appeared a figure
+draped and veiled from head to foot in heavy black, so as to look
+almost like a sable moving cone.  She made an obeisance as she
+entered, saying, 'You commanded my presence, Madame?'
+
+'Your uncle would speak to you, daughter, on affairs of moment.'
+
+'At his service.  I, too, would speak to him.'
+
+'First, then, my dear friend,' said the Chevalier, 'let me see you.
+That face must not be muffled any longer from those who love you.'
+
+She made no movement of obedience, until her aunt peremptorily bade
+her turn back her veil.  She did so, and disclosed the little face,
+so well known to her uncle, but less childish in its form, and the
+dark eyes sparkling, though at once softer and more resolute.
+
+'Ah! my fair niece,' said the Chevalier, 'this is no visage to be
+hidden!  I am glad to see it re-embellished, and it will be
+lovelier than ever when you have cast off this disguised.'
+
+'That will never be,' said Eustacie.
+
+'Ah! we know better!  My daughter is sending down a counterpart of
+her own wedding-dress for your bride of the _Mardi-Gras_.'
+
+'And who may that bride be?' said Eustacie, endeavouring to speak
+as though it were nothing to her.
+
+'Nay, _ma petite_! it is too long to play the ignorant when the
+bridegroom is on his way from Paris.'
+
+'Madame,' said Eustacie, turning to her aunt, 'you cannot suffer
+this scandal.  The meanest peasant may weep her first year of
+widowhood in peace.'
+
+'Listen, child.  There are weighty reasons.  The Duke of Anjou is a
+candidate for the throne of Poland, and my son is to accompany him
+thither.  He must go as Marquis de Nid de Merle, in full possession
+of your estates.'
+
+'Let him take them,' began Eustacie, 'who first commits a cowardly
+murder, and then forces himself on the widow he has made?'
+
+'Folly, child, folly,' said the Chevalier, who supposed her
+ignorant of the circumstances of her husband's assassination; and
+the Abbess, who was really ignorant, exclaimed--'Fid donc_ niece;
+you know not what you say.'
+
+'I know, Madame--I know from an eye-witness,' said Eustacie,
+firmly.  'I know the brutal words that embittered my husband's
+death; and were there no other cause, they would render wedlock
+with him who spoke them sacrilege.'  Resolutely and steadily did
+the young wife speak, looking at them with the dry fixed eye to
+which tears had been denied ever since that eventful night.'
+
+'Poor child,' said the Chevalier to his sister.  'She is under the
+delusion still.  Husband!  There is none in the case.'  Then waving
+his hand as Eustacie's face grew crimson, and her eyes flashed
+indignation, while her lips parted, 'It was her own folly that
+rendered it needful to put an end to the boy's presumption.  Had
+she been less willful and more obedient, instead of turning the
+poor lad's head by playing at madame, we could have let him return
+to his island fogs; but when SHE encouraged him in contemplating
+the carrying her away, and alienating her and her lands from the
+true faith, there was but one remedy--to let
+him perish with the rest.  My son is willing to forgive her
+childish pleasure in a boy's passing homage, and has obtained the
+King's sanction to an immediate marriage.'
+
+'Which, to spare you, my dear,' added the aunt, 'shall take place
+in our chapel.'
+
+'It shall never take place anywhere,' said Eustacie, quietly,
+though with a quiver in her voice; 'no priest will wed me when he
+has heard me.'
+
+'The dispensation will overcome all scruples,' said the Abbess.
+'Hear me, niece.  I am sorry for you, but it is best that you
+should know at once that there is nothing in heaven or earth to aid
+you in resisting your duty.'
+
+Eustacie made no answer, but there was a strange half-smile on her
+lip, and a light in her eye which gave her an air not so much of
+entreaty as of defiance.  She glanced from one to the other, as if
+considering, but then slightly shook her head.  'What does she
+mean?' asked the Chevalier and the Abbess one of another, as, with
+a dignified gesture, she moved to leave the room.
+
+'Follow her.  Convince her that she has no hope,' said the uncle;
+and the Abbess, moving faster than her wont, came up with her at
+the archway whence one corridor led to the chapel, another to her
+own apartments.  Her veil was down again, but her aunt roughly
+withdrew it, saying, 'Look at me, Eustacie.  I come to warn you
+that you need not look to tamper with the sisters.  Not one will
+aid you in your headstrong folly.  If you cast not off ere supper-
+time this mockery of mourning, you shall taste of that discipline
+you used to sigh for.  We have borne with your fancy long enough--
+you, who are no more a widow than I--nor wife.'
+
+'Wife and widow am I in the sight of Him who will protect me,' said
+Eustacie, standing her ground.
+
+'Insolent!  Why, did I not excuse this as a childish delusion,
+should I not spurn one who durst love--what say I--not a heretic
+merely, but the foe of her father's house?'
+
+'He!' cried Eustacie; 'what had he ever done?'
+
+'He inherited the blood of the traitor Baron,' returned her aunt.
+'Ever have that recreant line injured us!  My nephew's sword
+avenged the wrongs of many generations.'
+
+'Then,' said Eustacie, looking at her with a steady, fixed look of
+inquire, 'you, Madame l'Abbesse, would have neither mercy nor pity
+for the most innocent offspring of the elder line?'
+
+'Girl, what folly is this to talk to me of innocence.  That is not
+the question.  The question is--obey willingly as my dear daughter,
+or compulsion must be used.'
+
+'My question is answered,' said Eustacie, on her side.  'I see that
+there is neither pity nor hope from you.'
+
+And with another obeisance, she turned to ascend the stairs.
+Madame paced back to her brother.
+
+'What,' he said; 'you have not yet dealt with her?'
+
+'No, brother, I never saw a like mood.  She seems neither to fear
+nor to struggle.  I knew she was too true a Ribaumont for weak
+tears and entreaties; but, fiery little being as once she was, I
+looked to see her force spend itself in passion, and that then the
+victory would have been easy; but no, she ever looks as if she had
+some inward resource--some security--and therefore could be calm.
+I should deem it some Huguenot fanaticism, but she is a very saint
+as to the prayers of the Church, the very torment of our lives.'
+
+'Could she escape?' exclaimed the Chevalier, who had been
+considering while his sister was speaking.
+
+'Impossible!  Besides, where could she go?  But the gates shall be
+closed.  I will warn the portress to let none pass out without my
+permission.'
+
+'The Chevalier took a turn up and down the room; then exclaimed,
+'It was very ill-advised to let her women have access to her!  Let
+us have Veronique summoned instantly.'
+
+At that moment, however, the ponderous carriage of Monseigneur,
+with out-riders, both lay and clerical, came trampling up to the
+archway, and the Abbess hurried off to her own apartment to divest
+herself of her hunting-gear ere she received her guest; and the
+orders to one of the nuns to keep a watch on her niece were oddly
+mixed with those to the cook, confectioner, and butterer.
+
+La Mere Marie Saraphine was not a cruel or an unkind woman.  She
+had been very fond of her pretty little niece in her childhood, but
+had deeply resented the arrangement which had removed her from her
+own superintendence to that of the Englishwoman, besides the
+uniting to the young Baron one whom she deemed the absolute right
+of Narcisse.  She had received Eustacie on her first return with
+great joy, and had always treated her with much indulgence, and
+when the drooping,
+broken-hearted girl came back once more to the shelter of her
+convent, the good-humoured Abbess only wished to make her happy
+again.
+
+But Eustacie's misery was far beyond the ken of her aunt, and the
+jovial turn of these consolations did but deepen her agony.  To be
+congratulated on her release from the heretic, assured of future
+happiness with her cousin, and, above all, to hear Berenger abused
+with all the bitterness of rival family and rival religion, tore up
+the lacerated spirit.  Ill, dejected, and broken down, too subdued
+to fire up in defence, and only longing for the power of indulging
+in silent grief, Eustacie had shrunk from her, and wrapped herself
+up in the ceaseless round of masses and prayers, in which she was
+allowed to perceive a glimmering of hope for her husband's soul.
+The Abbess, ever busy with affairs of her convent or matters of
+pleasure, soon relinquished the vain attempt to console where she
+could not sympathize, trusted that the fever of devotion would wear
+itself out, and left her niece to herself.  Of the seven nuns, two
+were decorously gay, like their Mother Abbess; one was a prodigious
+worker of tapestry, two were unrivalled save by one another as
+confectioners.  Eustacie had been their pet in her younger days;
+now she was out of their reach, they tried in turn to comfort her;
+and when she would not be comforted, they, too, felt aggrieved by
+the presence of one whose austerity reproached their own laxity;
+they resented her disappointment at Soeur Monique's having been
+transferred to Lucon, and they, too, left her to the only persons
+whose presence she had ever seemed to relish,--namely, her maid
+Veronique, and Veronique's mother, her old nurse Perrine, wife of a
+farmer about two miles off.  The woman had been Eustacie's
+foster-mother, and continued to exert over her much of the
+caressing care of a nurse.
+
+After parting with her aunt, Eustacie for a moment looked towards
+the chapel, then, clasping her hands, murmured to herself, 'No! no!
+speed is my best hope;' and at once mounted the stairs, and entered
+a room, where the large stone crucifix, a waxen Madonna, and the
+holy water font gave a cell-like aspect to the room; and a straw
+pallet covered with sackcloth was on the floor, a richly curtained
+couch driven into the rear, as unused.
+
+She knelt for a moment before the Madonna; 'Ave Maria, be with me
+and mine.  Oh! blessed Lady, thou hadst to fly with thy Holy One
+from cruel men.  Have thou pity on the fatherless!'
+
+Then going to the door, she clapped her hands; and, as Veronique
+entered, she bade her shut and bolt the door, and at the same
+moment began in nervous haste to throw off her veil and unfasten
+her dress.
+
+'Make haste, Veronique.  A dress of thine---'
+
+'All is known, then!' cried Veronique, throwing up her arms.
+
+'No, but he is coming--Narcisse--to marry me at once--_Marde-Gras_-
+--'
+
+'_Et quoi_?  Madame has but to speak the word, and it is
+impossible.'
+
+'And after what my aunt has said, I would die a thousand deaths ere
+speaking that word.  I asked her, Veronique!  She would have
+vengeance on the most guiltless--the most guiltless--do you hear?--
+of the Norman house.  Never, never shall she have the chance!
+Come, thy striped petticoat!'
+
+'But, oh! what will Madame do?  Where would she go?  Oh! it is
+impossible.'
+
+'First to thy father's.  Yes, I know.  He has once called it a
+madness to think of rallying my vassals to protect their lady.
+That was when he heard of it from thee--thou faint of heart--and
+thy mother.  I shall speak to him in person now.  Make haste, I
+tell thee, girl.  I must be out of this place before I am watched
+or guarded,' she added breathlessly.  'I feel as if each moment I
+lost might have death upon it;' and she looked about her like a
+startled deer.
+
+'To my father's.  Ah! there it is not so ill!  But the twilights,
+the length of way,' sobbed Veronique, in grievous distress and
+perplexity.  'Oh! Madame, I cannot see you go.  The Mother Abbess
+is good.  She must have pity.  Oh, trust to her!'
+
+'Trust!  Did I not trust to my cousin Diane?  Never!  Nothing will
+kill me but remaining in their hands.'
+
+Veronique argued and implored in vain.  Ever since, in the height
+of those vehement austerities by which the bereaved and shattered
+sufferer strove to appease her wretchedness by the utmost endeavour
+to save her husband's soul, the old foster-mother had made known to
+her that she might thus sacrifice another than herself.  Eustacie's
+elastic heart had begun to revive, with all its dauntless strength
+of will.  What to her women seemed only a fear, was to her only a
+hope.
+
+Frank and confiding as was her nature, however, the cruel
+deceptions already practiced on her by her own kindred, together
+with the harsh words with which the Abbess spoke of Berenger, had
+made her aware that no comfort must be looked for in that quarter.
+It was, after all, perhaps her won instinct, and the aunt's want of
+sympathy, that withheld her from seeking counsel of any save
+Perrine and her daughter, at any rate till she could communicate
+with the kind young Queen.  To her, then, Eustacie had written,
+entreating that a royal mandate would recall her in time to bestow
+herself in some trustworthy hands, or even in her husband's won
+Norman castle, where his heir would be both safe and welcome.  But
+time has passed--the whole space that she had reckoned as needful
+for the going and coming of her messenger--allowing for all the
+obstructions of winter roads--nay, he had come back; she knew
+letter was delivered, but answer there was none.  It might yet
+come--perhaps a royal carriage and escort--and day after day had
+she waited and hoped, only tardily admitting the conviction that
+Elisabeth of Austria was as powerless as Eustacie de Ribaumont, and
+meantime revolving and proposing many a scheme that could only have
+entered the brain of a brave-spirited child as she was.  To appeal
+to her vassals, garrison with them a ruinous old tower in the
+woods, and thence send for aid to the Montmorencys; to ride to
+Saumur, and claim the protection of the governor of the province;
+to make her way to the coast and sail for England; to start for
+Paris, and throw herself in person on the Queen's protection,--all
+had occurred to her, and been discussed with her two _confidantes_;
+but the hope of the Queen's interference, together with the
+exceeding difficulty of acting, had hitherto prevented her from
+taking any steps, since no suspicion had arisen in the minds of
+those about her.  Veronique, caring infinitely more for her
+mistress's health and well-being than for the object of Eustacie's
+anxieties, had always secretly trusted that delay would last till
+action was impossible, and that the discovery would be made, only
+without her being accused of treason.  In the present stress of
+danger, she could but lament and entreat, for Eustacie's resolution
+bore her down; and besides, as she said to herself, her Lady was
+after all going to her foster-father and mother, who would make her
+hear reason, and bring her back at once, and then there would be no
+anger nor disgrace incurred.  The dark muddy length of walk would
+be the worst of it--and, bah! most likely Madame would be convinced
+by it, and return of her own accord.
+
+So Veronique, though not intermitting her protests, adjusted her
+own dress upon her mistress,--short striped petticoat, black
+bodice, winged turban-like white cap, and a great muffling gray
+cloth cloak and hook over the head and shoulders--the costume in
+which Veronique was wont to run to her home in the twilight on
+various errands, chiefly to carry her mistress's linen; for
+starching Eustacie's plain bands and cuffs was Mere Perrine's
+special pride.  The wonted bundle, therefore, now contained a few
+garments, and the money and jewels, especially the chaplet of
+pearls, which Eustacie regarded as a trust.
+
+Sobbing, and still protesting, Veronique, however, engaged that if
+her Lady succeeded in safely crossing the kitchen in the twilight,
+and in leaving the convent, she would keep the secret of her escape
+as long as possible, reporting her refusal to appear at supper, and
+making such excuses as might very probably prevent the discovery of
+her flight till next day.
+
+'And then,' said Eustacie, 'I will send for thee, either to Saumur
+or to the old tower!  Adieu, dear Veronique, do not be frightened.
+Thou dost not know how glad I am that the time for doing something
+is come!  To-morrow!'
+
+'To-morrow!' thought Veronique, as she shut the door; 'before that
+you will be back here again, my poor little Lady, trembling,
+weeping, in dire need of being comforted.  But I will make up a
+good fire, and shake out the bed.  I'll let her have no more of
+that villainous palliasse.  No, no, let her try her own way, and
+repent of it; then, when this matter is over, she will turn her
+mind to Chevalier Narcisse, and there will be no more languishing
+in this miserable hole.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.  THE HEARTHS AND THICKETS OF THE BOCAGE.
+
+
+
+I winna spare for his tender age,
+    Nor yet for his hie kin;
+  But soon as ever he born is,
+He shall mount the gallow's pin. --Fause Foodrage.
+
+
+Dusk was closing in, but lamps had not yet been lighted, when with
+a trembling, yet almost a bounding heart, Eustacie stole down the
+stone staircase, leading to a back-door--an utterly uncanonical
+appendage to a nunnery, but one much used among the domestic
+establishment of Bellaise.
+
+A gleam of red light spread across the passage from the half-open
+kitchen door, whence issued the savoury steam of the supper
+preparing for Monseigneur.  Eustacie had just cautiously traversed
+it, when the voice of the presiding lay-sister called out,
+'Veronique, is that you?'
+
+'Sister!' returned Eustacie, with as much of the Angevin twang as
+she could assume.
+
+'Where are you going?'
+
+'To the Orchard Farm with this linen.'
+
+'Ah! it must be.  But there are strict orders come from Madame
+about nobody going out unreported, and you may chance to find the
+door locked if you do not come back in good time.  Oh! and I had
+well-night forgot;  tell your mother to be here early to-morrow,
+Madame would speak with her.'
+
+Eustacie assented, half stifled by the great throb of her
+fluttering heart at the sense that she had indeed seized the last
+moment.  Forth then she stepped.  How dark, waste, and lonely the
+open field looked!  But her heart did not fail her; she could only
+feel that a captivity was over, and the most vague and terrible of
+her anxieties soothed, as she made her way into one of the long
+shady lanes of the Bocage.  It was nearly dark, and very muddy, but
+she had all the familiarity of a native with the way, and the farm,
+where she had trotted about in her infancy like a peasant's child,
+always seemed like home to her.  It had been a prime treat to visit
+it during her time of education at the convent, and there was an
+association of pleasure in treading the path that seemed to bear
+her up, and give her enjoyment in the mere adventure and feeling of
+escape and liberty.  She had no fear of the dark, nor of the
+distant barking of dogs, but the mire was deep, and it was plodding
+work in those heavy _sabots_, up the lane that led from the
+convent; and the poor child was sorely weary long before she came
+to the top of the low hill that she used scarcely to know to be
+rising round at all.  The stars had come out; and as she sat for a
+few moments to rest on a large stone, she saw the lights of the
+cottage fires in the village below, and looking round could also
+see the many gleams in the convent windows, the read fire-light in
+her own room among them.  She shivered a little as she thought of
+its glowing comfort, but turned her back resolutely, tightened her
+cloak over her head, looked up to a glimmer in the watch-tower of
+her own castle far above her on the hill and closed against her;
+and then smiled to herself with hope at the sparkle of a window in
+a lonely farmhouse among the fields.
+
+With fresh vigour she rose, and found her way through lane and
+field-path to the paddock where she had so often played.  Here a
+couple of huge dogs dashed forward with an explosion of barks,
+dying away into low growls as she spoke to them by their names, and
+called aloud on 'Blaise!' and 'Mere Perrine!'  The cottage door was
+opened, the light streamed forth, and a man's head in a broad had
+appeared.  'Veronique, girl, is this an hour to be gadding abroad?'
+
+'Blaise, do you not know me?'
+
+'It is our Lady.  Ah!'
+
+The next moment the wanderer was seated in the ample wooden chair
+of the head of the family, the farmer and his two stout sons
+standing before her as their liege Lady, and Mere Perrine hanging
+over her, in great anxiety, not wholly dispelled by her low girlish
+laugh, partly of exultation at her successful evasion, partly of
+amusement at their wonder, and partly, too, because it was so
+natural to her to enjoy herself at that hearth that she could not
+help it.  A savoury mess from the great caldron that was for ever
+stewing over the fire was at once fished out for her, before she
+was allowed to explain herself; and as she ate with the carved
+spoon and from the earthenware crock that had been called
+Mademoiselle's ever since her baby-days, Perrine chafed and warmed
+her feet, fondled her, and assured her, as if she were still their
+spoiled child, that they would do all she wished.
+
+Pierre and Tiennot, the two sons, were sent out to fodder the
+cattle, and keep careful watch for any sounds of pursuers from the
+convent; and Blaise, in the plenitude of his respects and
+deference, would have followed them, but Eustacie desired him to
+remain to give her counsel.
+
+Her first inquire was after the watch-tower.  She did not care for
+any discomfort if her vassals would be faithful, and hold it out
+for her, till she could send for help to the allies of her
+husband's house, and her eyes glanced as she spoke.
+
+But Blaise shook his head.  He had looked at the tower as Madame
+bade, but it was all in ruins, crumbling away, and, moreover, M. le
+Chevalier had put a forester there--a grim, bad subject, who had
+been in the Italian wars, and cared neither for saint nor devil,
+except Chevalier Narcisse.  Indeed, even if he had not been there,
+the place was untenable, it would only be getting into a trap.
+
+'Count Hebert held it out for twelve days against the English!'
+said Eustacie, proudly.
+
+'Ah! ah! but there were none of your falconets, or what call you
+those cannons then.  No; if Madame would present herself as a
+choice morsel for Monsieur le Chevalier to snap up, that is the
+place.'
+
+Then came the other plan of getting an escort of the peasants
+together, and riding with them towards the Huguenot territories
+around La Rochelle, where, for her husband's sake, Eustacie could
+hardly fail to obtain friends.  It was the more practicable
+expedient, but Blaise groaned over it, wondered how many of the
+farmers could be trusted, or brought together, and finally
+expressed his intention of going to consult Martin, his staunch
+friend, at the next farm.  Meantime, Madame had better lie down and
+sleep.  And Madame did sleep, in Perrine's huge box-bedstead, with
+a sweet, calm, childlike slumber, whilst her nurse sat watching her
+with eyes full of tears of pity and distress; the poor young
+thing's buoyant hopefulness and absence of all fear seemed to the
+old woman especially sad, and like a sort of want of comprehension
+of the full peril in which she stood.
+
+Not till near dawn was Eustacie startled from her rest by
+approaching steps.  'Nurse, is all ready?' she cried.  'Can we set
+off?  Are the horses there?'
+
+'No, my child; it is but my good man and Martin who would speak
+with you.  Do not hasten.  There is nothing amiss as yet.'
+
+'Oh, nurse,' cried Eustacie, as she quickly arranged the dress in
+which she had lain down, 'the dear old farm always makes me sleep
+well.  This is the first time I have had no dream of the whirling
+wheel and fiery gates!  Oh, is it a token that HE is indeed at
+rest?  I am so well, so strong.  I can ride anywhere now.  Let them
+come in and tell me.'
+
+Martin was a younger, brisker, cleverer man than Blaise, and
+besides being a vassal of the young Lady, was a sort of agent to
+whom the Abbess instructed many of the matters of husbandry
+regarding the convent lands.  He stood, like Blaise, bareheaded as
+he talked to little Lady, and heard her somewhat peremptorily
+demand why they had not brought the horses and men for her escort.
+
+It was impossible that night, explained Martin.  Time was needed to
+bring in the farm-horses, and summon the other peasants, without
+whom the roads were unsafe in these times of disorder.  He and
+Blaise must go round and warn them to be ready.  A man could not be
+ready in a wink of the eye, as Madame seemed to think, and the two
+peasants looked impenetrable in stolidity.
+
+'Laggards that you are!' cried Eustacie, petulantly, clasping her
+hands; 'and meantime all will be lost.  They will be upon me!'
+
+'Not so, Madame.  It is therefore that I came here,' said Martin,
+deferentially, to the little fuming impatient creature; 'Madame
+will be far safer close at hand while the pursuit and search are
+going on.  But she must not stay here.  This farm is the first
+place they will come to, while they will never suspect mine, and my
+good woman Lucette will be proud to keep watch for her.  Madame
+knows that the place is full of shrubs and thickets, where one half
+of an army might spend a fine day in looking for the other.'
+
+'And at night you will get together the men and convoy me?' asked
+Eustacie, eagerly.
+
+'All in good time, Madame.  Now she must be off, ere the holy
+mothers be astir.  I have brought an ass for her to ride.'
+
+Eustacie had no choice but compliance.  None of the Orchard family
+could go with her, as it was needful that they should stay at home
+and appear as unconcerned as possible; but they promised to meet
+her at the hour and place to be appointed, ad if possible to bring
+Veronique.
+
+Eating a piece of rye-bread as she went, Eustacie, in her gray
+cloak, rode under Martin's guardianship along the deep lanes, just
+budding with spring, in the chill dewiness before sunrise.  She was
+silent, and just a little sullen, for she had found stout shrewd
+Martin less easy to talk over than the admiring Blaise, and her
+spirit was excessively chafed by the tardiness of her retainers.
+But the sun rose and cleared away all clouds of temper, the cocks
+crew, the sheep bleated, and fresh morning sounds met her ear, and
+seemed to cheer and fill her with hope; and in some compunction for
+her want of graciousness, she thanked Martin, and praised his ass
+with a pretty cordiality that would have fully compensated for her
+displeasure, even if the honest man had been sensible of it.
+
+He halted under the lee of a barn, and gave a low whistle.  At the
+sound, Lucette, a brown, sturdy young woman with a red handkerchief
+over her head, and another over her shoulders, came running round
+the corner of the barn, and whispered eagerly under her breath,
+'Ah! Madame, Madame, what an honour!' kissing Eustacie's hand with
+all her might as she spoke; 'but, alas! I fear Madame cannot come
+into the house.  The questing Brother Francois--plague upon him!--
+has taken it into his head to drop in to breakfast.  I longed to
+give him the cold shoulder, but it might have brought suspicion
+down.'
+
+'Right, good woman,' said Martin; 'but what shall Madame do?  It is
+broad way, and no longer safe to run the lanes!'
+
+'Give me a distaff,' said Eustacie, rising to the occasion; 'I will
+go to that bushy field, and herd the cows.'
+
+Madame was right, the husband and wife unwillingly agreed.  There,
+in her peasant dress, in the remote field, sloping up into a thick
+wood, she was unlikely to attract attention; and though the field
+was bordered on one side by the lane leading to the road to Paris,
+it was separated from it by a steep bank, crowned by one of the
+thick hedgerows characteristic of the Bocage.
+
+Here, then, they were forced to leave her, seated on a stone
+beneath a thorn-bush, distaff in hand, with bread, cheese, and a
+pitcher of milk for her provisions, and three or four cows grazing
+before her.  From the higher ground below the wood of ash and
+hazel, she could see the undulating fields and orchards, a few
+houses, and that inhospitable castle of her own.
+
+She had spent many a drearier day in the convent than this, in the
+free sun and air, with the feeling of liberty, and unbounded hopes
+founded on this first success.  She told her beads diligently,
+trusting that the tale of devotions for her husband's spirit would
+be equally made up in the field as in the church, and intently all
+day were her ears and eyes on the alert.  Once Lucette visited her,
+to bring her a basin of porridge, and to tell her that all the
+world at the convent was in confusion, that messengers had been
+sent out in all directions, and that M. le Chevalier had ridden out
+himself in pursuit; but they should soon hear all about it, for
+Martin was pretending to be amongst the busiest, and he would know
+how to turn them away.  Again, much later in the day, Martin came
+striding across the field, and had just reached her, as she sat in
+the hedgerow, when the great dog who followed him pricked his ears,
+and a tramping and jingling was audible in the distance in the
+lane.  Eustacie held up her finger, her eyes dilating.
+
+'It must be M. le Chevalier returning.  Madame must wait a little
+longer.  I must be at home, or they may send out to seek me here,
+and that would be ruin.  I will return as soon as it is safe, if
+Madame will hide herself in the hedgerow.'
+
+Into the hedgerow accordingly crept Eustacie, cowering close to a
+holly-tree at the very summit of the bank, and led by a strange
+fascination to choose a spot where, unseen herself, she could gaze
+down on the party who came clanking along the hollow road beneath.
+Nearer, nearer, they came; and she shuddered with more of passion
+than of fear, as she beheld, not only her uncle in his best well-
+preserved green suit, but Narcisse, muddy with riding, though in
+his court braveries.  Suddenly they came to a halt close beneath
+her!  Was she detected?  Ah! just below was the spot where the road
+to the convent parted from the road to the farm; and, as Martin had
+apprehended, they were stopping for him.  The Chevalier ordered one
+of the armed men behind him to ride up to the farm and summon
+Martin to speak with him; and then he and his son, while waiting
+under the holly-bush, continued their conversation.
+
+'So that is the state of things!  A fine overthrow!' quoth
+Narcisse.
+
+'Bah! not at all.  She will soon be in our hands again.  I have
+spoken with, or written to, every governor of the cities she must
+pass through, and not one will abet the little runaway.  At the
+first barrier she is ours.'
+
+'_Et puis_?'
+
+'Oh, we shall have her mild as a sheep.'  (Eustacie set her teeth.)
+'Every one will be in the same story, that her marriage was a
+nullity; she cannot choose but believe, and can only be thankful
+that we overlook the escapade and rehabilitate her.'
+
+'Thank you, my good uncle,' almost uttered his unseen auditor.
+
+'Well!  There is too much land down here to throw away; but the
+affair has become horribly complicated and distasteful.'
+
+'No such thing.  All the easier.  She can no longer play the
+spotless saint--get weak-minded priests on her side--be all for
+strict convents.  No, no; her time for that is past!  Shut her up
+with trustworthy persons from whom she will hear nothing from
+without, and she will understand her case.  The child?  It will
+scarce be born alive, or at any rate she need not know whether it
+is.  Then, with no resource, no hope, what can she do but be too
+thankful for pardon, and as glad to conceal the past as we could
+wish?'
+
+Eustacie clenched her fist.  Had a pistol been within her reach,
+the speaker's tenure of life had been short!  She was no chastened,
+self-restrained, forgiving saint, the poor little thing, only a
+hot-tempered, generous, keenly-sensitive being, well-nigh a child
+in years and in impulses, though with the instincts of a mother
+awakening within her, and of a mother who heard the life of her
+unborn babe plotted against.  She was absolutely forced to hold her
+lips together, to repress the sobbing scream of fury that came to
+her throat; and the struggles with her gasping breath, the surging
+of the blood in her ears, hindered her from hearing or seeing
+anything for some seconds, though she kept her station.  By the
+time her perceptions had cleared themselves, Martin, cap in hand,
+was in the lane below, listening deferentially to the two
+gentlemen, who were assuring him that inquiry had been made, and a
+guard carefully set at the fugitive could have passed those, or be
+able to do so.  She must certainly be hidden somewhere near home,
+and Martin had better warn all his friends against hiding her,
+unless they wished to be hung up on the thresholds of their burning
+farm-steads.  Martin bowed, and thought the fellows would know
+their own interest and Mademoiselle's better.
+
+'Well,' said the Chevalier, 'we must begin without loss of time.
+My son has brought down a set of fellows here, who are trained to
+ferret out heretics.  Not a runaway weasel cold escape them!  We
+will set them on as soon as ever they have taken a bit of supper up
+there at the Chateau; and do you come up with us just to show them
+the way across to Leonard's.  That's no unlikely place for her to
+lurk in, as you said this morning, good fellow.'
+
+It was the most remote farm from that of Martin, and Eustacie felt
+how great were his services, even while she flushed with anger to
+hear him speaking of her as Mademoiselle.  He was promising to
+follow immediately to the castle, to meet _ces Messieurs_ there
+almost as soon as they could arrive, but excusing himself from
+accompanying them, by the need of driving home the big bull, whom
+no one else could manage.
+
+They consented, and rode on.  Martin watched them out of sight,
+then sprang up by some stepping-stones in the bank, a little below
+where Eustacie sat, and came crackling through the boughs to where
+she was crouching down, with fierce glittering eyes and panting
+breath, like a wild animal ready to spring.
+
+'Madame has heard,' said Martin, under his breath.
+
+'If I have heard!  Oh that I were a man, to slay them where they
+stood!  Martin, Martin! you will not betray me.  Some day WE will
+reward you.'
+
+'Madame need not have said THAT to me,' said Martin, rather hurt.
+'I am only thinking what she can do.  Alas!  I fear that she must
+remain in this covert till it is dark, for these men's eyes are all
+on the alert.  At dark, I or Lucette will come and find a shelter
+for her for the night.'
+
+Long, long, then, did Eustacie sit, muffled in her gray cloak,
+shrinking together to shelter herself from the sunset chill of
+early spring, but shuddering more with horror than with cold as the
+cruel cold-blooded words she had heard recurred to her, and feeling
+as if she were fast within a net, every outlet guarded against her,
+and search everywhere; yet still with the indomitable determination
+to dare and suffer to the utmost ere that which was dearer than her
+own life should come into peril from her enemies.
+
+The twilight closed in, the stars came out, sounds of life died
+away, and still she sat on, becoming almost torpid in the cold
+darkness, until at length she heard the low call of Lucette,
+'MADAME!  AH!_la pauvre Madame_.'  She started up, so stiff that
+she could hardly more, and only guided by the voice to feel her way
+through the hedgerow in the right direction.  Another moment, and
+Lucette's warn arms had received her; and she was guided, scarce
+knowing how or where, in cautious silence to the farmyard, and into
+the house, where a most welcome sight, a huge fire, blazed
+cheerfully on the hearth, and Martin himself held open the door for
+her.  The other occupants of the kitchen were the sleeping child in
+its wooden cradle, some cocks and hens upon the rafters, and a big
+sheep-dog before the fire.
+
+The warmth, and the chicken that Lucette had killed and dressed,
+brought the colour back to the exhausted wanderer's cheek, and
+enabled her again to hold council for her safety.  It was plain, as
+Martin had found in conversation with the men-at-arms, that
+precautions had been taken against her escaping in any of the
+directions where she might hope to have reached friends.  Alone she
+could not go, and any escort sufficient to protect her would
+assuredly be stopped at the first town; besides which, collecting
+it in secret was impossible under present circumstances, and it
+would be sure to be at once overtaken and demolished by the
+Chevalier Narcisse's well-armed followers.  Martin, therefore, saw
+no alternative but for her to lurk about in such hiding-places as
+her faithful vassals could afford her, until the search should blow
+over, and the vigilance of her uncle and cousin relax.  Hope, the
+high-spirited hope of early youth, looked beyond to indefinite but
+infinite possibility.  Anything was better than the shame and
+horror of yielding, and Eustacie trusted herself with all her heart
+for the present, fancying, she knew not what, the future.
+
+Indeed, the Vendean fidelity has often been tested, and she made
+full proof of it among the lanes, copses, and homesteads of her own
+broad lands.  The whole country was a network of deep lanes, sunk
+between impenetrable hedgerows, inclosing small fields, orchards,
+and thickets, and gently undulating in low hills and shallow
+valleys, interspersed with tall wasp-waisted windmills airily
+waving their arms on the top of lofty masts.  It was partitioned
+into small farms, inhabited by a simple-hearted peasantry,
+religious and diligent, with a fair amount of rural wealth and
+comfort.  Their love for their lords was loyally warm, and Eustacie
+monopolized it, from their detestation of her uncle's exactions;
+they would risk any of the savage punishments with which they were
+threatened for concealing her; and as one by one it was needful to
+take them into the secret, so as to disarm suspicion, and she was
+passed from one farm to another, each proved his faithful
+attachment, and though himself repaid by her thankful smile and
+confiding manner.
+
+The Chevalier and his son searched vigorously.  On the slightest
+suspicion, they came down to the farm, closed up the outlets,
+threatened the owners, turned out the house, and the very place
+they had last searched would become her quarters on the next night!
+Messages always had warned her in time.  Intelligence was obtained
+by Martin, who contrived to remain a confidential agent, and
+warnings were dispatched to her by many a strange messenger--by
+little children, by old women, or even by the village innocent.
+
+The most alarming days were those when she was not the avowed
+object of the chase, but when the pursuit of game rendered the
+coverts in the woods and fields unsafe, and the hounds might lead
+to her discovery.  On one of these occasions Martin locked her up
+in the great hayloft of the convent, where she could actually hear
+the chants in the chapel, and distinguish the chatter of the lay-
+sisters in the yard.  Another time, in conjunction with the
+sacristan, he bestowed her in the great seigneurial tribune (or
+squire's pew) in the village church, a tall carved box, where she
+was completely hidden; and the only time when she had failed to
+obtain warning beforehand, she stood kneading bread at a tub in
+Martin's cottage, while the hunt passed by, and a man-at-arms
+looked in and questioned the master on the last traces of the
+runaway.
+
+It was seldom possible to see Mere Perrine, who was carefully
+watched, under the conviction that she must know where her nursling
+was; but one evening Veronique ventured up to Martin's farm,
+trusting to tidings that the gentlemen had been Eustacie's only
+secure harbour; and when, in a bright evening gleam of the setting
+sun from beneath the clouds, Veronique came in sight of her Lady,
+the Queen's favourite, it was to see her leading by a string a
+little shaggy cow, with a bell round its neck, her gray cloak
+huddled round her, though dank with wet, a long lock of black hair
+streaming over her brow, her garments clinging with damp, her bare
+ankles scratched with thorns, her heavy SABOTS covered with mire,
+her cheeks pale with cold and wet.
+
+The contrast overwhelmed poor Veronique.  She dropped on her knees,
+sobbing as if her heart would break, and declaring that this was
+what the Abbess had feared; her Lady was fast killing herself.
+
+'Hush!  Veronique,' said Eustacie; 'that is all folly.  I am wet
+and weary now, but oh! if you knew how much sweeter to me life is
+now than it was, shut up down there, with my fears.  See,' and she
+held up a bunch of purple pasque-flowers and wood-sorrel, 'this is
+what I found in the wood, growing out of a rugged old dead root;
+and just by, sheltered by the threefold leaves of the alleluia-
+flower, was a bird's nest, the mother-bird on her eggs, watching me
+with the wise black eye that saw I would not hurt her.  And it
+brought back the words I had heard long ago, of the good God caring
+for the sparrows; and I knew He would care the more for me and
+mine, because I have not where to lay my head.'
+
+'Alas!' sobbed Veronique, 'now she is getting to be a saint
+outright.  She will be sure to die!  Ah, Madame--dear Madame! do
+but listen to me.  If you did but know how Madame de Bellaise is
+afflicting herself on your account!  She sent for me--ah! do not be
+angry, dear Lady?'
+
+'I wish to hear nothing about her,' said Eustacie.
+
+'Nay, listen, _de grace_--one moment, Madame!  She has wept, she
+has feared for you, all the lay-sisters say so.  She takes no
+pleasure in hawking, nor in visiting; and she did not eat more than
+six of Soeur Bernardine's best conserves.  She does nothing but
+watch for tidings of Madame.  And she sent for me, as I told you,
+and conjured me, if I knew where you were, or had any means of
+finding out, to implore you to trust to her.  She will swear on all
+the relics in the chapel never to give a hint to Messieurs les
+Chevaliers if only you would trust her, and not slay yourself with
+all this dreadful wandering.'
+
+'Never!' said Eustacie; 'she said too much!'
+
+'Ah! but she declares that, had she known the truth, she never
+would have said that.  Ah, yes, Madame, the Abbess is good!'  And
+Veronique, holding her mistress's cloak to secure a hearing,
+detailed the Abbess' plan for lodging her niece in secret
+apartments within the thickness of the convent walls, where Mere
+Perrine could be with her, and every sacred pledge should be given
+that could remove her fears.
+
+'And could they make me believe them, so that the doubt and dread
+would not kill me in themselves?' said Eustacie.
+
+'But it is death--certain death, as it is.  Oh, if Madame would
+hear reason!--but she is headstrong!  She will grieve when it is
+too late!'
+
+'Listen, Veronique.  I have a far better plan.  The sacristan has a
+sister who weaves red handkerchiefs at Chollet.  She will receive
+me, and keep me as long as there is need.  Martin is to take me in
+his cart when he carries the hay to the garrison.  I shall be well
+hidden, and within reach of your mother.  And then, when my son is
+once come--then all will be well!  The peasants will rise in behalf
+of their young Lord, though not for a poor helpless woman.  No one
+will dare to dispute his claim, when I have appealed to the King;
+and then, Veronique, you shall come back to me, and all will be
+well!'
+
+Veronique only began to wail aloud at her mistress' obstinacy.
+Martin came up, and rudely silenced her, and said afterwards to his
+wife, 'Have a care!  That girl has--I verily believe--betrayed her
+Lady once; and if she do not do so again, from pure pity and
+faintness of heart, I shall be much surprised.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.  THE GHOSTS OF THE TEMPLARS
+
+
+
+'Tis said, as through the aisles they passed,
+ They heard strange voices on the blast,
+ And through the cloister galleries small,
+ Which at mid-height thread the chancel wall,
+ Loud sobs and laughter louder ran,
+ And voices unlike the voice of man,
+ As if the fiends kept holiday.
+                    Scott, LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL
+
+
+'Ill news, Martin, I see by your look!' cried Eustacie, starting to
+her feet from the heap of straw on which she was sitting in his
+cowhouse, one early April day, about seven weeks since her evasion
+from the convent.
+
+'Not so, I hope, Madame, but I do not feel at ease.  Monsieur has
+not sent for me, nor told me his plans for the morrow, and I much
+doubt me whether that bode not a search here.  Now I see a plan,
+provided Madame would trust herself to a Huguenot.'
+
+'They would guard me for my husband's sake.'
+
+'And could Madame walk half a league, as far as the Grange du
+Temple?  There live Matthieu Rotrou and his wife, who have, they
+say, baffled a hundred times the gendarmes who sought their
+ministers.  No one ever found a pastor, they say, when Rotrou had
+been of the congregation; and if they can do so much for an old
+preacher with a long tongue, surely they can for a sweet young
+lady; and if they could shelter her just for tomorrow, till the
+suspicion is over, then would I come for Madame with my cart, and
+carry her into Chollet among the trusses of hay, as we had fixed.'
+
+Eustacie was already tying her cloak, and asking for Lucette; but
+she was grieved to hear that Martin had sent her to vespers to
+disarm suspicion, and moreover that he meant not to tell her of his
+new device.  'The creature is honest enough,' he said, 'but the way
+to be safe with women is not to let them know.'
+
+He cut short all messages and expressions of gratitude, and leading
+Eustacie to a small stream, he made her creep along its course,
+with her feet in the water so as to be sheltered by the boughs that
+hung over the banks, while he used his ling strides to enable him
+to double back and enter into conversation with passers-by, quite
+of the track of the Grange du Temple, but always telling her where
+he should join her again, and leaving with her the great dog, whom
+she had come to regard as a friend and protector.  Leaving the
+brook, he conducted her beneath hedges and by lonely woodland paths
+beyond the confines of her own property, to a secluded valley, so
+shut in by wooded hills that she had not been aware of its
+existence.  Through an extensive orchard, she at length, when
+nearly spent with the walk, beheld the cluster of stone buildings,
+substantial as the erections of religious orders were wont to be.
+
+Martin found a seat for her, where she might wait while he went on
+alone to the house, and presently returned with both the good
+people of the farm.  They were more offhand and less deferential
+than were her own people, but were full of kindliness.  They were
+middle-aged folk, most neatly clad, and with a grave, thoughtful
+look about them, as if life were a much heavier charge to them than
+to their light-hearted neighbours.
+
+'A fair day to you, Madame,' said the farmer, doffing his wide-
+flapped hat.  'I am glad to serve a sufferer for the truth's sake.'
+
+'My husband was,' faltered Eustacie.
+
+'AH! _la pauvre_,' cried the good woman, pressing forward as she
+saw how faint, heated, and exhausted was the wanderer.  'Come in,
+_ma pauvrette_.  Only a bride at the Bartholomew!  Alas!  There,
+lean on me, my dear.'
+
+To be _tutoyee_ by the Fermiere Rotrou was a shock; yet the kind
+manner was comfortable, and Eustacie suffered herself to be led
+into the farm-house, where, as the dame observed, she need not fear
+chance-comers, for they lived much to themselves, and no one would
+be about till their boy Robinet came in with the cows.  She might
+rest and eat there in security, and after that they would find a
+hiding-place for her--safe as the horns of the altar--for a night
+or two; only for two nights at most.
+
+'Nor do I ask more,' said Eustacie.  'Then Martin will come for
+me.'
+
+'Ah, I or Blaise, or whichever of us can do it with least
+suspicion.'
+
+'She shall meet you here,' added Rotrou.
+
+'All right, good man; I understand; it is best I should not know
+where you hide her.  Those rogues have tricks that make it as well
+to know nothing.  Farewell, Madame, I commend you to all the saints
+till I come for you on Monday morning.'
+
+Eustacie gave him her hand to kiss, and tried to thank him, but
+somehow her heart sank, and she felt more lonely than ever, when
+entirely cast loose among these absolute strangers, than amongst
+her own vassals.  Even the farm-kitchen, large, stone-built, and
+scrupulously clean, seemed strange and dreary after the little,
+smoky, earth-built living-rooms in which her peasantry were content
+to live, and she never had seemed to herself so completely
+desolate; but all the time she was so wearied out with her long and
+painful walk, that she had no sooner taken some food than she began
+to doze in her chair.
+
+'Father,' said the good wife, 'we had better take _la pauvrette_ to
+her rest at once.'
+
+'Ah! must I go any farther?' sighed Eustacie.
+
+'It is but a few fields beyond the yard, _ma petite_,' said the
+good woman consolingly; 'and it will be safer to take you there ere
+we need a light.'
+
+The sun had just set on a beautiful evening of a spring that
+happily for Eustacie had been unusually warm and mild, when they
+set forth, the dame having loaded her husband with a roll of
+bedding, and herself taking a pitcher of mild and a loaf of bread,
+whilst Eustacie, as usual, carried her own small parcel of clothes
+and jewels.  The way was certainly not long to any one less
+exhausted than she; it was along a couple of fields, and then
+through a piece of thicket, where Rotrou held back the boughs and
+his wife almost dragged her on with kind encouraging words, till
+they came up to a stone ivy-covered wall, and coasting along it to
+a tower, evidently a staircase turret.  Here Rotrou, holding aside
+an enormous bush of ivy, showed the foot of a winding staircase,
+and his wife assured her that she would not have far to climb.
+
+She knew where she was now.  She had heard of the old Refectory of
+the Knights Templars.  Partly demolished by the hatred of the
+people upon the abolition of the Order, it had ever since lain
+waste, and had become the centre of all the ghostly traditions of
+the country; the locality of all the most horrid tales of REVENANTS
+told under the breath at Dame Perrine's hearth or at recreation
+hour at Bellaise.  Her courage was not proof against spiritual
+terrors.  She panted and leant against the wall, as she faintly
+exclaimed, 'The Temple--there--and alone!'
+
+'Nay, Lady, methought as _Monsieur votre mari_ knew the true light,
+you would fear no vain terror nor power of darkness.'
+
+Should these peasants--these villeins--be bold, and see the
+descendant of the 'bravest of knights,' the daughter of the house
+of Ribaumont, afraid?  She rallied herself, and replied manfully,
+'I FEAR not, no!' but then, womanfully, 'But it is the Temple!  It
+is haunted!  Tell me what I must expect.'
+
+'I tell you truly, Madame,' said Rotrou; 'none whom I have
+sheltered here have seen aught.  On the faith of a Christian, no
+evil spirit--no ghost--has ever alarmed them; but they were
+fortified by prayer and psalm.'
+
+'I do pray!  I have a psalm-book,' said Eustacie, and she added to
+herself, 'No, they shall never see that I fear.  After all,
+REVENANTS can do nothing worse than scare one; they cannot touch
+one; the saints and angels will not let them--and my uncle would do
+much worse.'
+
+But to climb those winding stairs, and resign herself to be left
+alone with the Templars for the night, was by far the severest
+trial that had yet befallen the poor young fugitive.  As her tire
+feet dragged up the crumbling steps, her memory reverted to the
+many tales of the sounds heard by night within those walls--church
+chants turning into diabolical songs, and bewildered travelers into
+thickets and morasses, where they had been found in the morning,
+shuddering as they told of a huge white monk, with clanking
+weapons, and a burning cross of fire printed on his shoulder and
+breast, who stood on the walls and hurled a shrieking babe into the
+abyss.  Were such spectacles awaiting her?  Must she bear them? And
+could her endurance hold out?  Our Lady be her aid, and spare her
+in her need!
+
+At the top of the stairs she found Rotrou's hand, ready to help her
+out on a stone floor, quite dark, but thickly covered, as she felt
+and smelt, with trusses of hay, between which a glimmering light
+showed a narrow passage.  A few steps, guided by Rotrou's hand,
+brought her out into light again, and she found herself in a large
+chamber, with the stone floor broken away in some places, and with
+a circular window, thickly veiled with ivy, but still admitting a
+good deal of evening light.
+
+It was in fact a chamber over the vaulted refectory of the knights.
+The walls and vaults still standing in their massive solidity, must
+have tempted some peasant, or mayhap some adventurer, rudely to
+cover in the roof (which had of course been stripped of its
+leading), and thus in the unsuspected space to secure a hiding-
+place, often for less innocent commodities than the salt, which the
+iniquitous and oppressive _gabelle_ had always led the French
+peasant to smuggle, ever since the days of the first Valois.  The
+room had a certain appearance of comfort; there was a partition
+across it, a hearth with some remains of wood-ashes, a shelf,
+holding a plate, cup, lamp, and a few other necessaries; and
+altogether the aspect of the place was so unlike what Eustacie had
+expected, that she almost forgot the Templar as she saw the dame
+begin to arrange a comfortable-looking couch for her wearied limbs.
+Yet she felt very unwilling to let them depart, and even ventured
+on faltering out the inquiry whether the good woman could not stay
+with her,--she would reward her largely.
+
+'It is for the love of Heaven, Madame, not for gain,' said Nanon
+Rotrou, rather stiffly.  'If you were ill, or needed me, all must
+then give way; but for me to be absent this evening would soon be
+reported around the village down there, for there are many who
+would find occasion against us.'  But, by way of consolation, they
+gave her a whistle, and showed her that the window of their cottage
+was much nearer to a loophole-slit looking towards the east than
+she had fancied.  The whistle perpetrated a mist unearthly screech,
+a good deal like that of an owl, but more discordant, and Nanon
+assured her that the sound would assuredly break her slumbers, and
+bring her in a few minutes at any moment of need.  In fact, the
+noise was so like the best authenticated accounts of the shrieks
+indulged in by the spirits of the Temple, that Eustacie had wit
+enough to suspect that it might be the foundation of some of the
+stories; and with that solace to her alarms, she endured the
+departure of her hosts, Nanon promising a visit in the early
+morning.
+
+The poor child was too weary to indulge in many terrors, the
+beneficent torpor of excessive fatigue was upon her, happily
+bringing slumberous oblivion instead of feverish restlessness.  She
+strove to repeat her accustomed orisons; but sleep was too strong
+for her, and she was soon lying dreamlessly upon the clean homely
+couch prepared for her.
+
+When she awoke, it was with a start.  The moon was shining in
+through the circular window, making strange white shapes on the
+floor, all quivering with the shadows of the ivy sprays.  It looked
+strange and eerie enough at the moment, but she understood it the
+next, and would have been reassured if she had not become aware
+that there was a low sound, a tramp,  tramp, below her.  'Gracious
+saints!  The Templar!  Have mercy on me!  Oh! I was too sleepy to
+pray!  Guard me from being driven wild by fright!'  She sat
+upright, with wide-spread eyes, and, finding that she herself was
+in the moonlight, through some opening in the roof, she took refuge
+in the darkest corner, though aware as she crouched there, that if
+this were indeed the Templar, concealment would be vain, and
+remembering suddenly that she was out of reach of the loophole-
+window.
+
+And therewith there was a tired sound in the tread, as if the
+Templar found his weird a very length one; then a long heavy
+breath, with something so essentially human in its sound that the
+fluttering heart beat more steadily.  If reason told her that the
+living were more perilous to her than the dead, yet feeling
+infinitely preferred them!  It might be Nanon Rotrou after all;
+then how foolish to be crouching there in a fright!  It was
+rustling through the hay.  No-no Nanon; it is a male figure, it has
+a long cloak on.  Ah! it is in the moonlight-silver hair--silver
+beard.  The Templar!  Fascinated with dismay, yet calling to mind
+that no ghost has power unless addressed, she sat still, crossing
+herself in silence, but unable to call to mind any prayer or
+invocation save a continuous 'Ave Mary,' and trying to restrain her
+gasping breath, lest, if he were not the Templar after all, he
+might discover her presence.
+
+He moved about, took off his cloak, laid it down near the hay, then
+his cap, not a helmet after all, and there was no fiery cross.
+
+He was in the gloom again, and she heard him moving much as though
+he were pulling down the hay to form a bed.  Did ghosts ever do
+anything so sensible?  If he were an embodied spirit, would it be
+possible to creep past him and escape while he lay asleep?  She was
+almost becoming familiarized with the presence, and the
+supernatural terror was passing off into a consideration of
+resources, when, behold, he was beginning to sing.  To sing was the
+very way the ghosts began ere they came to their devilish outcries.
+'Our Lady keep it from bringing frenzy.  But hark! hark!'  It was
+not one of the chants, it was a tune and words heard in older times
+of her life; it was the evening hymn, that the little husband and
+wife had been wont to sing to the Baron in the Chateau de Leurre--
+Marot's version of the 4th Psalm.
+
+                     '_Plus de joie m'est donnee_
+                      _Par ce moyen, O Dieu Tres-Haut_,
+                      _Que n'ont ceux qui ont grand annee_
+                      _De froment et bonne vinee_,
+                      _D'huile et tout ce qu'il leur faut_.'
+
+If it had indeed been the ghostly chant, perhaps Eustacie would not
+have been able to help joining it.  As it was, the familiar home
+words irresistibly impelled her to mingle her voice, scarce knowing
+what she did, in the verse--
+
+                    '_Si qu'en paix et surete bonne_
+                     _Coucherai et reposerai_ ;
+                     _Car, Seigneur, ta bonte tout ordonne_
+                     _Et elle seule espoir me donne_
+                     _Que sur et seul regnant serai_.'
+
+The hymn died away in its low cadence, and then, ere Eustacie had
+had time to think of the consequences of thus raising her voice,
+the new-comer demanded:
+
+'Is there then another wanderer here?'
+
+'Ah! sir, pardon me!' she exclaimed.  'I will not long importune
+you, but only till morning light--only till the Fermiere Rotrou
+comes.'
+
+'If Matthieu and Anne Rotrou placed you here, then all is well,'
+replied the stranger.  'Fear not, daughter, but tell me.  Are you
+one of my scattered flock, or one whose parents are known to me?'
+Then, as she hesitated, 'I am Isaac Gardon--escaped, alas! alone,
+from the slaughter of the Barthelemy.'
+
+'Master Gardon!' cried Eustacie.  'Oh, I know!  O sir, my husband
+loved and honoured you.'
+
+'Your husband?'
+
+'Yes, sir, le Baron de Ribaumont.'
+
+'That fair and godly youth!  My dear old patron's son!  You--you!
+But--' with a shade of doubt, almost of dismay, 'the boy was
+wedded--wedded to the heiress---'
+
+'Yes, yes, I am that unhappy one!  We were to have fled together on
+that dreadful night.  He came to meet me to the Louvre--to his
+doom!' she gasped out, nearer to tears than she had ever been since
+that time, such a novelty was it to her to hear Berenger spoken of
+in kind or tender terms; and in her warmth of feeling, she came out
+of her corner, and held our her hand to him.
+
+'Alas! poor thing!' said the minister, compassionately, 'Heaven has
+tried you sorely.  Had I known of your presence here, I would not
+have entered; but I have been absent long, and stole into my lair
+here without disturbing the good people below.  Forgive the
+intrusion, Madame.'
+
+The minister replied warmly that surely persecution was a
+brotherhood, even had she not been the window of one he had loved
+and lamented.
+
+'Ah! sir, it does me good to hear you say so.'
+
+And therewith Eustacie remembered the hospitalities of her loft.
+She perceived by the tones of the old man's voice that he was
+tired, and probably fasting, and she felt about for the milk and
+bread with which she had been supplied.  It was a most welcome
+refreshment, though he only partook sparingly; and while he ate,
+the two, so strangely met, came to a fuller knowledge of one
+another's circumstances.
+
+Master Isaac Gardon had, it appeared, been residing at Paris, in
+the house of the watchmaker whose daughter had been newly married
+to his son; but on the fatal eve of St. Bartholomew, he had been
+sent for to pray with a sick person in another quarter of the city.
+The Catholic friends of the invalid were humane, and when the
+horrors began, not only concealed their kinsman, but almost
+forcibly shut up the minister in the same cellar with him.  And
+thus, most reluctantly, had he been spared from the fate that
+overtook his son and daughter-in-law.  A lone and well-night
+broken-hearted man, he had been smuggled out of the city, and had
+since that time been wandering from one to another of the many
+scattered settlements of Huguenots in the northern part of France,
+who, being left pastorless, welcomed visits from the minister of
+their religion, and passed him on from one place to another, as his
+stay in each began to be suspected by the authorities.  He was now
+on his way along the west side of France, with no fixed purpose,
+except so far as, since Heaven had spared his life when all that
+made it dear had been taken from him, he resigned himself to
+believe that there was yet some duty left for him to fulfil.
+
+Meantime the old man was wearied out; and after due courtesies had
+passed between him and the lady in the dark, he prayed long and
+fervently, as Eustacie could judge from the intensity of the low
+murmurs she heard; and then she heard him, with a heavy
+irrepressible sigh, lie down on the couch of hay he had already
+prepared for himself, and soon his regular breathings announced his
+sound slumbers.  She was already on the bed she had so
+precipitately quitted, and not a thought more did she give to the
+Templars, living or dead, even though she heard an extraordinary
+snapping and hissing, and in the dawn of the morning saw a white
+weird thing, like a huge moth, flit in through the circular window,
+take up its station on a beam above the hay, and look down with the
+brightest, roundest eyes she had ever beheld.  Let owls and bats
+come where they would, she was happier than she had been for
+months.  Compassion for herself was plentiful enough, but to have
+heard Berenger spoken of with love and admiration seemed to quiet
+the worst ache of her lonely heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.  THE MOONBEAM
+
+
+
+She wandered east, she wandered west,
+  She wandered out and in;
+And at last into the very swine's stythe
+  The queen brought forth a son.--Fause Foodrage
+
+
+The morrow was Sunday, and in the old refectory, in the late
+afternoon, a few Huguenots, warned by messages from the farm, met
+to profit by one of their scanty secret opportunities for public
+worship.  The hum of the prayer, and discourse of the pastor, rose
+up through the broken vaulting to Eustacie, still lying on her bed;
+for she had been much shaken by the fatigues of the day and alarm
+of the night, and bitterly grieved, too, by a message which Nanon
+conveyed to her, that poor Martin was in no state to come for her
+in the next day; but he and his wife having been seized upon by
+Narcisse and his men, and so savagely beaten in order to force from
+them a confession of her hiding-place, that both were lying
+helpless on their bed; and could only send an entreaty by the
+trustworthy fool, that Rotrou would find means of conveying Madame
+into Chollet in some cart of hay or corn, in which she could be
+taken past the barriers.
+
+But this was not to be.  Good Nanon had sacrificed the sermon to
+creep up to Eustacie, and when the congregation were dispersing in
+the dusk, she stole down the stairs to her husband; and a few
+seconds after he was hurrying as fast as _detours_ would allow him
+to Blaise's farm.  An hour and a half later, Dame Perrine, closely
+blindfolded for the last mile, was dragged up the spiral staircase,
+and ere the bandage was removed heard Eustacie's voice, with a
+certain cheeriness, say, 'Oh! nurse; my son will soon come!'
+
+The full moon gave her light, and the woman durst not have any
+other, save from the wood-fire that Nanon had cautiously lighted
+and screened.  The moonshine was still supreme, when some time
+later a certain ominous silence and half-whisper between the two
+women at the hearth made Eustacie, with a low cry of terror,
+exclaim, 'Nurse, nurse, what means this?  Oh!  He lives!  I know he
+lives!  Perrine, I command you tell me!'
+
+'Living!  Oh, yes, my love, my Lady,' answered Perrine, returning
+towards her; 'fair and perfect as the day.  Be not disquieted for a
+moment.'
+
+'I will--I will disquiet myself,' panted Eustacie, 'unless you tell
+me what is amiss.'
+
+'Nothing amiss,' said Nanon, gruffly.  'Madame will give thanks for
+this fair gift of a daughter.'
+
+It must be owned the words felt chill.  She had never thought of
+this!  It was as if the being for whom she had dared and suffered
+so much, in the trust that he would be Berenger's representative
+and avenger, had failed her and disappointed her.  No defender, no
+paladin, no so to be proud of!  Her heart and courage sank down in
+her weakness as they had never done before; and, without speaking,
+she turned her head away towards the darkness, feeling as if had
+been for nothing, and she might as well sink away in her
+exhaustion. Mere Perrine was more angry with Nanon than conscious
+of her Lady's weakness.  'Woman, you speak as if you knew not the
+blow to this family, and to all who hoped for better days.  What,
+that my Lady, the heiress, who ought to be in a bed of state, with
+velvet curtains, lace pillows, gold caudle-cups, should be here in
+a vile ruin, among owls and bats, like any beggar, and all for the
+sake, not of a young Lord to raise up the family, but of a
+miserable little girl!  Had I known how it would turn out, I had
+never meddled in this mad scheme.'
+
+Before Nanon could express her indignation, Eustacie had turned her
+head opened her eyes, and called out, 'Miserable!  Oh! what do you
+mean?  Oh, it is true, Nanon? is it well with her?
+
+'As well as heart could wish,' answered Nanon, cheerily.  'Small,
+but a perfect little piece of sugar.  There, Lady, she shall speak
+for herself.'
+
+And as Nanon laid the babe on the young mother's bosom, the
+thrilling touch at once put an end to all the repinings of the
+heiress, and awoke far other instincts.
+
+'My child! my little one, my poor little orphan--all cruel to her!
+Oh, no welcome even from thy mother!  Babe, babe, pardon me, I will
+make it up to thee; indeed I will!  Oh! let me see her!  Do not
+take her away, dear good woman, only hold her in the moonlight!'
+
+The full rays of the moon, shining through the gable window,
+streamed down very near where Eustacie lay, and by a slight
+movement Dame Rotrou was able to render the little face as
+distinctly visible to her as if it had been daylight, save that the
+blanching light was somewhat embellishing to the new-born
+complexion, and increased that curious resemblance so often borne
+for the first few hours of life to the future self.  Eustacie's cry
+at once was, 'Himself, himself--his very face!  Let me have her, my
+own moonbeam--his child--my joy!'
+
+The tears, so long denied, rushed down like summer rain as she
+clasped the child in her arms.  Dame Perrine wandered to and fro,
+like one beside herself, not only at her Lady's wretched
+accommodations, but at the ill omens of the moonlight illumination,
+of the owls who snapped and hissed incessantly over the hay, and
+above all the tears over the babe's face.  She tried to remonstrate
+with Eustacie, but was answered only, 'Let me weep!  Oh, let me
+weep!  It eases my heart!  It cannot hurt my little one!  She
+cannot weep for her father herself, so I must weep for her.'
+
+The weeping was gentle, not violent; and Dame Rotrou thought it did
+good rather than harm.  She was chiefly anxious to be quit of
+Perrine, who, however faithful to the Lady of Ribaumont, must not
+be trusted to learn the way to this Huguenot asylum, and must be
+escorted back by Rotrou ere peep of dawn.  The old woman knew that
+her own absence from home would be suspicious, and with many
+grumblings submitted; but first she took the child from Eustacie's
+reluctant arms, promising to restore her in a few moments, after
+finishing dressing her in the lace-edged swaddling bands so
+carefully preserved ever since Eustacie's own baby hood.  In these
+moments she had taken them all by surprise by, without asking any
+questions, sprinkling the babe with water, and baptizing her by the
+hereditary name of Berangere, the feminine of the only name
+Eustacie had always declared her son should bear.  Such baptisms
+were not unfrequently performed by French nurses, but Eustacie
+exclaimed with a sound half dismay, half indignation.
+
+'_Eh quoi_!' said Perrine, 'it is only _ondoyee_.  You can have all
+the ceremonies if ever time shall fit; but do you think I could
+leave my Lady's child--mere girl though it be--alone with owls, and
+_follets_, and REVENANTS, and heretics, and she unbaptized?  She
+would be a changeling long ere morning, I trow.'
+
+'Come, good woman,' said Rotrou, from between the trusses of hay at
+the entrance; 'you and I must begin our Colin-Mail-lard again, or
+it may be the worse for us both.'
+
+And with the promise of being conducted to Eustacie again in three
+nights' time, if she would meet her guide at the cross-roads after
+dark, Perrine was forced to take her leave.  She had never
+suspected that all this time Maitre Gardon had been hidden in the
+refectory below, and still less did she guess that soon after her
+departure the old man was installed as her Lady's chief attendant.
+It was impossible that Nanon should stay with Eustacie; she had her
+day's work to attend to, and her absence would have excited
+suspicion.  He, therefore, came partly up the stairs, and calling
+to Nanon, proffered himself to sit with '_cette pauvre_,' and make
+a signal in case Nanon should be wanted.  The good woman was thus
+relieved of a great care.  She would not have dared to ask it of
+him, but with a low reverence, she owned that it was an act of
+great charity towards the poor lady, who, she hoped, was falling
+into a tranquil sleep, but who she would hardly have dared to
+leave.  The pastor, though hardships, battles, and persecutions had
+left him childless, had been the father of a large family; and
+perhaps he was drawn the more strongly towards the mother and
+child, because he almost felt as if, in fulfilling the part of a
+father towards the widow of Berenger de Ribaumont, he was taking
+her in the stead of the widow of his own Theodore.
+
+Had the little Baronne de Ribaumont been lodged in a tapes-tried
+chamber, between curtains of velvet and gold, with a _beauffet_ by
+her side glistening with gold and silver plate, as would have
+befitted her station, instead of lying on a bed of straw, with no
+hangings to the walls save cobwebs and hay, and wallflowers, no
+_beauffet_ but the old rickety table, no attendants but Nanon and
+M. Gardon, no visitors but the two white owls, no provisions save
+the homely fare that rustic mothers lived upon--neither she nor her
+babe could have thriven better, and probably not half so well.  She
+had been used to a hardy, out-of-door life, like the peasant women;
+and she was young and strong, so that she recovered as they did.
+If the April shower beat in at the window, or the hole in the roof,
+they made a screen of canvas, covered her with cloaks, and heaped
+them with hay, and she took no harm; and the pure open air that
+blew in was soft with all the southern sweetness of early spring-
+tide, and the little one throve in it like the puff-ball owlets in
+the hayloft, or the little ring-doves in the ivy, whose parent's
+cooing voice was Eustacie's favourite music.  Almost as good as
+these her fellow-nestlings was the little Moonbeam, _la petite
+Rayonette_, as Eustacie fondly called this light that had come back
+to her from the sunshine she had lost. Had she cried or been heard,
+the sounds would probably have passed for the wailings of the
+ghostly victims of the Templars, but she exercised an exemplary
+forbearance in that respect, for which Eustacie thought she could
+not be sufficiently admired.
+
+Like the child she was, Eustacie seemed to have put care from her,
+and to be solely taken up with the baby, and the amusement of
+watching the owl family.
+
+There was a lull in the search at this moment, for the Chevalier
+had been recalled to Paris by the fatal illness of his son-in-law,
+M. de Selinvine.  The old soldier, after living half his life on
+bread and salad, that he might keep up a grand appearance at Paris,
+had, on coming into the wealth of the family, and marrying a
+beautiful wife, returned to the luxuries he had been wont only to
+enjoy for a few weeks at a time, with in military occupation of
+some Italian town.  Three months of festivities had been enough to
+cause his death; and the Chevalier was summoned to assist his
+daughter in providing for his obsequies, and in taking possession
+of the huge endowments which, as the last of his race, he had been
+able to bequeath to her.  Such was the news brought by the old
+nurse Perrine, who took advantage of the slackening vigilance of
+the enemy to come to see Eustacie.  The old woman was highly
+satisfied; for one of the peasants' wives had--as if on purpose to
+oblige her Lady--given birth to twins, one of whom had died almost
+immediately; and the parents had consented to conceal their loss,
+and at once take the little Demoiselle de Ribaumont as their own--
+guarding the secret till her mother should be able to claim her.
+It was so entirely the practice, under the most favourable
+circumstances, for French mothers to send their infants to be
+nursed in cottages, that Perrine was amazed by the cry of angry
+refusal that burst from Eustacie: 'Part with my child!  leave her
+to her enemies!--never! never!  Hold your tongue, Perrine!  I will
+not hear of such a thing!'
+
+'But, Madame, hear reason.  She will pass for one of Simonette's!'
+
+'She shall pass for none but mine!--I part with thee, indeed!  All
+that is left me of thy father!--the poor little orphaned innocent,
+that no one loves but her mother!'
+
+'Madame--Mademoiselle, this is not common sense!  Why, how can you
+hide yourself? how travel with a baby on your neck, whose crying
+may betray you?'
+
+'She never cries--never, never!  And better I were betrayed than
+she.'
+
+'If it were a boy---' began Perrine.
+
+'If it were a boy, there would be plenty to care for it.  I should
+not care for it half so much. As for my poor little lonely girl,
+whom every one wishes away but her mother--ah! yes, baby, thy
+mother will go through fire and water for thee yet.  Never fear,
+thou shalt not leave her!'
+
+'No nurse can go with Madame.  Simonette could not leave her home.'
+
+'What needs a nurse when she has me?'
+
+'But, Madame,' proceeded the old woman, out of patience, 'you are
+beside yourself!  What noble lady ever nursed her babe?'
+
+'I don't care noble ladies--I care for my child,' said the
+vehement, petulant little thing.
+
+'And how--what good will Madame's caring for it do?  What knows she
+of infants?  How can she take care of it?'
+
+'Our Lady will teach me,' said Eustacie, still pressing the child
+passionately to her heart; 'and see--the owl--the ring-dove--can
+take care of their little ones; the good God shows them how--He
+will tell me how!'
+
+Perrine regarded her Lady much as if she were in a naughty fit,
+refusing unreasonably to part with a new toy, and Nanon Rotrou was
+much of the same mind; but it was evident that if at the moment
+they attempted to carry off the babe, the other would put herself
+into an agony of passion, that they durst not call forth; and they
+found it needful to do their best to soothe her out of the deluge
+of agitated tears that fell from her eyes, as she grasped the child
+so convulsively that she might almost have stifled it at once.
+They assured her that they would not take it away now--not now, at
+any rate; and when the latent meaning made her fiercely insist that
+it was to leave her neither now nor ever, Perrine made pacifying
+declarations that it should be just as she pleased--promises that
+she knew well, when in that coaxing voice, meant nothing at all.
+Nothing calmed her till Perrine had been conducted away; and even
+then Nanon could not hush her into anything like repose, and at
+last called in the minister, in despair.
+
+'Ah! sir, you are a wise man; can you find how to quiet the poor
+little thing?  Her nurse has nearly driven her distracted with
+talking of the foster-parents she has found for the child.'
+
+'Not found!' cried Eustacie.  'No, for she shall never go!'
+
+'There!' lamented Nanon--'so she agitates herself, when it is but
+spoken of.  And surely she had better make up her mind, for there
+is no other choice.'
+
+'Nay, Nanon,' said M. Gardon, 'wherefore should she part with the
+charge that God has laid on her?'
+
+Eustacie gave a little cry of grateful joy.  'Oh, sir, come nearer!
+Do you, indeed, say that they have no right to tear her from me?'
+
+'Surely not, Lady.  It is you whose duty it is to shield and guard
+her.'
+
+'Oh, sir, tell me again!  Yours is the right religion.  Oh, you are
+the minister for me!  If you will tell me I ought to keep my child,
+then I will believe everything else.  I will do just as you tell
+me.'  And she stretched out both hands to him, with vehement
+eagerness.
+
+'Poor thing!  This is no matter of one religion or another,' said
+the minister; 'it is rather the duty that the Almighty hath
+imposed, and that He hath made an eternal joy.'
+
+'Truly,' said Nanon, ashamed at having taken the other side: 'the
+good _pasteur_ says what is according to nature.  It would have
+gone hard with me if any one had wished to part me from Robin or
+Sara; but these fine ladies, and, for that matter, BOURGEOISES too,
+always do put out their babes; and it seemed to me that Madame
+would find it hard to contrive for herself--let alone the little
+one.'
+
+'Ah! but what would be the use of contriving for myself, without
+her?' said Eustacie.
+
+If all had gone well and prosperously with Madame de Ribaumont,
+probably she would have surrendered an infant born in purple and in
+pall to the ordinary lot of its contemporaries; but the exertions
+and suffering she had undergone on behalf of her child, its
+orphanhood, her own loneliness, and even the general disappointment
+in its sex, had given it a hold on her vehement, determined heart,
+that intensified to the utmost the instincts of motherhood; and she
+listened as if to an angle's voice as Maitre Gardon replied to
+Nanon--
+
+'I say not that it is not the custom; nay, that my blessed wife and
+myself have not followed it; but we have so oft had cause to repent
+the necessity, that far be it from me ever to bid a woman forsake
+her sucking child.'
+
+'Is that Scripture?' asked Eustacie.  'Ah! sir, sir, tell me more!
+You are giving me all--all--my child!  I will be--I am--a Huguenot
+like her father! and, when my vassals come, I will make them ride
+with you to La Rochelle, and fight in your cause!'
+
+'Nay,' said Maitre Gardon, taken by surprise; 'but, Lady, your
+vassals are Catholic.'
+
+'What matters it?  In my cause they shall fight!' said the feudal
+Lady, 'for me and my daughter!'
+
+And as the pastor uttered a sound of interrogative astonishment,
+she continued--
+
+'As soon as I am well enough, Blaise will send out messages, and
+they will meet me at midnight at the cross-roads, Martin and all,
+for dear good Martin is quite well now, and we shall ride across
+country, avoiding towns, wherever I choose to lead them.  I had
+thought of Chantilly, for I know M. de Montmorency would stand my
+friend against a Guisard; but now, now I know you, sir, let me
+escort you to La Rochelle, and do your cause service worthy of Nid
+de Merle and Ribaumont!'  And as she sat up on her bed, she held up
+her little proud head, and waved her right hand with the grace and
+dignity of a queen offering an alliance of her realm.
+
+Maitre Gardon, who had hitherto seen her as a childish though
+cheerful and patient sufferer, was greatly amazed, but he could not
+regard her project as practicable, or in his conscience approve it;
+and after a moment's consideration he answered, 'I am a man of
+peace, Lady, and seldom side with armed men, nor would I lightly
+make one of those who enroll themselves against the King.'
+
+'Not after all the Queen-mother had done!' cried Eustacie.
+
+'Martyrdom is better than rebellion,' quietly answered the old man,
+folding his hands.  Then he added 'Far be it from me to blame those
+who have drawn the sword for the faith; yet, Lady, it would not be
+even thus with your peasants; they might not follow you.'
+
+'Then,' said Eustacie, with flashing eyes, 'they would be
+traitors.'
+
+'Not to the King,' said the pastor, gently.  'Also, Lady, how will
+it be with their homes and families--the hearths that have given
+you such faithful shelter?'
+
+'The women would take to the woods,' readily answered she; 'it is
+summer-time, and they should be willing to bear something for my
+sake.  I should grieve indeed,' she added, 'if my uncle misused
+them.  They have been very good to me, but then they belong to me.'
+
+'Ah! Lady, put from you that hardening belief of seigneurs.  Think
+what their fidelity deserves from their Lady.'
+
+'I will be good to them!  I do love them!  I will be their very
+good mistress,' said Eustacie, her eyes filling.
+
+'The question is rather of forbearing than of doing,' said the
+minister.
+
+'But what would you have me do?' asked Eustacie, petulantly.
+
+'This, Lady.  I gather that you would not return to your
+relations.'
+
+'Never! never!  They would rend my babe from me; they would kill
+her, or at least hide her for ever in a convent--they would force
+me into this abhorrent marriage.  No--no--no--my child and I would
+die a hundred deaths together rather than fall into the hands of
+Narcisse.'
+
+'Calm yourself, Lady; there is no present fear, but I deem that the
+safest course for the little one would be to place her in England.
+She must be heiress to lands and estates there; is she not?'
+
+'Yes; and in Normandy.'
+
+'And your husband's mother lives?  Wherefore then should you not
+take me for your guide, and make your way--more secretly than would
+be possible with a peasant escort--to one of your Huguenot towns on
+the coast, whence you could escape with the child to England?'
+
+'My _belle-mere_ has re-married!  She has children!  I would not
+bring the daughter of Ribaumont as a suppliant to be scorned!' said
+Eustacie, pouting.  'She has lands enough of her own.'
+
+'There is no need to discuss the question now,' said M. Gardon,
+gravely; for a most kind offer, involving much peril and
+inconvenience to himself, was thus petulantly flouted.  'Madame
+will think at her leisure of what would have been the wishes of
+Monsieur le Baron for his child.'
+
+He then held himself aloof, knowing that it was not well for her
+health, mental or bodily, to talk any more, and a good deal
+perplexed himself by the moods of his strange little impetuous
+convert, if convert she could be termed.  He himself was a deeply
+learned scholar, who had studied all the bearings of the
+controversy; and, though bound to the French Reformers who would
+gladly have come to terms with the Catholics at the Conference of
+Plassy, and regretted the more decided Calvinism that his party had
+since professed, and in which the Day of St. Bartholomew confirmed
+them.  He had a strong sense of the grievous losses they suffered
+by their disunion from the Church.  The Reformed were less and less
+what his ardent youthful hopes had trusted to see them; and in his
+old age he was a sorrow-stricken man, as much for the cause of
+religion as for personal bereavements.  He had little desire to win
+proselytes, but rather laid his hand to build up true religion
+where he found it suffering shocks in these unsettled, neglected
+times; and his present wish was rather to form and guide this
+little willful warm-hearted mother--whom he could not help
+regarding with as much affection as pity--to find a home in the
+Church that had been her husband's, than to gain her to his own
+party.  And most assuredly he would never let her involve herself,
+as she was ready to do, in the civil war, without even knowing the
+doctrine which grave and earnest men had preferred to their
+loyalty.
+
+He could hear her murmuring to her baby, 'No, no, little one, we
+are not fallen so low as to beg our bread among strangers.'  To
+live upon her own vassals had seemed to her only claiming her just
+rights, but it galled her to think of being beholden to stranger
+Huguenots; and England and her mother-in-law, without Berenger,
+were utterly foreign and distasteful to her.
+
+Her mood was variable.  Messages from Blaise and Martin came and
+went, and it became known that her intended shelter at Chollet,
+together with all the adjacent houses, had been closely searched by
+the younger Ribaumont in conjunction with the governor; so that it
+was plain that some treachery must exist, and that she only owed
+her present freedom to her detention in the ruined temple; and it
+would be necessary to leave that as soon as it was possible for her
+to attempt the journey.
+
+The plan that seemed most feasible to the vassals was, that Rotrou
+should convey her in a cart of fagots as far as possible on the
+road to Paris; that there his men should meet her by different
+roads, riding their farm-horses--and Martin even hoped to be able
+to convey her own palfrey to her from the monastery stable, and
+thence, taking a long stretch across country, they trusted to be
+able to reach the lands of a dependant of the house of Montmorency,
+who would not readily yield her up to a Guise's man.  But, whether
+instigated by Perrine, or by their own judgment, the vassals
+declared that, though Madame should be conducted wherever she
+desired, it was impossible to encumber themselves with the infant.
+Concealment would be impossible; rough, hasty rides would be
+retarded, her difficulties would be tenfold increased, and the
+little one would become a means of tracing her.  There was no
+choice but to leave it with Simonette.
+
+Angrily and haughtily did Eustacie always reject this alternative,
+and send fresh commands back by her messenger, to meet the same
+reply in another form.  The strong will and practical resolution of
+the stout farmers, who were about to make a terrible venture for
+her, and might reasonably think they had a right to prescribe the
+terms that they thought best.  All this time Maitre Gardon felt it
+impossible to leave her, still weak and convalescent, alone in the
+desolate ruin with her young child; though still her pride would
+not bend again to seek the counsel that she had so much detested,
+nor to ask for the instruction that was to make her 'believe like
+her husband.'  If she might not fight for the Reformed, it seemed
+as if she would none of their doctrine!
+
+But, true lady that she was, she sunk the differences in her
+intercourse with him.  She was always prettily and affectionately
+grateful for every service that he rendered her, and as graciously
+polite as though she had been keeping house in the halls of
+Ribaumont.  Then her intense love for her child was so beautiful,
+and there was so much sweetness in the cheerful patience with which
+she endured the many hardships of her situation, that he could not
+help being strongly interested in the willful, spirited little
+being.
+
+And thus time passed, until one night, when Martin ventured over
+the farm with a report so serious that Rotrou, at all risks,
+brought him up to communicate his own tidings.  Some one had given
+information, Veronique he suspected, and the two Chevaliers were
+certainly coming the next day to search with fire the old buildings
+of the temple.  It was already dawning towards morning, and it
+would be impossible to do more at present than to let Rotrou build
+up the lady in a vault, some little way off, whence, after the
+search was over, she could be released, and join her vassals the
+next night according to the original design.
+As to the child, her presence in the vault was impossible, and
+Martin had actually brought her intended nurse, Simonette, to
+Rotrou's cottage to receive her.
+
+'Never!' was all Eustacie answered.  'Save both of us, or neither.'
+
+'Lady,' said M. Gardon as she looked towards him, 'I go my way with
+my staff.'
+
+'And you--you more faithful than her vassals--will let me take
+her?'
+
+'Assuredly.'
+
+'Then, sir, even to the world's end will I go with you'
+
+Martin would have argued, have asked, but she would not listen to
+him.  It was Maitre Gardon who made him understand the project.
+There was what in later times has been termed an underground
+railway amid the persecuted Calvinists, and M. Gardon knew his
+ground well enough to have little doubt of being able to conduct
+the lady safely to some town on the coast, whence she might reach
+her friends in England.  The plan highly satisfied Martin.  It
+relieved him and his neighbours from the necessity of provoking
+perilous wrath, and it was far safer for her herself than
+endeavouing to force her way with an escort too large not to
+attract notice, yet not warlike enough for efficient defence.  He
+offered no further opposition, but augured that after all she would
+come back a fine lady, and right them all.
+
+Eustacie, recovering from her anger, and recollecting his services,
+gave him her hand to kiss, and bade him farewell with a sudden
+effusion of gratitude and affection that warmed the honest fellow's
+heart.  Rewards could not be given, lest they should become a clue
+for her uncle; and perhaps they would have wounded both him and
+their kind hosts, who did their best to assist her in their
+departure.  A hasty meal was provided by Nanon, and a basket so
+stored as to obviate the need of entering a village, on that day at
+least, to purchase provisions; Eustacie's money and jewels again
+formed the nucleus of the bundle of clothes and spare swaddling-
+banks of her babe; her peasant dress was carefully arranged--a
+stout striped cloth skit and black bodice, the latter covered by a
+scarlet Chollet kerchief.  The winged white cap entirely hid her
+hair; a gray cloak with a hood could either fold round her and her
+child or be strapped on her shoulders.  Her _sabots_ were hung on
+her shoulder, for she had learnt to go barefoot, and walked much
+more lightly thus; and her little bundle was slung on a staff on
+the back of Maitre Gardon, who in his great peasant's hat and coat
+looked so like a picture of St. Joseph, that Eustacie, as the light
+of the rising sun fell on his white beard and hair, was reminded of
+the Flight into Egypt, and came close to him, saying shyly, 'Our
+Blessed Lady will bless and feel for my baby.  She knows what this
+journey is.'
+
+'The Son of the Blessed Mary assuredly knows and blesses,' he
+answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.  _LA RUE DES TROIS FEES_
+
+
+
+And round the baby fast and close
+  Her trembling grasp she folds.
+And with a strong convulsive grasp
+  The little infant holds.--SOUTHEY.
+
+
+A wild storm had raged all the afternoon, hail and rain had
+careered on the wings of the wind along the narrow street of the
+Three Fairies, at the little Huguenot bourg of La Sablerie;
+torrents of rain had poached the unpaved soil into a depth of mud,
+and thunder had reverberated over the chimney-tops, and growled far
+away over the Atlantic, whose angry waves were tossing on the low
+sandy coast about two miles from the town.
+
+The evening had closed in with a chill, misty drizzle, and, almost
+May though it were, the Widow Noemi Laurent gladly closed the
+shutters of her unglazed window, where small cakes and other
+delicate confections were displayed, and felt the genial warmth of
+the little fire with which she heated her tiny oven.  She was the
+widow of a pastor who had suffered for his faith in the last open
+persecution, and being the daughter of a baker, the authorities of
+the town had permitted her to support herself and her son by
+carrying on a trade in the more delicate 'subtilties' of the art,
+which were greatly relished at the civic feasts.  Noemi was a
+grave, sad woman, very lonely ever since she had saved enough to
+send her son to study for the ministry in Switzerland, and with an
+aching heart that longed to be at rest from the toil that she
+looked on as a steep ladder on her way to a better home.  She
+occupied two tiny rooms on the ground-floor of a tall house; and
+she had just arranged her few articles of furniture with the utmost
+neatness, when there was a low knock at her door, a knock that the
+persecuted well understood, and as she lifted the latch, a voice
+she had known of old spoke the scriptural salutation, 'Peace be
+with this house.'
+
+'_Eh quoi_, Master Issac, is it thou?  Come in--in a good hour--
+ah!'
+
+As, dripping all round his broad hat and from every thread of his
+gray mantle, the aged traveller drew into the house a female figure
+whom he had been supporting on his other arm, muffled head and
+shoulders in a soaked cloak, with a petticoat streaming with wet,
+and feet and ankles covered with mire, 'Here we are, my child,' he
+said tenderly, as he almost carried her to Noemi's chair.  Noemi,
+with kind exclamations of '_La pauvre_! _la pauvre_!' helped the
+trembling cold hand to open the wet cloak, and then cried out with
+fresh surprise and pity at the sight of the fresh little infant
+face, nestled warm and snug under all the wrappings in those weary
+arms.
+
+'See,' said the poor wanderer, looking up to the old man, with a
+faint smile; 'she is well--she is warm--it hurts her not.'
+
+'Can you take us in?' added M. Gardon, hastily; 'have you room?'
+
+'Oh yes; if you can sleep on the floor here, I will take this poor
+dear to my own bed directly,' said Noemi.  '_Tenez_' opening a
+chest; 'you will find dry clothes there, of my husband's.  And
+thou,' helping Eustacie up with her strong arm, and trying to take
+the little one, 'let me warm and dry thee within.'
+
+Too much worn out to make resistance, almost past speaking, knowing
+merely that she had reached the goal that had been promised her
+throughout these weary days, feeling warmth, and hearing kind
+tones, Eustacie submitted to be led into the inner room; and when
+the good widow returned again, it was in haste to fetch some of the
+warm _potage_ she had already been cooking over the fire, and
+hastily bade M. Gardon help himself to the rest.  She came back
+again with the babe, to wash and dress it in the warmth of her oven
+fire.  Maitre Gardon, in the black suit of a Calvinist pastor, had
+eaten his _potage_, and was anxiously awaiting her report.  'Ah!
+_la pauvre_, with His blessing she will sleep! she will do well.
+But how far did you come to-day?'
+
+'From Sainte Lucie.  From the Grange du Temple since Monday.'
+
+'Ah! is it possible?  The poor child!  And this little one--sure,
+it is scarce four weeks old?'
+
+'Four weeks this coming Sunday.'
+
+'Ah! the poor thing.  The blessing of Heaven must have been with
+you to bear her through.  And what a lovely infant--how white--what
+beauteous little limbs!  Truly, she has sped well.  Little did I
+think, good friend, that you had this comfort left, or that our
+poor Theodore's young wife had escaped.'
+
+'Alas! no, Noemi; this is no child of Theodore's.  His wife shared
+his martyrdom.  It is I who am escaped alone to tell thee. But,
+nevertheless, this babe is an orphan of that same day.  Her father
+was the son of the pious Baron de Ribaumont, the patron of your
+husband, and of myself in earlier days.'
+
+'Ah!' exclaimed Noemi, startled.  'Then the poor young mother--is
+she--can she be the lost Demoiselle de Nid de Merle?'
+
+'Is the thing known here?  The will of Heaven be done; but she can
+send to her husband's kindred in England.'
+
+'She might rest safely enough, if others beside myself believed in
+her being your son's widow,' said Noemi.  'Wherefore should she not
+be thought so?'
+
+'Poor Esperance!  She would willingly have lent her name to guard
+another,' said Master Gardon, thoughtfully; 'and, for the sake of
+the child, my little lady may endure it.  Ah! there is the making
+of a faithful and noble woman in that poor young thing.  Bravely,
+patiently, cheerfully, hath she plodded this weary way; and,
+verily, she hath grown like my own daughter to me--as I never
+thought to love earthly thing again; and had this been indeed my
+Theodore's child, I could hardly care for it more.'
+
+And as he related how he had fallen in with the forlorn Lady of
+Ribaumont, and all that she had dared, done, and left undone for
+the sake of her little daughter, good Noemi Laurent wept, and
+agreed with him that a special providence must have directed them
+to his care, and that some good work must await one who had been
+carried through so much. His project was to remain here for a short
+time, to visit the flock who had lost their pastor on the day of
+the massacre, and to recruit his own strength; for he, too, had
+suffered severely from the long travelling, and the exposure during
+many nights, especially since all that was warm and sheltered had
+been devoted to Eustacie.  And after this he proposed to go to La
+Rochelle, and make inquiries for a trusty messenger who could be
+sent to England to seek out the family of the Baron de Ribaumont,
+or, mayhap, a sufficient escort with whom the lady could travel;
+though he had nearly made up his mind that he would not relinquish
+the care of her until he had safely delivered her to her husband's
+mother.
+
+Health and life were very vigorous in Eustacie; and though at first
+she had been completely worn out, a few days of comfort, entire
+rest, and good nursing restored her.  Noemi dressed her much like
+herself, in a black gown, prim little white starched ruff, and
+white cap,--a thorough Calvinist dress, and befitting a minister's
+widow.  Eustacie winced a little at hearing of the character that
+had been fastened upon her; she disliked for her child, still more
+than for herself, to take this _bourgeois_ name of Gardon; but
+there was no help for it, since, though he chief personages of the
+town were Huguenot, there could be no safety for her if the report
+were once allowed to arise that the Baronne de Ribaumont had taken
+refuge there.
+
+It was best that she should be as little noticed as possible; nor,
+indeed, had good Noemi many visitors.  The sad and sorrowful woman
+had always shut herself up with her Bible and her meditations, and
+sought no sympathy from her neighbours, nor encourage gossip in her
+shop.  In the first days, when purchasers lingered to ask if it
+were true that Maitre Gardon had brought his daughter-in-law and
+grandchild, her stern-faced, almost grim answer, that '_la pauvre_
+was ill at ease,' silenced them, and forced them to carry off their
+curiosity unsatisfied; but it became less easy to arrange when
+Eustacie herself was on foot again--refreshed, active, and with an
+irrepressible spring of energy and eagerness that could hardly be
+caged down in the Widow Laurent's tiny rooms.  Poor child, had she
+not been ill and prostrate at first, and fastened herself on the
+tender side of the good woman's heart by the sweetness of an
+unselfish and buoyant nature in illness, Noemi could hardly have
+endured such an inmate, not even half a Huguenot, full of little
+Catholic observances like second nature to her; listening indeed to
+the Bible for the short time, but always, when it was expounded,
+either asleep, or finding some amusement indispensable for her
+baby; eager for the least variety, and above all spoilt by Maitre
+Gardon to a degree absolutely perplexing to the grave woman.
+
+He would not bid her lay aside the observances that, to Noemi,
+seemed almost worship of the beast.  He rather reverted to the
+piety which originated them; and argued with his old friend that it
+was better to build than to destroy, and that, before the fabric of
+truth, superstition would crumble away of itself.  The little he
+taught her sounded to Noemi's puzzled ears mere Christianity
+instead of controversial Calvinism.  And, moreover, he never blamed
+her for wicked worldliness when she yawned; but even devised
+opportunities for taking her out for a walk, to see as much life as
+might be on a market-day.  He could certainly not forget--as much
+as would have been prudent--that she was a high-born lady; and even
+seemed taken aback when he found her with her sleeves turned up
+over her shapely-delicate arms, and a thick apron before her, with
+her hands in Veuve Laurent's flour, showing her some of those
+special mysterious arts of confectionery in which she had been
+initiated by Soeur Bernardine, when, not three years ago, she had
+been the pet of the convent at Bellaise.  At first it was half
+sport and the desire of occupation, but the produce of her
+manipulations was so excellent as to excite quite a sensation in La
+Sablerie, and the echevins and baillis sent in quite considerable
+orders for the cakes and patties of Maitre Gardon's Paris-bred
+daughter-in-law.
+
+Maitre Gardon hesitated.  Noemi Laurent told him she cared little
+for the gain--Heaven knew it was nothing to her--but that she
+thought it wrong and inconsistent in him to wish to spare the poor
+child's pride, which was unchristian enough already.  'Nay,' he
+said sadly, 'mortifications from without do little to tame pride;
+nor did I mean to bring her here that she should turn cook and
+confectioner to pamper the appetite of Baillis La Grasse.'
+
+But Eustacie's first view was a bright pleasure in the triumph of
+her skill; and when her considerate guardian endeavoured to impress
+on her that there was no necessity for vexing herself with the
+task, she turned round on him with the exclamation, 'Nay, dear
+father, do you not see it is my great satisfaction to be able to do
+something for our good hostess, so that my daughter and I be not a
+burden to her?'
+
+'Well spoken, my Lady,' said the pastor; 'there is real nobility in
+that way of thinking.  Yet, remember, Noemi is not without means;
+she feels not the burden.  And the flock contribute enough for the
+shepherd's support, and yours likewise.'
+
+'Then let her give it to the poor creatures who so often come in
+begging, and saying they have been burned out of house and home by
+one party or the other,' said Eustacie.  'Let me have my way, dear
+sir; Soeur Bernadine always said I should be a prime _menagere_.  I
+like it so much.'
+
+And Madame de Ribaumont mixed sugar and dough, and twisted quaint
+shapes, and felt important and almost light-hearted, and sang over
+her work and over her child songs that were not always Marot's
+psalms; and that gave the more umbrage to Noemi, because she feared
+that Maitre Gardon actually like to hear them, though, should their
+echo reach the street, why it would be a peril, and still worse, a
+horrible scandal that out of that sober, afflicted household should
+proceed profane tunes such as court ladies sang.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.  THE ABBE.
+
+
+
+By the day and night her sorrows fall
+  Where miscreant hands and rude
+Have stained her pure, ethereal pall
+  With many a martyr's blood.
+And yearns not her maternal heart
+  To hear their secret sighs,
+Upon whose doubting way apart
+  Bewildering shadows rise?--KEBLE
+
+
+It was in the summer twilight that Eustacie, sitting on the
+doorstep between the two rooms, with her baby on her knees, was
+dreamily humming to her a tune, without even words, but one that
+she loved, because she had first learnt to sing it with Berenger
+and his friend Sidney to the lute of the latter; and its notes
+always brought before her eyes the woods of Montpipeau.  Then it
+was that, low and soft as was the voice, that befell which Noemi
+had feared: a worn, ragged-looking young man, who had been
+bargaining at the door for a morsel of bread in exchange for a
+handkerchief, started at the sound, and moved so as to like into
+the house.
+
+Noemi was at the moment not attending, being absorbed in the study
+of the handkerchief, which was of such fine, delicate texture that
+an idea of its having been stolen possessed her; and she sought the
+corner where, as she expected, a coat-of-arms was embroidered.
+Just as she was looking up to demand explanation, the stranger,
+with a sudden cry of 'Good heavens, it is she!' pushed past her
+into the house, and falling on his knee before Eustacie, exclaimed,
+'O Lady, Lady, is it thus that I see you?'
+
+Eustacie had started up in dismay, crying out, 'Ah! M. l'Abbe, as
+you are a gentleman, betray me not.  Oh! have they sent you to find
+me?  Have pity on us!  You loved my husband!'
+
+'You have nothing to fear from me, Lady,' said the young man, still
+kneeling; 'if you are indeed a distressed fugitive--so am I.  If
+you have shelter and friends--I have none.'
+
+'Is it indeed so?' said Eustacie, wistfully, yet scarce reassured.
+'You are truly not come from my uncle.  Indeed, Monsieur, I would
+not doubt you, but you see I have so much at stake.  I have my
+little one here, and they mean so cruelly by her.'
+
+'Madame, I swear by the honour of a nobleman--nay, by all that is
+sacred--that I know nothing of your uncle.  I have been a wanderer
+for many weeks past; proscribed and hunted down because I wished to
+seek into the truth.'
+
+'Ah!' said Eustacie, with a sound of relief, and of apology,
+'pardon me, sir; indeed, I know you were good.  You loved my
+husband;' and she reached out her hand to raise him, when he kissed
+it reverently.  Little _bourgeoise_ and worn mendicant as they were
+in dress, the air of the Louvre breathed round them;  and there was
+all its grace and dignity as the lady turned round to her
+astonished hosts, saying, 'Good sir, kind mother, this gentleman
+is, indeed, what you took me for, a fugitive for the truth.  Permit
+me to present to you, Monsieur l'Abbe de Mericour--at least, so he
+was, when last I had the honour to see him.'
+
+The last time HE had seen her, poor Eustacie had been incapable of
+seeing anything save that bloody pool at the foot of the stairs.
+
+Mericour now turned and explained.  'Good friends,' he said
+courteously, but with the _fierete_ of the noble not quite out of
+his tone, 'I beg your grace.  I would not have used so little
+ceremony, if I had not been out of myself at recognizing a voice
+and a tune that could belong to none but Madame---'
+
+'Sit down, sir,' said Noemi, a little coldly and stiffly--for
+Mericour was a terrible name to Huguenots ears; 'a true friend to
+this lady must needs be welcome, above all if he comes in Heaven's
+name.'
+
+'Sit down and eat, sir,' added Gardon, much more heartily; 'and
+forgive us for not having been more hospitable--but the times have
+taught us to be cautious, and in that lady we have a precious
+charge.  Rest; for you look both weary and hungry.'
+
+Eustacie added an invitation, understanding that he would not sit
+without her permission, and then, as he dropped into a chair, she
+exclaimed, 'Ah! sir, you are faint, but you are famished.'
+
+'It will pass,' he said; 'I have not eaten to-day.'
+
+Instantly a meal was set before him, and ere long he revived; and
+as the shutters were closed, and shelter for the night promised to
+him by a Huguenot family lodging in the same house, he began to
+answer Eustacie's anxious questions, as well as to learn from her
+in return what had brought her into her present situation.
+
+Then it was that she recollected that it had been he who, at her
+cousin Diane's call, had seized her when she was rushing out of the
+palace in her first frenzy of grief, and had carried her back to
+the women's apartments.
+
+'It was that day which brought me here,' he said.
+
+And he told how, bred up in his own distant province, by a pious
+and excellent tutor, he had devoutly believed in the extreme
+wickedness of the Reformers; but in his seclusion he had been
+trained to such purity of faith and morals, that, when his brother
+summoned him to court to solicit a benefice, he had been appalled
+at the aspect of vice, and had, at the same time, been struck by
+the pure lives of the Huguenots; for truly, as things then were at
+the French court, crime seemed to have arrayed itself on the side
+of the orthodox party, all virtue on that of the schismatics.
+
+De Mericour consulted spiritual advisers, who told him that none
+but Catholics could be truly holy, and that what he admired were
+merely heathen virtues that the devil permitted the Huguenots to
+display in order to delude the unwary.  With this explanation he
+had striven to be satisfied, though eyes unblended by guilt and a
+pure heart continued to be revolted at the practices which his
+Church, scared at the evil times, and forgetful of her own true
+strength, left undenounced in her partisans.  And the more that the
+Huguenot gentlemen thronged the court, and the young Abbe was
+thrown into intercourse with them, and the more he perplexed
+himself how the truth, the faith, the uprightness, the forbearance,
+the purity that they evinced could indeed be wanting in the zeal
+that made them acceptable.  Then came the frightful morning when
+carnage reigned in every street, and the men who had been treated
+as favourite boon companions were hunted down like wild beasts in
+every street.  He had endeavoured to save life, but would have
+speedily been slaughtered himself except for his soutane; and in
+all good faith he had hurried to the Louvre, to inform royalty of
+the horrors that, as he thought, a fanatic passion was causing the
+populace to commit.
+
+He found the palace become shambles--the King himself, wrought up
+to frenzy, firing on the fugitives.  And the next day, while his
+brain still seemed frozen with horror, he was called on to join in
+the procession of thanksgiving for the King's deliverance from a
+dangerous plot.  Surely, if the plot were genuine, he thought, the
+procession should have savoured of penance and humiliation rather
+than of barbarous exultation!  Yet these might be only the
+individual crimes of the Queen-mother, and of the Guises seeking to
+mask themselves under the semblance of zeal; and the infallible
+head of the visible Church would disown the slaughter, and cast it
+from the Church with loathing as a blood-stained garment.  Behold,
+Rome was full of rejoicing, and sent sanction and commendation of
+the pious zeal of the King!  Had the voice of Holy Church become
+indeed as the voice of the bloodhound?  Was this indeed her call?
+
+The young man, whose life from infancy had been marked out for the
+service of the Church--so destined by his parents as securing a
+wealthy provision for a younger son, but educated by his good tutor
+with more real sense of his obligations--felt the question in its
+full import.  He was under no vows; he had, indeed, received the
+tonsure, but was otherwise unpledged, and he was bent on proving
+all things.  The gaieties in which he had at first mingled had
+become abhorrent to him, and he studied with the earnestness of a
+newly-awakened mind in search of true light.  The very face of
+study and inquiry, in one of such a family as that of his brother
+the Duke de Mericour, was enough to excite suspicion of Huguenot
+inclinations.  The elder brother tried to quash the folly of the
+younger, by insisting on his sharing the debaucheries which,
+whether as priest or monk, or simply as Christian man, it would be
+his duty to abjure; and at length, by way of bringing things to a
+test, insisted on his making one of a party who were about to break
+up and destroy a Huguenot assembly.  Unable, in his present mood,
+to endure the thought of further cruelty, the young Abbe fled, gave
+secret warning to the endangered congregation, and hastened to the
+old castle in Brittany, where he had been brought up, to pour out
+his perplexities, and seek the counsel of the good old chaplain who
+had educated him.  Whether the kind, learned, simple-hearted tutor
+could have settled his mind, he had no time to discover, for he had
+scarcely unfolded his troubles before warnings came down that he
+had better secure himself--his brother, as head of the family, had
+obtained the royal assent to the imprisonment of the rebellious
+junior, so as to bring him to a better mind, and cure him of the
+Huguenot inclinations, which in the poor lad were simply
+undeveloped.  But in all the Catholic eyes he was a tainted man,
+and his almost inevitable course was to take refuge with some
+Huguenot relations.  There he was eagerly welcome; instruction was
+poured in on him; but as he showed a disposition to inquire and
+examine, and needed time to look into what they taught him, as one
+who feared to break his link with the Church, and still longed to
+find her blameless and glorious, the righteous nation that keepeth
+the truth, they turned on him and regarded him as a traitor and a
+spy, who had come among them on false pretences.
+
+All the poor lad wanted was time to think, time to examine, time to
+consult authorities, living and dead.  The Catholics called this
+treason to the Church, the Huguenots called it halting between two
+opinions; and between them he was a proscribed, distrusted
+vagabond, branded on one side as a recreant, and on the other as a
+traitor.  He had asked for a few months of quiet, and where could
+they be had?  His grand-mother had been the daughter of a Scottish
+nobleman in the French service, and he had once seen a nephew of
+hers who had come to Paris during the time of Queen Mary's
+residence there.  He imagined that if he were once out of this
+distracted land of France, he might find respite for study, for
+which he longed; and utterly ignorant of the real state of
+Scotland, he had determined to make his way to his kindred there;
+and he had struggled on the way to La Rochelle, cheated out of the
+small remains of his money, selling his last jewels and all the
+clothing that was not indispensable, and becoming so utterly unable
+to pay his passage to England, that he could only trust to
+Providence to find him some means of reaching his present goal.
+
+He had been listened to with kindness, and a sympathy such as M.
+Gardon's large mind enable him to bestow, where his brethren had
+been incapable of comprehending that a man could sincerely doubt
+between them and Rome.  When the history was finished, Eustacie
+exclaimed, turning to Maitre Gardon, 'Ah! sir, is not this just
+what we sought?  If this gentleman would but convey a letter to my
+mother-in-law---'
+
+M. Gardon smiled.  'Scotland and England are by no means the same
+place, Lady,' he said.
+
+'Whatever this lady would command, wherever she would send me, I am
+at her service,' cried the Abbe, fervently.
+
+And, after a little further debate, it was decided that it might
+really be the best course, for him as for Madame de Ribaumont, to
+become the bearer of a letter and token from her, entreating her
+mother-in-law to notify her pleasure whether she should bring her
+child to England.  She had means enough to advance a sufficient sum
+to pay Mericour's passage, and he accepted it most punctiliously as
+a loan, intending, so soon as her despatches were ready, to go on
+to La Rochelle, and make inquiry for a ship.
+
+Chance, however, seemed unusually propitious, for the next day
+there was an apparition in the streets of La Sablerie of four or
+five weather-beaten, rollicking-looking men, their dress profusely
+adorned with ribbons, and their language full of strange oaths.
+They were well known at La Sablerie as sailors belonging to a ship
+of the fleet of the Count de Montgomery, the unfortunate knight
+whose lance had caused the death of King Henry II., and who,
+proscribed by the mortal hatred of Catherine de Medicis, had become
+the admiral of a  piratical fleet in the Calvinist interest, so far
+winked at the Queen Elizabeth that it had its head-quarters in the
+Channel Islands, and thence was a most formidable foe to merchant
+vessels on the northern and eastern coasts of France; and often
+indulged in descents on the coast, when the sailors--being in
+general the scum of the nation--were apt to comport themselves more
+like American buccaneers than like champions of any form of
+religion.
+
+La Sablerie was a Huguenot town, so they used no violence, but only
+swaggered about, demanding from Bailli La Grasse, in the name of
+their gallant Captain Latouche, contributions and provisions, and
+giving him to understand that if he did not comply to the uttermost
+it should be the worse for him.  Their ship, it appeared, had been
+forced to put into the harbour, about two miles off, and Maitre
+Gardon and the young Abbe decided on walking thither to see it, and
+to have an interview with the captain, so as to secure a passage
+for Mericour at least.  Indeed Maitre Gardon had, in consultation
+with Eustacie, resolved, if he found things suitable, to arrange
+for their all going together.  She would be far safer out of
+France; and, although the Abbe alone could not have escorted her,
+yet Maitre Gardon would gladly have secured for her the additional
+protection of a young, strong, and spirited man; and Eustacie, who
+was no scribe, was absolutely relieved to have the voyage set
+before her as an alternative to the dreadful operation of composing
+a letter to the _belle-mere_, whom she had not seen since she had
+been seven years old, and of whose present English name she had the
+most indistinct ideas.
+
+However, the first sight of the ship overthrew all such ideas.  It
+was a wretched single-decked vessel, carrying far more sail than
+experienced nautical eyes would have deemed safe, and with no
+accommodation fit for a woman and child, even had the aspect of
+captain or crew been more satisfactory--for the ruffianly
+appearance and language of the former fully rivaled that of his
+sailors.  It would have been mere madness to think of trusting the
+lady in such hands; and, without a word to each other, Gardon and
+Mericour resolved to give no hint even that she and her jewels were
+in La Sablerie.  Mericour, however, made his bargain with the
+captain, who understood to transport him as far as Guernsey, whence
+he might easily make his way to Dorsetshire, where M. Gardon knew
+that Berenger's English home had been.
+
+So Eustacie, with no small trouble and consideration, indited her
+letter--telling of her escape, the birth of her daughter, the
+dangers that threatened her child--and begging that its grand-
+mother would give it a safe home in England, and love it for the
+sake of its father.  An answer would find her at the Widow Noemi
+Laurent's, Rue des Trois Fees, La Sablerie.  She could not bring
+herself to speak of the name of Eserance Gardon which had been
+saddled upon her; and even M. de Mericour remained in ignorance of
+her bearing this disguise.  She recommended him to the kindness of
+her mother-in-law; and M. Gardon added another letter to the lady,
+on behalf of the charge to whom he promised to devote himself until
+he should see them safe in friendly hands.  Both letters were
+addressed, as best they might be, between Eustacie's dim
+comprehension of the word Thistlewood, and M. Gardon's notion of
+spelling.  'Jadis, Baronne de Ribaumont' was the securest part of
+the direction.
+
+And for a token, Eustacie looked over her jewels to find one that
+would serve for a token; but the only ones she knew would be
+recognized, were the brooch that had fastened the plume in
+Berenger's bloody cap, and the chaplet of pearls.  To part with the
+first, or to risk the second in the pirate-ship, was impossible,
+but Eustacie at last decided upon detaching the pear-shaped pearl
+which was nearest the clasp, and which was so remarkable in form
+and tint that there was no doubt of its being well known.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.  UNDER THE WALNUT-TREE
+
+
+
+Mistress Jean was making the elder-flower wine--
+'And what brings the Laird at sic a like time?'
+                            LADY NAIRN, THE LAIRD OF COCKPEN
+
+
+Summer was nearly ended, and Lucy Thistlewood was presiding in the
+great kitchen of the Manor-house, standing under the latticed
+window near the large oak-table, a white apron over her dress,
+presiding over the collecting of elder-berries for the brew of
+household-wine for the winter.  The maids stood round her with an
+array of beechen bowls or red and yellow crocks, while barefooted,
+bareheaded children came thronging in with rush or wicker baskets
+of the crimson fruit, which the maids poured in sanguine cascades
+into their earthenware; and Lucy requited with substantial slices
+of bread and cheese, and stout homely garment mostly of her own
+sewing.
+
+Lucy was altogether an inmate of her father's house.  She had not
+even been at Hurst Walwyn for many months; for her step-mother's
+reiterated hopes that Berenger would make her his consolation for
+all he had suffered from his French spouse rendered it impossible
+to her to meet him with sisterly unconsciousness; and she therefore
+kept out of the way, and made herself so useful at home, that Dame
+Annora only wondered how it had been possible to spare her so long,
+and always wound up her praises by saying, that Berenger would
+learn in time how lucky he had been to lose the French puppet, and
+win the good English housewife.
+
+If only tidings would have come that the puppet was safe married.
+That was the crisis which all the family desired yet feared for
+Berenger, since nothing else they saw would so detach his thoughts
+from the past as the leave him free to begin life again.  The
+relapse brought on by the cruel reply to Osbert's message had been
+very formidable: he was long insensible or delirious and then came
+a state of annihilated thought, then of frightfully sensitive
+organs, when light, sound, movement, or scent were alike agony; and
+when he slowly revived, it was with such sunken spirits, that his
+silence was as much from depression as from difficulty of speech.
+His brain was weak, his limbs feeble, the wound in his mouth never
+painless; and all this necessarily added to his listless
+indifference and weariness, as though all youthful hope and
+pleasure were extinct in him.  He had ceased to refer to the past.
+Perhaps he had thought it over, and seen that the deferred escape,
+the request for the pearls, the tryst at the palace, and detention
+from the king's chamber, made an uglier case against Eustacie than
+he could endure to own even to himself.  If his heart trusted, his
+mind could not argue out her defence, and his tongue would not
+serve him for discussion with his grandfather, the only person who
+could act for him.  Perhaps the stunned condition of his mind made
+the suspense just within the bounds of endurance, while trust in
+his wife's innocence rendered his inability to come to her aid
+well-nigh intolerable; and doubt of her seemed both profanity and
+misery unspeakable.  He could do nothing.  He had shot his only
+shaft by sending Landry Osbert, and had found that to endeavour to
+induce his grandfather to use further measures was worse than
+useless, and was treated as mere infatuation.  He knew that all he
+had to do was to endeavour for what patience he could win from
+Cecily's sweet influence and guidance, and to wait till either
+certainty should come--that dreadful, miserable certainty that all
+looked for, and his very helplessness might be bringing about--or
+till he should regain strength to be again effective.
+
+And miserably slow work was this recovery.  No one had surgical
+skill to deal with so severe a wound as that which Narcisse had
+inflicted; and the daily pain and inconvenience it caused led to
+innumerable drawbacks that often--even after he had come as far as
+the garden--brought him back to his bed in a dark room, to blood-
+letting, and to speechlessness.  No one knew much of his mind--
+Cecily perhaps the most; and next to her, Philip--who, from the
+time he had been admitted to his step-brother's presence, had been
+most assiduous in tending him--seemed to understand his least sign,
+and to lay aside all his boisterous roughness in his eager desire
+to do him service.  The lads had loved each other from the moment
+they had met as children, but never so apparently as now, when all
+the rude horse-play of healthy youths was over--and one was
+dependent, the other considerate.  And if Berenger had made on one
+else believe in Eustacie, he had taught Philip to view her as the
+'Queen's men' viewed Mary of Scotland.  Philip had told Lucy the
+rough but wholesome truth, that 'Mother talks mere folly.  Eustacie
+is no more to be spoken of with you than a pheasant with old brown
+Partlet; and Berry waits but to be well to bring her off from all
+her foes.  And I'll go with him.'
+
+It was on Philip's arm that Berenger first crept round the
+bowling-green, and with Philip at his rein that he first endured to
+ride along the avenue on Lord Walwyn's smooth-paced palfrey; and it
+was Philip who interrupted Lucy's household cares by rushing in and
+shouting, 'Sister, here! I have wiled him to ride over the down,
+and he is sitting under the walnut-tree quite spent, and the three
+little wenches are standing in a row, weeping like so many little
+mermaids.  Come, I say!'
+
+Lucy at once followed him through the house, through the deep porch
+to the court, which was shaded by a noble walnut-tree, where Sir
+Marmaduke loved to sit among his dogs.  There not sat Berenger,
+resting against the trunk, overcome by the heat and exertion of his
+ride.  His cloak and hat lay on the ground; the dogs fawned round
+him, eager for the wonted caress, and his three little sisters
+stood a little aloof, clinging to one another and crying piteously.
+
+It was their first sight of him; and it seemed to them as if he
+were behind a frightful mask.  Even Lucy was not without a
+sensation of the kind, of this effect in the change from the
+girlish, rosy complexion to extreme paleness, on which was visible,
+in ghastly red and purple, the great scar left by Narcisse, from
+the temple on the one side to the ear on the other.
+
+The far more serious would on the cheek was covered with a black
+patch, and the hair had almost entirely disappeared from the head,
+only a few light brown locks still hanging round the neck and
+temples, so that the bald brow gave a strange look of age; and the
+disfigurement was terrible, enhanced as it was by the wasting
+effect of nearly a year of sickness.  Lucy was so much shocked,
+that she could hardly steady her voice to chide the children for
+not giving a better welcome to their brother.  They would have
+clung round her, but she shook them off, and sent Annora in haste
+for her mother's fan; while Philip arriving with a slice of diet-
+bread and a cup of sack, the one fanned him, and the other fed him
+with morsels of the cake soaked in the wine, till he revived,
+looked up with eyes that were unchanged, and thanked them with a
+few faltering words, scarcely intelligible to Lucy.  The little
+girls came nearer, and curiously regarded him but when he held out
+his hand to his favourite Dolly, she shrank back in reluctance.
+
+'Do not chide her,' he said wearily.  'May she never become used to
+such marks!'
+
+'What, would you have her live among cowards?'  exclaimed Philip;
+but Berenger, instead of answering, looked up at the front of the
+house, one of those fine Tudor facades that seem all carved timber
+and glass lattice, and asked, so abruptly that Lucy doubted whether
+she heard him alright,--'How many windows are there in this front?'
+
+'I never counted,' said Philip.
+
+'I have,' said Annora; 'there are seven and thirty, besides the two
+little ones in the porch.'
+
+'None shall make them afraid,' he muttered.  'Who would dare build
+such a defenceless house over yonder?'--pointing south.
+
+'Our hearts are guarded now,' said Philip, proudly.  Berenger half
+smiled, as he was wont to do when he meant more than he could
+conveniently utter, and presently he asked, in the same languid,
+musing tone, 'Lucy, were you ever really affrighted?'
+
+Lucy questioned whether he could be really in his right mind, as if
+the bewilderment of his brain was again returning; and while she
+paused, Annora exclaimed, 'Yes, when we were gathering cowslips,
+and the brindled cow ran at us, and Lucy could not run because she
+had Dolly in her arm.  Oh! we were frightened then, till you came,
+brother.'
+
+'Yes,' added Bessie; 'and last winter too, when the owl shrieked at
+the window---'
+
+'And,' added Berenger, 'sister, what was your greatest time of
+revelry?'
+
+Annora again put in her word.  'I know, brother; you remember the
+fair-day, when my Lady Grandame was angered because you and Lucy
+went on dancing when we and all then gentry had ceased.  And when
+Lucy said she had not seen that you were left alone, Aunt Cecily
+said it was because the eyes of discretion were lacking.'
+
+'Oh, the Christmas feast was far grander,' said Bessie. 'Then Lucy
+had her first satin farthingale, and three gallants, besides my
+brother, wanted to dance with her.'
+
+Blushing deeply, Lucy tried to hush the little ones, much perplexed
+by the questions, and confused by the answers.  Could he be
+contrasting the life where a vicious cow had been the most alarming
+object, a greensward dance with a step-brother the greatest gaiety,
+dye of the elder juice the deepest stain, with the temptations and
+perils that had beset one equally young?  Resting his head on his
+hand, his elbow on his knee, he seemed to be musing in a reverie
+that he could hardly brook, as his young brow was knitted by care
+and despondency.
+
+Suddenly, the sounds in the village rose from the quiet sleepy
+summer hum into a fierce yell of derisive vituperation, causing
+Philip at once to leap up, and run across the court to the
+entrance-gate, while Lucy called after him some vain sisterly
+warning against mingling in a fray.
+
+It seemed as if his interposition had a good effect, for the uproar
+lulled almost as soon as he had hurried to the scene of action; and
+presently he reappeared, eager and breathless.  'I told them to
+bring him up here,' he said; 'they would have flogged him at the
+cart's-tail, the rogues, just because my father is out of the way.
+I could not make out his jargon, but you can, brother; and make
+that rascal Spinks let him go.'
+
+'What should I have to do with it?' said Berenger, shrinking from
+the sudden exposure of his scarred face and maimed speech.  'I am
+no magistrate.'
+
+'But you can understand him; he is French, the poor rogue something
+abut a letter, and wanting to ask his way.  Ah! I thought that
+would touch you, and it will cost you little pains, and slouching
+it over his face, rose, and, leaning upon Annora's shoulder,
+stepped forward, just as the big burly blacksmith-constable and
+small shriveled cobbler advanced, dragging along, by a cord round
+the wrists, a slight figure with a red woolen sailor's shirt,
+ragged black hosen, bare head, and almost bare feet.
+
+Doffing their caps, the men began an awkward salutation to the
+young Lord on his recovery, but he only touched his beaver in
+return, and demanded, 'How now! what have you bound him for?'
+
+'You see, my Lord,' began the constable, 'there have been a sort of
+vagrants of late, and I'll be bound' twas no four-legged fox as
+took Gaffer Shepherd's lamb.'
+
+The peroration was broken off, for with a start as if he had been
+shot, Berenger cried aloud, 'Mericour! the Abbe!'
+
+'Ah, Monsieur, if you know me,' cried the young man, raising his
+head, 'free me from this shame--aid me in my mission!'
+
+'Loose him, fellows,' shouted Berenger; 'Philip, a knife--Lucy,
+those scissors.'
+
+'Tis my duty, my Lord,' said Spinks, gruffly.  'All vagabonds to be
+apprehended and flogged at the cart's-tail, by her Grace's special
+commands.  How is it to be answered to his Honour, Sir Marmaduke?'
+
+'Oaf!' cried Philip, 'you durst not have used such violence had my
+father been at home!  Don't you see my brother knows him?'
+
+With hands trembling with haste, Berenger had seized the scissors
+that, house-wife like, hung at Lucy's waist, and was cutting the
+rope, exclaiming in French, 'Pardon, pardon, friend, for so
+shameful a reception.'
+
+'Sir,' was the reply, without a sign of recognition, 'if, indeed,
+you know my name, I entreat you to direct me to the chateau of Le
+Sieur Tistefote, whose lady was once Baronne de Ribaumont.'
+
+'My mother!  Ah, my friend, my friend! what would you?' he cried in
+a tone of tremulous hope and fear, laying one hand on Mericour's
+shoulder, and about to embrace him.
+
+Mericour retreated from him; but the high-spirited young man
+crossed his arms on his breast, and gazing at the group with
+indignant scorn, made answer, 'My message is from her who deems
+herself a widow, to the mother of the husband whom she little
+imagines to be not only alive, but consoled.'
+
+'Faithful! Faithful!' burst out Berenger, with a wild, exultant,
+strangely-ringing shout.  'Woe, woe to those who would have had me
+doubt her!  Philip--Lucy--hear!  Her truth is clear to all the
+world!'  Then changing back again to French, 'Ten thousand
+blessings on you, Mericour!  You have seen her!  Where--how?'
+
+Mericour still spoke with frigid politeness.  'I had the honour to
+part with Madame la Baronne de Ribaumont in the town of La
+Sablerie, among humble, Huguenot guardians, to whom she had fled,
+to save her infant's life--when no aid came.'
+
+He was obliged to break off, for Berenger, stunned by the sudden
+rush of emotion, reeled as he stood, and would have fallen but for
+the prompt support of Lucy, who was near enough to guide him back
+to rest upon the bench, saying resentfully in French as she did so,
+'My brother is still very ill.  I pray you, sir, have a care.'
+
+She had not half understood the rapid words of the two young men,
+Philip comprehended them far less, and the constable and his crew
+of course not at all; and Spinks pushed forward among the group as
+he saw Berenger sink back on the bench; and once more collaring his
+prisoner, exclaimed almost angrily to Philip, 'There now, sir,
+you've had enough of the vagabond.  We'll keep him tight ere he
+bewitches any more of you.'
+
+This rude interference proved an instant restorative.  Berenger
+sprang up at once, and seizing Spink's arm, exclaimed, 'Hands off,
+fellow!  This is my friend--a gentleman.  He brings me tidings of
+infinite gladness.  Who insults him, insults me.'
+
+Spinks scarcely withdrew his hand from Mericour's neck; and
+scowling, said, 'Very odd gentleman--very queer tidings, Master
+Berenger, to fell you like an ox.  I must be answerable for the
+fellow till his Honour comes.'
+
+'Ah!  _Eh quoi_, wherefore not show the _canaille_ your sword?'
+said Mericour, impatiently.
+
+'It may not be here, in England,' said Berenger (who fortunately
+was not wearing his weapon).  'And in good time here comes my step-
+father,' as the gate swung back, and Sir Marmaduke and Lady
+Thistlewood rode through it, the former sending his voice far
+before him to demand the meaning of the hurly-burly that filled his
+court.
+
+Philip was the first to spring to his rein, exclaiming, 'Father, it
+is a Frenchman whom Spinks would have flogged at the cart's-tail;
+but it seems he is a friend of Berenger's, and has brought him
+tidings.  I know not what--about his wife, I believe--any way he is
+beside himself with joy.'
+
+'Sir, your Honour,' shouted Spinks, again seizing Mericour, and
+striving to drag him forward, 'I would know whether the law is to
+be hindered from taking its course because my young Lord there is a
+Frenchman and bewitched.'
+
+'Ah,' shrieked Lady Thistlewood, 'I knew it.  They will have sent
+secret poison to finish him.  Keep the fellow safe.  He will cast
+it in the air.'
+
+'Ay, ay, my Lady,' said Spinks, 'there are plenty of us to testify
+that he made my young Lord fall back as in a swoon, and reel like
+one distraught.  Pray Heaven it have not gone further.'
+
+'Sir,' exclaimed Berenger, who on the other side held his friend's
+hand tight, 'this is a noble gentleman--the brother of the Duke de
+Mericour.  He has come at great risk to bring me tidings of my dear
+and true wife.  And not one word will these demented rascals let me
+hear with their senseless clamour.'
+
+'Berenger!  You here, my boy!' exclaimed Sir Marmaduke, more amazed
+by this than all the rest.
+
+'He touches him--he holds him!  Ah! will no one tear him away?'
+screamed Lady Thistlewood.  Nor would Spinks have been slow in
+obeying her if Sir Marmaduke had not swung his substantial form to
+the ground, and stepping up to the prisoner, rudely clawed on one
+side by Spinks, and affectionately grasped on the other side by
+Berenger, shouted--
+
+'Let go, both!'  does he speak English?  Peace, dame!  If the lad
+be bewitched, it is the right way.  He looks like the other man.
+Eh, lad, what does your friend say for himself?'
+
+'Sir,' said Berenger, interpreting Mericour's words as they were
+spoken, 'he has been robbed and misused at sea by Montgomery's
+pirate crews.  He fled from court for the religion's sake; he met
+her--my wife' (the voice was scarcely intelligible, so tremulously
+was it spoken), 'in hiding among the Huguenots--he brings a letter
+and a token from her to my mother.'
+
+'Ha! And you know him?  You avouch him to be what he represents
+himself?'
+
+'I knew him at court.  I know him well.  Father, make these fellows
+cease their insults!  I have heard nothing yet.  See here!' holding
+out what Mericour had put into his hand; 'this you cannot doubt,
+mother.'
+
+'Parted the pearls!  Ah, the little minx!' cried the lady, as she
+recognized the jewels.
+
+'I thought he had been robbed?' added Sir Marmaduke.
+
+'The gentleman doubts?' said Mericour, catching some of the words.
+'He should know that what is confided in a French gentleman is only
+taken from him with his life.  Much did I lose; but the pearl I
+kept hidden in my mouth.'
+
+Therewith he produced the letter.  Lady Thistlewood pronounced that
+no power on earth should induce her to open it, and drew off
+herself and her little girls to a safe distance from the secret
+poison she fancied it contained; while Sir Marmaduke was rating the
+constables for taking advantage of his absence to interpret the
+Queen's Vagrant Act in their own violent fashion; ending, however,
+by sending them round to the buttery-hatch to drink the young
+Lord's health.  For the messeger, the good knight heartily grasped
+his hand, welcoming him and thanking him for having 'brought
+comfort to you poor lad's heart.'
+
+But there Sir Marmaduke paused, doubting whether the letter had
+indeed brought comfort; for Berenger, who had seized on it, when it
+was refused by his mother, was sitting under the tree--turning away
+indeed, but not able to conceal that his tears were gushing down
+like rain.  The anxious exclamation of his step-father roused him
+at length, but he scarce found power or voice to utter, as he
+thrust the letter into the knight's hand, 'Ah! see what has she not
+suffered for me! me, whom you would have had believed her
+faithless!'
+
+He then grasped his friend's arm, and with him disappeared into the
+house, leaving Sir Marmaduke holding the letter in a state of the
+utmost bewilderment, and calling by turns on his wife and daughter
+to read and explain it to him.
+
+And as Lucy read the letter, with her mother could not yet prevail
+on herself to touch, she felt at each word more grateful to the
+good Aunt Cecily, whose influence had taught her always to view
+Berenger as a brother, and not to condemn unheard the poor young
+wife.  If she had not been thus guarded, what distress might not
+this day of joy to Berenger have brought to Lucy!  Indeed, Lady
+Thistlewood was vexed enough as it was, and ready to carry her
+incredulity to the most inconsistent lengths.  'It was all a trick
+for getting the poor boy back, that they might make an end of him
+altogether.  Tell her they thought him dead.--'Tilley-valley!  It
+was a mere attempt on her own good-nature, to get a little French
+impostor on her hands.  Let Sir Duke look well to it, and take care
+that her poor boy was not decoyed among them.  The Frenchman might
+be cutting his throat at that moment!  Where was he?  Had Sir Duke
+been so lost as to let them out of sight together?  No one had
+either pity or prudence now that her poor father was gone;' and she
+began to weep.
+
+'No great fear on that score, dame,' laughed the knight.  'Did you
+not hear the lad shouting for 'Phil, Phil!' almost in a voice like
+old times?  It does one good to hear it.'
+
+Just at twilight, Berenger came down the steps, conducting a
+graceful gentleman in black, to whom Lady Thistlewood's instinct
+impelled her to make a low courtesy, before Berenger had said,
+'Madam, allow me to present to you my friend, the Abbe de
+Mericour.'
+
+'Is it the same?' whispered Bessie to Annora.  'Surely he is
+translated!'
+
+'Only into Philip's old mourning suit.  I know it by the stain on
+the knee.
+
+'Then it is translated too.  Never did it look so well on Philip!
+See, our mother is quite gracious to him; she speaks to him as
+though he were some noble visitor to my Lord.'
+
+Therewith Sir Marmaduke came forward, shook Mericour with all his
+might by the hand, shouted to him his hearty thanks for the good he
+had done his poor lad and assured him of a welcome from the very
+bottom of his heart.  The good knight would fain have kept both
+Berenger and his friend at the Manor, but Berenger was far too
+impatient to carry home his joy, and only begged the loan of a
+horse for Mericour.  For himself, he felt as if fatigue or
+dejection would never touch him again, and he kissed his mother and
+his sisters, including Lucy, all round, with an effusion of
+delight.
+
+'Is that indeed your step-father?' said Mericour, as they rode away
+together.  'And the young man, is he your half-brother?'
+
+'Brother wholly in dear love,' said Berenger; 'no blood relation.
+The little girls are my mother's children.'
+
+'Ah! so large a family all one?  All at home?  None in convents?'
+
+'We have no convents.'
+
+'Ah, no. but all at home!  All at peace!  This is a strange place,
+your England.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.  DEPARTURE
+
+
+
+        It is my mistress!
+Since she is living, let the time run on
+To good or bad.--CYMBELINE
+
+
+Mericour found the welcome at Hurst Walwyn kindly and more polished
+than that at Combe Manor.  He was more readily understood, and
+found himself at his natural element.  Lord Walwyn, in especial,
+took much notice of him, and conversed with him long and earnestly;
+while Berenger, too happy and too weary to exert himself to say
+many words, sat as near Cecily as he could, treating her as though
+she, who had never contradicted in his trust in Eustacie, were the
+only person who could worthily share his infinite relief, peace,
+and thankfulness.
+
+Lord Walwyn said scarcely anything to his grandson that night, only
+when Berenger, as usual, bent his knee to ask his blessing on
+parting for the night, he said, gravely, 'Son, I am glad of your
+joy; I fear me you have somewhat to pardon your grandsire.  Come to
+my library so soon as morning prayers be over; we will speak then.
+Not now, my dear lad,' he added, as Berenger, with tears in his
+eyes, kissed his hand, and would have begun; 'you are too much worn
+and spent to make my dear ears hear.  Sleep, and take my blessing
+with you.'
+
+It was a delight to see the young face freed from the haggard,
+dejected expression that had been sadder than the outward wound;
+and yet it was so questionable how far the French connection was
+acceptable to the family, that when Berenger requested Mr. Adderley
+to make mention of the mercy vouch-safed to him in the morning
+devotions, the chaplain bowed, indeed, but took care to ascertain
+that his so doing would be agreeable to my Lord and my Lady.
+
+He found that if Lady Walwyn was still inclined to regret that the
+Frenchwoman was so entirely a wife, and thought Berenger had been
+very hasty and imprudent, yet that the old Lord was chiefly
+distressed at the cruel injustice he had so long been doing this
+poor youth thing.  A strong sense of justice, and long habit of
+dignified self-restraint, alone prevented Lord Walwyn from severely
+censuring Mr. Adderley for misrepresentations; but the old nobleman
+recollected that Walsingham had been in the same story, and was too
+upright to visit his own vexation on the honestly-mistaken tutor.
+
+However, when Berenger made his appearance in the study, looking as
+if not one right, but weeks, had been spent in recovering health
+and spirit, the old man's first word was a gentle rebuke for his
+having been left unaware of how far matters had gone; but he cut
+short the attempted reply, but saying he knew it was chiefly owing
+to his own over-hasty conclusion, and fear of letting his grandson
+injure himself by vainly discussing the subject.  Now, however, he
+examined Berenger closely on all the proceedings Paris and at
+Montpipeau, and soon understood that the ceremony had been renewed,
+ratifying the vows taken in infancy.  The old statesman's face
+cleared up at once; for, as he explained, he had now no anxieties
+as to the validity of the marriage by English law, at least, in
+spite of the decree from Rome, which, as he pointed out to his
+grandson, was wholly contingent on the absence of subsequent
+consent, since the parties had come to an age for free-will.  Had
+he known of this, the re-marriage, he said, he should certainly
+have been less supine.  Why had Berenger been silent?
+
+'I was commanded, sir.  I fear I have transgressed the command by
+mentioning it now.  I must pray you to be secret.'
+
+'Secret, foolish lad.  Know you not that the rights of your wife
+and your children rest upon it?'  and as the change in Berenger's
+looks showed that he had not comprehended the full importance of
+the second ceremony as nullifying the papal sentence, which could
+only quash the first on the ground of want of mutual consent, he
+proceeded, 'Command, quotha?  Who there had any right to command
+you, boy?'
+
+'Only one, sir.'
+
+'Come, this no moment for lover's folly.  It was not the girl,
+then?  Then it could no other than the miserable King--was it so?'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said Berenger.  'He bade me as king, and requested me
+as the friend who gave her to me.  I could do no otherwise, and I
+thought it would be but a matter of a few days, and that our
+original marriage was the only important one.'
+
+'Have you any parchment to prove it?'
+
+'No, sir.  It passed but as a ceremony to satisfy the Queen's
+scruples ere she gave my wife to me to take home.  I even think the
+King was displeased at her requiring it.'
+
+'Was Mr. Sidney a witness?'
+
+'No, sir.  None was present, save the King and Queen, her German
+countess, and the German priest.'
+
+'The day?'
+
+'Lammas-day.'
+
+'The 1st of August of the year of grace 1572.  I will write to
+Walsingham to obtain the testimony, if possible, of king or of
+priest; but belike they will deny it all.  It was part of the
+trick.  Shame upon it that a king should dig pits for so small a
+game as you, my poor lad!'
+
+'Verily, my Lord,' said Berenger, 'I think the King meant us
+kindly, and would gladly have sped us well away.  Methought he felt
+his bondage bitterly, and would fain have dared to be a true king.
+Even at the last, he bade me to his _garde-robe_, and all there
+were unhurt.'
+
+'And wherefore obeyed you not?'
+
+'The carouse would have kept me too late for our flight.'
+
+'King's behests may not lightly be disregarded,' said the old
+courtier, with a smile.  'However, since he showed such seeming
+favour to you, surely you might send a petition to him privately,
+through Sir Francis Walsingham, to let the priest testify to your
+renewal of contract, engaging not to use it to his detriment in
+France.'
+
+'I will do so, sir.  Meanwhile,' he added, as one who felt he had
+earned a right to be heard in his turn, 'I have your permission to
+hasten to bring home my wife?'
+
+Lord Walwyn was startled at this demand from one still so far from
+recovered as Berenger.  Even this talk, eager as the youth was, had
+not been carried on without much difficulty, repetitions, and
+altered phrases, when he could not pronounce distinctly enough to
+be understood and the effort brought lines of pain into his brow.
+He could take little solid food, had hardly any strength for
+walking or riding; and, though all his wounds were whole, except
+that one unmanageable shot in the mouth, he looked entirely unfit
+to venture on a long journey in the very country that had sent him
+home a year before scarcely alive.  Lord Walwyn had already devised
+what he thought a far more practicable arrangement; namely, to send
+Mr. Adderley and some of my Lady's women by sea, under the charge
+of Master Hobbs, a shipmaster at Weymouth, who traded with Bordeaux
+for wine, and could easily put in near La Sablerie, and bring off
+the lady and child, and, if she wished it, the pastor to whom such
+a debt of gratitude was owing.
+
+Berenger was delighted with the notion of the sea rather than the
+land journey; but he pointed out at once that this would remove all
+objection to his going in person.  He had often been out whole
+nights with the fishermen, and knew that a sea-voyage would be
+better for his health than anything,--certainly better than pining
+and languishing at home, as he had done for months.  He could not
+bear to think of separation from Eustacie an hour longer than
+needful; nay, she had been cruelly entreated enough already; and as
+long as he could keep his feet, it was absolutely due to her that
+he should not let others, instead of himself, go in search of her.
+It would be almost death to him to stay at home.
+
+Lord Walwyn looked at the pallid, wasted face, with all its marks
+of suffering and intense eagerness of expression, increased by the
+difficulty of utterance and need of subduing agitation.  He felt
+that the long-misunderstood patience and endurance had earned
+something; and he knew, too, that for all his grandson's submission
+and respect, the boy, as a husband and father, had rights and
+duties that would assert themselves manfully if opposed.  It was
+true that the sea-voyage obviated many difficulties, and it was
+better to consent with a good grace than drive one hitherto so
+dutiful to rebellion.  He did then consent, and was rewarded by the
+lightning flash of joy and gratitude in the bright blue eyes, and
+the fervent pressure and kiss of his hand, as Berenger exclaimed,
+'Ah! sir, Eustacie will be such a daughter to you.  You should have
+seen how the Admiral liked her!'
+
+The news of Lord Walwyn's consent raised much commotion in the
+family.  Dame Annora was sure her poor son would be murdered
+outright this time, and that nobody cared because he was only HER
+son; and she strove hard to stir up Sir Marmaduke to remonstrate
+with her father; but the good knight had never disputed a judgment
+of 'my Lord's' in his whole life, and had even received his first
+wife from his hands, when forsaken by the gay Annora.  So she could
+only ride over the Combe, be silenced by her father, as effectually
+as if Jupiter had nodded, and bewail and murmur to her mother till
+she lashed Lady Walwyn up into finding every possible reason why
+Berenger should and must sail.  Then she went home, was very sharp
+with Lucy, and was reckoned by saucy little Nan to have nineteen
+times exclaimed 'Tilley-valley' in the course of one day.
+
+The effect upon Philip was a vehement insistence on going with his
+brother.  He was sure no one else would see to Berry half as well;
+and as to letting Berry go to be murdered again without him, he
+would not hear of it; he must go, he would not stay at home; he
+should not study; no, no, he should be ready to hang himself for
+vexation, and thinking what they were doing to his brother.  And
+thus he extorted from his kind-hearted father an avowal that he
+should be easier a bout the lad if Phil were there, and that he
+might go, provided Berry would have him, and my Lord saw no
+objection.  The first point was soon settled; and as to the second,
+there was no reason at all that Philip should not go where his
+brother did.  In fact, excepting for Berenger's state of health,
+there was hardly any risk about the matter.  Master Hobbs, to whom
+Philip rode down ecstatically to request him to come and speak to
+my Lord, was a stout, honest, experienced seaman, who was perfectly
+at home in the Bay of Biscay, and had so strong a feudal feeling
+for the house of Walwyn, that he placed himself and his best ship,
+the THROSTLE, entirely at his disposal.  The THROSTLE was a capital
+sailer, and carried arms quite sufficient in English hands to
+protect her against Algerine corsairs or Spanish pirates.  He only
+asked for a week to make her cabin ready for the reception of a
+lady, and this time was spent in sending a post to London, to
+obtain for Berenger the permit from the Queen, and the passport
+from the French Ambassador, without which he could not safely have
+gone; and, as a further precaution, letters were requested from
+some of the secret agents of the Huguenots to facilitate his
+admission into La Sablerie.
+
+In the meantime, poor Mr. Adderley had submitted meekly to the
+decree that sentenced him to weeks of misery on board the THROSTLE,
+but to his infinite relief, an inspection of the cabins proved the
+space so small, that Berenger represented to him grandfather that
+the excellent tutor would be only an incumbrance to himself and
+every one else, and that with Philip he should need no one.
+Indeed, he had made such a start into vigour and alertness during
+the last few days that there was far less anxiety about him, though
+with several sighs for poor Osbert.  Cecily initiated Philip into
+her simple rules for her patient's treatment in case of the return
+of his more painful symptoms.  The notion of sending female
+attendants for Eustacie was also abandoned: her husband's presence
+rendered them unnecessary, or they might be procured at La
+Sablerie; and thus it happened that the only servants whom Berenger
+was to take with him were Humfrey Holt and John Smithers, the same
+honest fellows whose steadiness had so much conduced to his rescue
+at Paris.
+
+Claude de Mericour had in the meantime been treated as an honoured
+guest at Combe Walwyn, and was in good esteem with its master.  He
+would have set forth at once on his journey to Scotland, but that
+Lord Walwyn advised him to wait and ascertain the condition of his
+relatives there before throwing himself on them.  Berenger had,
+accordingly, when writing to Sidney by the messenger above
+mentioned, begged him to find out from Sir Robert Melville, the
+Scottish Envoy, all he could about the family whose designation he
+wrote down at a venture from Mericour's lips.
+
+Sidney returned a most affectionate answer, saying that he had
+never been able to believe the little shepherdess a traitor and was
+charmed that she had proved herself a heroine; he should endeavour
+to greet her with all his best powers as a poet, when she should
+brighten the English court; but his friend, Master Spenser, alone
+was fit to celebrate such constancy.  As to M. l'Abbe de Mericour's
+friends, Sir Robert Melville had recognized their name at once, and
+had pronounced them to be fierce Catholics and Queensmen, so sorely
+pressed by the Douglases, that it was believed they would soon fly
+the country altogether; and Sidney added, what Lord Walwyn had
+already said, that to seek Scotland rather than France as a
+resting-place in which to weigh between Calvinism and Catholicism,
+was only trebly hot and fanatical.  His counsel was that M. de
+Mericour should so far conform himself to the English Church as to
+obtain admission to one of the universities, and, through his uncle
+of Leicester, he could obtain for him an opening at Oxford, where
+he might fully study the subject.
+
+There was much to incline Mericour to accept this counsel.  He had
+had much conversation with Mr. Adderley, and had attended his
+ministrations in the chapel, and both satisfied him far better than
+what he had seen among the French Calninists; and the peace and
+family affection of the two houses were like a new world to him.
+But he had not yet made up his mind to that absolute disavowal of
+his own branch of the Church, which alone could have rendered him
+eligible for any foundation at Oxford.  His attainments in classics
+would, Mr. Adderley thought, reach such a standard as to gain one
+of the very few scholarships open to foreigners; and his noble
+blood revolted at becoming a pensioner of Leicester's, or of any
+other nobleman.
+
+Lord Walwyn, upon this, made an earnest offer of his hospitality,
+and entreated the young man to remain at Hurst Walwyn till the
+return of Berenger and Philip, during which time he might study
+under the directions of Mr. Adderley, and come to a decision
+whether to seek reconciliation with his native Church and his
+brother, or to remain in England.  In this latter case, he might
+perhaps accompany both the youths to Oxford, for, in spite of
+Berenger's marriage, his education was still not supposed to be
+complete.  And when Mericour still demurred with reluctance to
+become a burden on the bounty of the noble house, he was reminded
+gracefully of the debt of gratitude that the family owed to him for
+the relief he had brought to Berenger; and, moreover, Dame Annora
+giggled out that, 'if he would teach Nan and Bess to speak and read
+French and Italian, it would be worth something to them.'  The
+others of the family would have hushed up this uncalled-for
+proposal; but Mericour caught at it as the most congenial mode of
+returning the obligation.  Every morning he undertook to walk or
+ride over to the Manor, and there gave his lessons to the young
+ladies, with whom he was extremely popular.  He was a far more
+brilliant teacher than Lucy, and ten thousand times preferable to
+Mr. Adderley, who had once begun to teach Annora her accidence with
+lamentable want of success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.  THE EMPTY CRADLE
+
+
+
+       Eager to know
+The worst, and with that fatal certainty
+To terminate intolerable dread,
+He spurred his courser forward--all his fears
+Too surely are fulfilled.--SOUTHEY
+
+
+Contrary winds made the voyage of the THROSTLE much more tardy than
+had been reckoned on by Berenger's impatience; but hope was before
+him, and he often remembered his days in the little vessel as much
+happier than he had known them to be at the time.
+
+It was in the calm days of right October that Captain Hobbs at
+length was putting into the little harbour nearest to La Sablerie.
+Berenger, on that morning, had for the first time been seized by a
+fit of anxiety as to the impression his face would make, with its
+terrible purple scar, great patch, and bald forehead, and had
+brought out a little black velvet mask, called a _tour de nez_,
+often used in riding to protect the complexion, intending to
+prepare Eustacie for his disfigurement.  He had fastened on a
+carnation-coloured sword-knot, would a scarf of the same colour
+across his shoulder, clasped a long ostrich plume into his broad
+Spanish hat, and looked out his deeply-fringed Spanish gloves; and
+Philip was laughing merrily, not to say rudely, at him, for trying
+to deck himself out so bravely.
+
+'See, Master Hobbs,' cried the boy in his high spirits, as he
+followed his brother on deck, 'you did not know you had so fine a
+gallant on board.  Here be braveries for my Lady.'
+
+'Hush, Phil,' broke in Berenger, who had hitherto taken all the
+raillery in perfect good part.  'What is amiss, Master Hobbs?'
+
+'I cannot justly say, sir,' returned Master Hobbs, without taking
+his gaze off the coast, 'but by yonder banks and creeks this should
+be the Sables d'Olonne; and I do not see the steeple of La
+Sablerie, which has always been the landmark for the harbour of St.
+Julien.'
+
+'What do you understand by that?' asked Berenger, more struck by
+his manner than his words.
+
+'Well, sir, if I am right, a steeple that has stood three or four
+hundred years does not vanish out of sight like a cloud of smoke
+for nothing.  I may be lightning, to be sure; or the Protestants
+may have had it down for Popery; but methinks they would have too
+much Christian regard for poor mariners than to knock down the only
+landmark on this coast till you come to Nissard spire.'   Then he
+hailed the man at the mast-head, demanding if he saw the steeple of
+La Sablerie.  'No, no, sir.'  But as other portions of the land
+became clearer, there was no doubt that the THROSTLE was right in
+her bearings; so the skipper gave orders to cast anchor and lower a
+boat.  The passengers would have pressed him with inquiries as to
+what he thought the absence of his landmark could portend; but he
+hurried about, and shouted orders, with the deaf despotism of a
+nautical commander; and only when all was made ready, turned round
+and said, 'Now, sir, maybe you had best let me go ashore first, and
+find out how the land lies.'
+
+'Never!' said Berenger, in an agony of impatience.
+
+'I thought so,' said the captain. 'Well, then, sir, are your
+fellows ready?  Armed?  All right.'
+
+So Berenger descended to the boat, followed by Philip; next came
+the captain, and then the two serving-men.  Six of the crew were
+ready to row them to the shore, and were bidden by their captain to
+return at once to the vessel, and only return on a signal from him.
+the surging rush of intense anxiety, sure to precede the destined
+moment of the consummation of hope long deferred, kept Berenger
+silent, choked by something between fear and prayer; but Philip,
+less engrossed, asked Master Hobbs if it were not strange that none
+of the inhabitants of the squalid little huts on the shore had not
+put out to greet them in some of the boats that were drawn up on
+the beach.
+
+'Poor wretches,' said Hobbs; 'they scarce know friend from foe, and
+are slow to run their heads into the lion's mouth.  Strange fellows
+have the impudence to sail under our flag at times.'
+
+However, as they neared the low, flat, sandy shore, a few red caps
+peeped out at the cottage-doors, and then, apparently gaining
+confidence from the survey, some wiry, active figures appeared, and
+were hailed by Hobbs.  His Bordeax trade had rendered him master of
+the coast language; and a few incomprehensible shouts between him
+and the natives resulted in a line being thrown to them, and the
+boat dragged as near as possible to the landing-place, when half a
+dozen ran up, splashing with their bare legs, to offer their
+shoulders for the transport of the passengers, both of whom were
+seized upon before they were aware, Philip struggling with all his
+might, till a call from Captain Hobbs warned him to resign himself;
+and then he became almost helpless with laughter at the figure cut
+by the long-legged Berenger upon a small fisherman's back.
+
+They were landed.  Could it be that Berenger was only two miles--
+only half an hour's walk form Eustacie?  The bound his heart gave
+as he touched the shore seemed to stifle him.  He could not believe
+it.  Yet he knew how fully he had believed it, the next moment,
+when he listened to what the fishermen were saying to Captain
+Hobbs.
+
+'Did Monsieur wish to go to La Sablerie?  Ah! then he did not know
+what had happened.  The soldiers had been there; there had been a
+great burning.  They had been out in their boats at sea, but they
+had seen the sky red--red as a furnace, all night; and the steeple
+was down.  Surely, Monsieur had missed the steeple that was a guide
+to all poor seafarers; and now they had to go all the way to
+Brancour to sell their fish.'
+
+'And the townspeople?'  Hobbs asked.
+
+'Ah! poor things; 'twas pity of them, for they were honest folk to
+deal with, even if they were heretics.  They loved fish at other
+seasons if not in Lent; and it seemed but a fair return to go up
+and bury as many of them as were not burnt to nothing in their
+church; and Dom Colombeau, the good priest of Nissard, has said it
+was a pious work; and he was a saint, if any one was.'
+
+'Alack, sir,' said Hobbs, laying his hand on the arm of Berenger,
+who seemed neither to have breathed nor moved while the man was
+speaking: 'I feared that there had been some such bloody work when
+I missed the steeple.  But take heart yet: your lady is very like
+to have been out of the way.  We might make for La Rochelle, and
+there learn!' Then, again to the fisherman, 'None escaped, fellow?'
+
+'Not one,' replied the man.  'they say that one of the great folks
+was in a special rage with them for sheltering the lady he should
+have wedded, but who had broken convent and turned heretic; and
+they had victualled Montgomery's pirates too.'
+
+'And the lady?' continued Hobbs, ever trying to get a more
+supporting hold of his young charge, in case the rigid tension of
+his limbs should suddenly relax.'
+
+'I cannot tell, sir.  I am a poor fisher; but I could guide you to
+the place where old Gillot is always poking about.  He listened to
+their preachings, and knows more than we do.'
+
+'Let us go,' said Berenger, at once beginning to stride along in
+his heavy boots through the deep sand.  Philip, who had hardly
+understood a word of the _patois_, caught hold of him, and begged
+to be told what had happened; but Master Hobbs drew the boy off,
+and explained to him and to the two men what were the dreadful
+tidings that had wrought such a change in Berenger's demeanour.
+The way over the shifting sands was toilsome enough to all the rest
+of the party; but Berenger scarcely seemed to feel the deep plunge
+at every step as they almost ploughed their way along for the weary
+two miles, before a few green bushes and half-choked trees showed
+that they were reaching the confines of the sandy waste.  Berenger
+had not uttered a word the whole time, and his silence hushed the
+others.  The ground began to rise, grass was seen still struggling
+to grow, and presently a large straggling mass of black and gray
+ruins revealed themselves, with the remains of a once well-trodden
+road leading to them.  But the road led to a gate-way choked by a
+fallen jamb and barred door, and the guide led them round the ruins
+of the wall to the opening where the breach had been.  The sand was
+already blowing in, and no doubt veiled much; for the streets were
+scarcely traceable through remnants of houses more or less
+dilapidated, with shreds of broken or burnt household furniture
+within them.
+
+'Ask him for _la rue des Trois Fees,' hoarsely whispered Berenger.
+
+The fisherman nodded, but soon seemed at fault; and an old man,
+followed by a few children, soon appearing, laden with piece of
+fuel, he appealed to him as Father Gillot, and asked whether he
+could find the street.  The old man seemed at home in the ruins,
+and led the way readily.  'Did he know the Widow Laurent's house?'
+
+'Mademoiselle [footnote: This was the title of _bourgeoise_wives,
+for many years, in France.] Laurent!  Full well he knew her; a good
+pious soul was she, always ready to die for the truth,' he added,
+as he read sympathy in the faces round; 'and no doubt she had
+witnessed a good confession.'
+
+'Knew he aught of the lady she had lodged?'
+
+'He knew nothing of ladies.  Something he had heard of the good
+widow having sheltered that shining light, Isaac Gardon, quenched,
+no doubt, in the same destruction; but for his part, he had a
+daughter in one of the isles out there, who always sent for him if
+she suspected danger here on the mainland, and he had only returned
+to his poor farm a day or two after Michael-mas.'  So saying, he
+led them to the threshold of a ruinous building, in the very
+centre, as it were, of the desolation, and said, 'That, gentlemen,
+is where the poor honest widow kept her little shop.'
+
+Black, burnt, dreary, lay the hospitable abode.  The building had
+fallen, but the beams of the upper floor had fallen aslant, so as
+to shelter a portion of the lower room, where the red-tile
+pavement, the hearth with the gray ashes of the harmless home-fire,
+some unbroken crocks, a chain, and a _sabot_, were still visible,
+making the contrast of dreariness doubly mournful.
+
+Berenger had stepped over the threshold, with his hat in his hand,
+as if the ruin were a sacred place to him, and stood gazing in a
+transfixed, deadened way.  The captain asked where the remains
+were.
+
+'Our people,' said the old man and the fisher, 'laid them by night
+in the earth near the church.'
+
+Just then Berenger's gaze fell on something half hidden under the
+fallen timbers.  He instantly sprang forward, and used all his
+strength to drag it out in so headlong a manner that all the rest
+hurried to prevent his reckless proceedings from bringing the heavy
+beams down on his head.  When brought to light, the object proved
+to be one of the dark, heavy, wooden cradles used by the French
+peasantry, shining with age, but untouched by fire.
+
+'Look in,' Berenger signed to Philip, his own eyes averted, his
+mouth set.
+
+The cradle was empty, totally empty, save for a woolen covering, a
+little mattress, and a string of small yellow shells threaded.
+
+Berenger held out his hand, grasped the baby-play thing
+convulsively, then dropped upon his knees, clasping his hands over
+his ashy face, the string of shells still wound among his fingers.
+Perhaps he had hitherto hardly realized the existence of his child,
+and was solely wrapped up in the thought of his wife; but the
+wooden cradle, the homely toy, stirred up fresh depths of feelings;
+he saw Eustacie wither tender sweetness as a mother, he beheld the
+little likeness of her in the cradle; and oh! that this should have
+been the end!  Unable to repress a moan of anguish from a bursting
+heart, he laid his face against the senseless wood, and kissed it
+again and again, then lay motionless against it save for the long-
+drawn gasps and sobs that shook his frame.  Philip, torn to the
+heart, would have almost forcibly drawn him away; but Master Hobbs,
+with tears running down his honest cheeks, withheld the boy.
+'Don't ye, Master Thistlewood, 'twill do him good.  Poor young
+gentleman!  I know how it was when I came home and found our first
+little lad, that we had thought so much on, had been take.  But
+then he was safe laid in his own churchyard, and his mother was
+there to meet me; while your poor brother---Ah! God comfort him!'
+
+'_Le pauvre Monsieur_!' exclaimed the old peasant, struck at the
+sight of his grief, 'was it then his child?  And he, no doubt,
+lying wounded elsewhere while God's hand was heavy on this place.
+Yet he might hear more.  They said the priest came down and carried
+off the little ones to be bred up in convents.'
+
+'Who?--where?' asked Berenger, raising his head as if catching at a
+straw in this drowning of all his hopes.
+
+''Tis true,' added the fisherman. 'It was the holy priest of
+Nissard, for he send down to St. Julien for a woman to nurse the
+babes.'
+
+'To Nissard, then,' said Berenger, rising.
+
+'It is but a chance,' said the old Huguenot; 'many of the innocents
+were with their mothers in yonder church.  Better for them to
+perish like the babes of Bethlehem than to be bred up in the house
+of Baal; but perhaps Monsieur is English, and if so he might yet
+obtain the child.  Yet he must not hope too much.'
+
+'No, for there was many a little corpse among those we buried,'
+said the fisher.  'Will the gentleman see the place?'
+
+'Oh, no!' exclaimed Philip, understanding the actions, and indeed
+many of the words; 'this place will kill him.'
+
+'To the grave,' said Berenger, as if he heard nothing.
+
+'See,' added Philip, 'there are better things than graves,' and he
+pointed to a young green sucker of a vine, which, stimulated by the
+burnt soil, had shot up between the tiles of the floor.  'Look,
+there is hope to meet you even here.'
+
+Berenger merely answered by gathering a leaf from the vine and
+putting it into his bosom; and Philip, whom only extreme need could
+have thus inspired, perceived that he accepted it as the augury of
+hope.
+
+Berenger turned to bid the two men bear the cradle with them, and
+then followed the old man out into the PLACE, once a pleasant open
+paved square, now grass-grown and forlorn.  On one side lay the
+remains of the church.  The Huguenots had been so predominant at La
+Sablerie as to have engrossed the building, and it had therefore
+shared the general destruction, and lay in utter, desolate ruin, a
+mere shell, and the once noble spire, the mariner's guiding star,
+blown up with gun-cruel that ever desolated the country.  Beyond
+lay the burial-ground, in unspeakable dreariness.  The crossed of
+the Catholic dead had been levelled by the fanaticism of the
+Huguenots, and though a great dominant stone cross raised on steps
+had been re-erected, it stood uneven, tottering and desolate among
+nettles, weeds, and briers.  There seemed to have been a few deep
+trenches dug to receive the bodies of the many victims of the
+siege, and only rudely and slightly filled in with loose earth, on
+which Philippe treading had nearly sunk in, so much to his horror
+that he could hardly endure the long contemplation in which his
+brother stood gazing on the dismal scene, as if to bear it away
+with him.  Did the fair being he had left in a king's palace sleep
+her last sleep her last sleep amid the tangled grass, the thistles
+and briers that grew so close that it was hardly possible to keep
+from stumbling over them, where all memorials of friend or foe were
+alike obliterated?  Was a resting-place among these nameless graves
+the best he could hope for the wife whose eyes he had hoped by this
+time would be answering his own--was this her shelter from foe,
+from sword, famine, and fire?
+
+A great sea-bird, swooping along with broad wings and wild wailing
+cry, completed the weird dismay that had seized on Philip, and
+clutching at his brother's cloak, he exclaimed, 'Berry, Berry, let
+us be gone, or we shall both be distraught!'
+
+Berenger yielded passively, but when the ruins of the town had been
+again crossed, and the sad little party, after amply rewarding the
+old man, were about to return to St. Julien, he stood still,
+saying, 'Which is the way to Nissard?' and, as the men pointed to
+the south, he added, 'Show me the way thither.'
+
+Captain Hobbs now interfered.  He knew the position of Nissard,
+among dangerous sandbanks, between which a boat could only venture
+at the higher tides, and by daylight.  To go the six miles thither
+at present would make it almost impossible to return to the
+THROSTLE that night, and it was absolutely necessary that he at
+least should do this.  He therefore wished the young gentleman to
+return with him on board, sleep there, and be put ashore at Nissard
+as soon as it should be possible in the morning. But Berenger shook
+his head.  He could not rest for a moment till he had ascertained
+the fate of Eustacie's child.  Action alone could quench the horror
+of what he had recognized as her own lot, and the very pursuit of
+this one thread of hope seemed needful to him to make it
+substantial.  He would hear of nothing but walking at once to
+Nissard; and Captain Hobbs, finding it impossible to debate the
+point with one so dazed and crushed with grief, and learning from
+the fishermen that not only was the priest one of the kindest and
+most hospitable men living, but that there was a tolerable
+_caberet_ not far from the house, selected from the loiterers who
+had accompanied them from St. Julien a trustworthy-looking, active
+lad as a guide, and agreed with the high tide on the morrow, either
+to concert measures for obtaining possession of the lost infant,
+or, if all were in vain, to fetch them off.  Then he, with the mass
+of stragglers from St. Julien, went off direct for the coast, while
+the two young brothers, their two attendants, and the fishermen,
+turned southwards along the summit of the dreary sandbanks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.  THE GOOD PRIEST OF NISSARD
+
+
+
+Till at the set of sun all tracks and ways
+In darkness lay enshrouded.  And e'en thus
+The utmost limit of the great profound
+At length we reach'd, where in dark gloom and mist
+Cimmeria's people and their city lie
+Enveloped ever.--ODYSSEY (MUSGROVE)
+
+
+The October afternoon had set in before the brothers were the way
+to Nissard; and in spite of Berenger's excited mood, the walk
+through the soft, sinking sand could not be speedily performed.  It
+was that peculiar sand-drift which is the curse of so many coasts,
+slowly, silently, irresistibly flowing, blowing, creeping in, and
+gradually choking all vegetation and habitation.  Soft and almost
+impalpable, it lay heaped in banks yielding as air, and yet far
+more than deep enough to swallow up man and horse.  Nay, tops of
+trees, summits of chimneys, told what it had already swallowed.
+The whole scene far and wide presented nothing but the lone, tame
+undulations, liable to be changed by every wind, and solitary
+beyond expression--a few rabbits scudding hither and thither, or a
+sea-gull floating with white, ghostly wings in the air, being the
+only living things visible.  On the one hand a dim, purple horizon
+showed that the inhabited country lay miles inland; on the other
+lay the pale, gray, misty expanse of sea, on which Philip's eyes
+could lovingly discern the THROSTLE'S masts.
+
+That view was Philip's chief comfort.  The boy was feeling more
+eerie and uncomfortable than ever he had been before as he plodded
+along, sinking deep with every step almost up to his ankles in the
+sand, on which the bare-footed guide ran lightly, and Berenger,
+though sinking no less deeply, seemed insensible to all
+inconveniences.  This desolateness was well-nigh unbearable; no one
+dared to speak while Berenger thus moved on in the
+unapproachableness of his great grief, and Philip presently began
+to feel a dreamy sense that they had all thus been moving for
+years, that this was the world's end, the land of shadows, and that
+his brother was a ghost already.  Besides vague alarms like these,
+there was the dismal English and Protestant prejudice in full force
+in Philip's mind, which regarded the resent ground as necessarily
+hostile, and all Frenchmen, above all French priests, as in league
+to cut off every Englishman and Protestant.  He believed himself in
+a country full of murderers, and was walking on with the one
+determination that his brother should not rush on danger without
+him, and that the Popish rogues should be kept in mind that there
+was an English ship in sight.  Alas! that consolation was soon
+lost, for a dense gray mist was slowly creeping in from the sea,
+and blotted out the vessel, then gathered in closer, and
+obliterated all landmarks.  Gradually it turned to a heavy rain,
+and about the same time the ground on which they walked became no
+longer loose sand-hills, but smooth and level.  It was harder
+likewise from the wet, and this afforded better walking, but there
+lay upon it fragments of weed and shell, as though it were liable
+to be covered by the sea, and there was a low, languid plash of the
+tide, which could not be seen.  Twilight began to deepen the mist.
+The guide was evidently uneasy; he sidled up to Philip, and began
+to ask what he--hitherto obstinately deaf and contemptuous to
+French--was very slow to comprehend.  At last he found it was a
+question how near it was to All Soul's day; and then came an
+equally amazing query whether the gentlemen's babe had been
+baptized; for it appeared that on All Soul's day the spirits of
+unchristened infants had the power of rising from the sands in a
+bewildering mist, and leading wayfarers into the sea.  And the poor
+guide, white and drenched, vowed he never would have undertaken
+this walk if he had only thought of this.  These slaughters of
+heretics must so much have augmented the number of the poor little
+spirits; and no doubt Monsieur would be specially bewildered by one
+so nearly concerned with him.  Philip, half frightened, could not
+help stepping forward and pulling Berenger by the cloak to make him
+aware of this strange peril; but he did not get much comfort.
+'Baptized?  Yes; you know she was, by the old nurse.  Let me alone,
+I say.  I would follow her wherever she called me, the innocent,
+and glad--the sooner the better.'
+
+And he shook his brother off with a sadness and impatience so
+utterly unapproachable, that Philip, poor boy, could only watch his
+tall figure in the wide cloak and slouched hat, stalking on ever
+more indistinct in the gloom, while his much confused mind tried to
+settle the theological point whether the old nurse's baptism were
+valid enough to prevent poor little Berangere from becoming one of
+these mischievous deluders; and all this was varied by the notion
+of Captain Hobbs picking up their corpses on the beach, and of Sir
+Marmaduke bewailing his only son.
+
+At last a strange muffled sound made him start in the dead silence,
+but the guide hailed the sound with a joyful cry---
+
+'Hola! Blessings on Notre-Dame and holy Father Colombeau, now are
+we saved!'  and on Philip's hasty interrogation, he explained that
+it was from the bells of Nissard, which the good priest always
+caused to be rung during these sea-fogs, to disperse all evil
+beings, and guide the wanderers.
+
+The guide strode on manfully, as the sound became clearer and
+nearer, and Philip was infinitely relived to be free from all
+supernatural anxieties, and to have merely to guard against the
+wiles of a Polish priest, a being almost as fabulously endowed in
+his imagination as poor little Berangere's soul could be in that of
+the fisherman.
+
+The drenching Atlantic mist had wetted them all to the skin, and
+closed round them so like a solid wall, that they had almost lost
+sight of each other, and had nothing but the bells' voices to
+comfort them, till quite suddenly there was a light upon the mist,
+a hazy reddish gleam--a window seemed close to them.  The guide,
+heartily thanking Our Lady and St. Julian, knocked at a door, which
+opened at once into a warm, bright, superior sort of kitchen, where
+a neatly-dressed elderly peasant woman exclaimed, 'Welcome, poor
+souls!  Enter, then.  Here, good Father, are some bewildered
+creatures.  Eh! wrecked are you, good folks, or lost in the fog?'
+
+At the same moment there came from behind the screen that shut off
+the fire from the door, a benignant-looking, hale old man in a
+cassock, with long white hair on his shoulders, and a cheerful
+face, ruddy from sea-wind.
+
+'Welcome, my friends,' he said.  'Thanks to the saints who have
+guided you safely.  You are drenched.  Come to the fire at once.'
+
+And as they moved on into the full light of the fire and the rude
+iron lamp by which he had been reading, and he saw the draggled
+plumes and other appurtenances that marked the two youths as
+gentlemen, he added, 'Are you wrecked, Messieurs?  We will do our
+poor best for your accommodation;' and while both mechanically
+murmured a word of thanks, and removed their soaked hats, the good
+man exclaimed, as he beheld Berenger's ashy face, with the sunken
+eyes and deep scars, 'Monsieur should come to bed at once.  He is
+apparently recovering from a severe wound.  This way, sir;  Jolitte
+shall make you some hot tisane.'
+
+'Wait, sir,' said Berenger, very slowly, and his voice sounding
+hollow from exhaustion; 'they say that you can tell me of my child.
+Let me hear.'
+
+'Monsieur's child!' exclaimed the bewildered curate, looking from
+him to Philip, and then to the guide, who poured out a whole stream
+of explanation before Philip had arranged three words of French.
+
+'You hear, sir,' said Berenger, as the man finished:  'I came
+hither to seek my wife, the Lady of Ribaumont.'
+
+'Eh!' exclaimed the _cure_, 'do I then see M. le Marquis de Nid de
+Merle?'
+
+'No!' cried Berenger; 'no, I am not that _scelerat_!  I am her true
+husband, the Baron de Ribaumont.'
+
+'The Baron de Ribaumont perished at the St. Bartholomew,' said the
+_cure_, fixing his eyes on him, as though to confute an impostor.
+
+'Ah, would that I had!' said Berenger.  'I was barely saved with
+the life that is but misery now.  I came to seek her--I found what
+you know.  They told me that you saved the children.  Ah, tell me
+where mine is!--all that is left me.'
+
+'A few poor babes I was permitted to rescue, but very few.  But let
+me understand to whom I speak,' he added, much perplexed.  'You,
+sir---'
+
+'I am her husband, married at five years old--contract renewed last
+year.  It was he whom you call Nid de Merle who fell on me, and
+left me for dead.  A faithful servant saved my life, but I have
+lain sick in England till now, when her letter to my mother brought
+me to La Sablerie, to find--to find THIS.  Oh, sir, have pity on
+me!  Tell me if you know anything of her, or if you can give me her
+child.'
+
+'The orphans I was able to save are--the boys at nurse here, the
+girls with the good nuns at Lucon,' said the priest, with infinite
+pity in his look.  'Should you know it, sir?'
+
+'I would--I should,' said Berenger.  'But it is a girl.  Ah, would
+that it were here!  But you--you, sir--you know more than these
+fellows.  Is there no--no hope of herself?'
+
+'Alas! I fear I can give you none,' said the priest; 'but I will
+tell all I know; only I would fain see you eat, rest, and be
+dried.'
+
+'How can I?' gasped he, allowing himself, however, to sink into a
+chair; and the priest spoke:
+
+'Perhaps you know, sir, that the poor lady fled from her friends,
+and threw herself upon the Huguenots.  All trace had been lost,
+when, at a banquet given by the mayor of Lucon, there appeared some
+_patisseries_, which some ecclesiastic, who had enjoyed the
+hospitality of Bellaise, recognized as peculiar to the convent
+there, where she had been brought up.  They were presented to the
+mayor by his friend, Bailli la Grasse, who had boasted of the
+excellent _confitures_ of the heretic pastor's daughter that lodged
+in the town of La Sablerie.  The place was in disgrace for having
+afforded shelter and supplies to Montgomery's pirate crews, and
+there were narrations of outrages committed on Catholics.  The army
+were enraged by their failure before La Rochelle; in effect, it was
+resolved to make an example, when, on M. de Nid de Merle's summons,
+all knowledge of the lady was denied.  Is it possible that she was
+indeed not there?'
+
+Berenger shook his head.  'She was indeed there,' he said, with an
+irrepressible groan.  'Was there no mercy--none?'
+
+'Ask not, sir,' said the compassionate priest; 'the flesh shrinks,
+though there may be righteous justice.  A pillaged town, when men
+are enraged, is like a place of devils unchained.  I reached it
+only after it had been taken by assault, when all was flame and
+blood.  Ask me no more; it would be worse for you to hear than me
+to tell,' he concluded, shuddering, but laying his hand kindly on
+Berenger's arm.  'At least it is ended now and God is more merciful
+than men.  Many died by the bombs cast into to city, and she for
+whom you ask certainly fell not alive into the hands of those who
+sought her.  Take comfort, sir; there is One who watches and takes
+count of our griefs.  Sir, turning to Philip, 'this gentleman is
+too much spent with sorrow to bear this cold and damp.  Aid me, I
+entreat, to persuade him to lie down.'
+
+Philip understood the priest's French far better than that of the
+peasants, and added persuasions that Berenger was far too much
+exhausted and stunned to resist.  To spend a night in a Popish
+priest's house would once have seemed to Philip a shocking
+alternative, yet here he was, heartily assisting in removing the
+wet garments in which his brother had sat only too long, and was
+heartily relieved to lay him down in the priest's own bed, even
+though there was an image over the head, which, indeed, the boy
+never saw.  He only saw his brother turn away from the light with a
+low, heavy moan, as if he would fain be left alone with his sorrow
+and his crushed hopes.
+
+Nothing could be kinder than Dome Colombeau, the priest of Nissard.
+He saw to the whole of his guests being put into some sort of dry
+habiliments before they sat round his table to eat of the savoury
+mess in the great _pot-au-feu_, which had, since their arrival,
+received additional ingredients, and moreover sundry villagers had
+crept into the house.  Whenever the good Father supped at home, any
+of his flock were welcome to drop in to enjoy his hospitability.
+After a cup of hot cider round, they carried off the fisherman to
+ledge in one of their cottages.  Shake-downs were found for the
+others, and Philip, wondering what was to become of the good host
+himself, gathered that he meant to spend such part of the night on
+the kitchen floor as he did not pass in prayer in the church for
+the poor young gentleman, who was in such affliction.  Philip was
+not certain whether to resent this as an impertinence or an attack
+on their Protestant principles; but he was not sure, either, that
+the priest was aware what was their religion, and was still less
+certain of his own comprehension of these pious intentions: he
+decided that, any way, it was better not to make a fool of himself.
+Still, the notion of the mischievousness of priests was so rooted
+in his head, that he consulted Humfrey on the expedience of keeping
+watch all night, but was sagaciously answered that 'these French
+rogues don't do any hurt unless they be brought up to it, and the
+place was as safe as old Hurst.'
+
+In fact, Philip's vigilance would have been strongly against
+nature.  He never awoke till full daylight and morning sun were
+streaming through the vine-leaves round the window, and then, to
+his dismay, he saw that Berenger had left his bed, and was gone.
+Suspicions of foul play coming over him in full force as he gazed
+round on much that he considered as 'Popish furniture,' he threw on
+his clothes, and hastened to open the door, when, to his great
+relief, he saw Berenger hastily writing at a table under the
+window, and Smithers standing by waiting for the billet.
+
+'I am sending Smithers on board, to ask Hobbs to bring our cloak
+bags,' said Berenger, as his brother entered.  'We must go on to
+Lucon.'
+
+He spoke briefly and decidedly, and Philip was satisfied to see him
+quite calm and collected--white indeed, and with the old haggard
+look, and the great scar very purple instead of red, which was
+always a bad sign with him.  He was not disposed to answer
+questions; he shortly said, 'He had slept not less than usual,'
+which Philip knew meant very little; and he had evidently made up
+his mind, and was resolved not to let himself give way.  If his
+beacon of hope had been so suddenly, frightfully quenched, he still
+was kept from utter darkness by straining his eyes and forcing his
+steps to follow the tiny, flickering spark that remained.
+
+The priest was at his morning mass; and so soon as Berenger had
+given his note to Smithers, and sent him off with a fisherman to
+the THROSTLE, he took up his hat, and went out upon the beach, that
+lay glistening in the morning sun, then turned straight towards the
+tall spire of the church, with had been their last night's guide.
+Philip caught his cloak.
+
+'You are never going there, Berenger?'
+
+'Vex me not now,' was all the reply he got.  'There the dead and
+living meet together.'
+
+'But, brother, they will take you for one of their own sort.'
+
+'Let them.'
+
+Philip was right that it was neither a prudent nor consistent
+proceeding, but Berenger had little power of reflection, and his
+impulse at present bore him into the church belonging to his native
+faith and land, without any defined felling, save that it was peace
+to kneel there among the scattered worshippers, who came and went
+with their fish-baskets in their hands, and to hear the low chant
+of the priest and his assistant from within the screen.
+
+Philip meantime marched up and down outside in much annoyance,
+until the priest and his brother came out, when the first thing he
+heard the good Colombeau say was, 'I would have called upon you
+before, my son, but that I feared you were a Huguenot.'
+
+'I am an English Protestant,' said Berenger; 'but, ah! sir, I
+needed comfort too much to stay away from prayer.'
+
+Pere Colombeau looked at him in perplexity, thinking perhaps that
+here might be a promising convert, if there were only time to work
+on him; but Berenger quitted the subject at once, asking the
+distance to Lucon.
+
+'A full day's journey,' answered Pere Colombeau, and added, 'I am
+sorry you are indeed a Huguenot.  It was what I feared last night,
+but I feared to add to your grief.  The nuns are not permitted to
+deliver up children to Huguenot relations.'
+
+'I am her father!' exclaimed Berenger, indignantly.
+
+'That goes for nothing, according to the rules of the Church,' said
+the priest.  'The Church cannot yield her children to heresy.'
+
+'But we in England and not Calvinists,' cried Berenger.  'We are
+not like your Huguenots.'
+
+'The Church would make no difference,' said the priest.  'Stay,
+sir,' as Berenger stuck his own forehead, and was about to utter a
+fierce invective.  'Remember that if your child lives, it is owing
+to the pity of the good nuns.  You seem not far from the bosom of
+the Church.  Did you but return---'
+
+'It is vain to speak of that,' said Berenger, quickly.  'Say, sir,
+would an order from the King avail to open these doors?'
+
+'Of course it would, if you have the influence to obtain one.'
+
+'I have, I have,' cried Berenger, eagerly.  'The King has been my
+good friend already.  Moreover, my English grandfather will deal
+with the Queen.  The heiress of our house cannot be left in a
+foreign nunnery.  Say, sir,' he added, turning to the priest, 'if I
+went to Lucon at once know your name, and refuse all dealings with
+you.'
+
+'She could not do so, if I brought an order from the King.'
+
+'Certainly not.'
+
+'Then to Paris!'  And laying his hand on Philip's shoulder, he
+asked the boy whether he had understood, ad explained that he must
+go at once to Paris--riding post--and obtain the order from the
+King.
+
+'To Paris--to be murdered again!' said Philip, in dismay.
+
+'They do not spend their time there in murder,' said Berenger.
+'And now is the time, while the savage villain Narcisse is with his
+master in Poland.  I cannot but go, Philip; we both waste words.
+You shall take home a letter to my Lord.'
+
+'I--I go not home without you,' said Philip, doggedly.
+
+'I cannot take you, Phil; I have no warrant.'
+
+'I have warrant for going, though.  My father said he was easier
+about you with me at your side.  Where you go, I go.'
+
+The brothers understood each other's ways so well, that Berenger
+knew the intonation in Philip's voice that meant that nothing
+should make him give way.  He persuaded no more, only took measures
+for the journey, in which the kind priest gave him friendly advice.
+There was no doubt that the good man pitied him sincerely, and
+wished him success more than perhaps he strictly ought to have
+done, unless as a possible convert.  Of money for the journey there
+was no lack, for Berenger had brought a considerable sum, intending
+to reward all who had befriended Eustacie, as well as to fit her
+out for the voyage; and this, perhaps, with his papers, he had
+brought ashore to facilitate his entrance into La Sablerie,--that
+entrance which, alas! he had found only too easy.  He had therefore
+only to obtain horses and a guide, and this could be done at la
+Motte-Achard, where the party could easily be guided on foot, or
+conveyed in a boat if the fog should not set in again, but all the
+coast-line of Nissard was dangerous in autumn and winter; nay, even
+this very August an old man, with his daughter, her infant, and a
+donkey, had been found bewildered between the creeks on a sandbank,
+where they stood still and patient, like a picture of the Flight
+into Egypt, when an old fisherman found them, and brought them to
+the beneficent shelter of the Presbytere.
+
+Stories of this kind were told at the meal that was something
+partaking of the nature of both breakfast and early dinner, but
+where Berenger ate little and spoke less.  Philip watched him
+anxiously; the boy thought the journey a perilous experiment every
+way, but, boyishly, was resolved neither to own his fears of it nor
+to leave his brother.  External perils he was quite ready to face,
+and he fancied that his English birth would give him some power of
+protecting Berenger, but he was more reasonably in dread of the
+present shock bringing on such an illness as the last relapse; and
+if Berenger lost his senses again, what should they do?  He even
+ventured to hint at this danger, but Berenger answered, 'That will
+scarce happen again.  My head is stronger now.  Besides, it was
+doing nothing, and hearing her truth profaned, that crazed me.  No
+one at least will do that again.  But if you wish to drive me
+frantic again, the way would be to let Hobbs carry me home without
+seeking her child.'
+
+Philip bore this in mind, when, with flood-tide, Master Hobbs
+landed, and showed himself utterly dismayed at the turn affairs had
+taken.  He saw the needlessness of going to Lucon without royal
+authority; indeed, he thought it possible that the very application
+there might give the alarm, and cause all tokens of the child's
+identity to be destroyed, in order to save her from her heretic
+relations.  But he did not at all approve of the young gentlemen
+going off to Paris at once.  It was against his orders.  He felt
+bound to take them home as he has brought them, and they might then
+make a fresh start if it so pleased them; but how could he return
+to my Lord and Sir Duke without them?  'Mr. Ribaumont might be
+right--it was not for him to say a father ought not to look after
+his child--yet he was but a stripling himself, and my Lord had
+said, 'Master Hobbs, I trust him to you.''  He would clearly have
+liked to have called in a boat's crew, mastered the young
+gentlemen, and carried them on board as captives; but as this was
+out of his power, he was obliged to yield the point.  He
+disconsolately accepted the letters in which Berenger had explained
+all, and in which he promised to go at once to Sir Francis
+Walsingham's at Paris, to run into no needless danger, and to watch
+carefully over Philip; and craved pardon, in a respectful but yet
+manly and determined tone, for placing his duty to his lost,
+deserted child above his submission to his grandfather. Then
+engaging to look out for a signal on the coast if he should said to
+Bordeaux in January, to touch and take the passengers off, Captain
+Hobbs took leave, and the brothers were left to their own
+resources.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.  THE VELVET COACH
+
+
+
+No, my good Lord, Diana--
+           ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
+
+
+A late autumn journey from the west coast to Paris was a more
+serious undertaking in the sixteenth century than the good seaman
+Master Hobbs was aware of, or he would have used stronger
+dissuasive measures against such an undertaking by the two youths,
+when the elder was in so frail a state of health; but there had
+been a certain deceptive strength and vigour about young Ribaumont
+while under strong excitement and determination, and the whole
+party fancied him far fitter to meet the hardships than was really
+the case.  Philip Thistlewood always recollected that journey as
+the most distressing period of his life.
+
+They were out of the ordinary highways, and therefore found the
+hiring of horses often extremely difficult.  They had intended to
+purchase, but found no animals that, as Philip said, they would
+have accepted as a gift, though at every wretched inn where they
+had to wait while the country was scoured for the miserable jades,
+their proposed requirements fell lower and lower.  Dens of smoke,
+dirt, and boorishness were the great proportion of those inns,
+where they were compelled to take refuge by the breaking down of
+one or other of the beasts, or by stress of weather.  Snow, rain,
+thaw and frost alternated, each variety rendering the roads
+impassable; and at the best, the beasts could seldom be urged
+beyond a walk, fetlock-deep in mire or water.  Worse than all,
+Berenger, far from recovered, and under the heavy oppression of a
+heartrending grief, could hardly fail to lose the ground that he
+had gained under the influence of hope.  The cold seemed to fix
+itself on the wound on his cheek, terrible pain and swelling set
+in, depriving him entirely of sleep, permitting him to take no
+nourishment but fragments of soft crumbs soaked in wine or broth--
+when the inns afforded any such fare--and rendering speech
+excessively painful, and at last unintelligible.
+
+Happily this was not until Philip and Humfrey both had picked up
+all the most indispensable words to serve their needs, and storming
+could be done in any language.  Besides, they had fallen in at La
+Motte-Achard with a sharp fellow named Guibert, who had been at
+sea, and knew a little English, was a Norman by birth, knew who the
+Baron de Ribaumont was, and was able to make himself generally
+useful, though ill supplying the place of poor Osbert, who would
+have been invaluable in the present predicament.  Nothing was so
+much dreaded by any of the party as that their chief should become
+utterly unable to proceed.  Once let him be laid up at one of these
+little _auberges_, and Philip felt as if all would be over with
+him; and he himself was always the most restlessly eager to push
+on, and seemed to suffer less even in the biting wind and sleet
+than on the dirty pallets or in the smoky, noisy kitchens of the
+inns.  That there was no wavering of consciousness was the only
+comfort, and Philip trusted to prevent this by bleeding him
+whenever his head seemed aching or heated; and under this well-
+meant surgery it was no wonder that he grew weaker every day, in
+spite of the most affectionate and assiduous watching on his
+brother's part.
+
+Nearly six weeks had been spent in struggling along the cross-
+roads, or rather in endless delays; and when at last they came on
+more frequented ways, with better inns, well-paved _chaussees_, and
+horses more fit for use, Berenger was almost beyond feeling the
+improvement.  At their last halt, even Philip was for waiting and
+sending on to Paris to inform Sir Francis Walsingham of their
+situation; but Berenger only shook his head, dressed himself, and
+imperatively signed to go on.  It was a bright morning, with a
+clear frost, and the towers and steeples of Paris presently began
+to appear above the poplars that bordered the way; but by this time
+Berenger was reeling in his saddle, and he presently became so
+faint and dizzy, that Philip and Humfrey were obliged to lift him
+from his horse, and lay him under an elm-tree that stood a little
+back from the road.
+
+'Look up, sir, it is but a league further,' quoth Humfrey; 'I can
+see the roof of the big church they call Notre-Dame.'
+
+'He does not open his eyes, he is swooning,' said Philip.  'He must
+have some cordial, ere he can sit his horse.  Can you think of no
+lace where we could get a drop of wine or strong waters?'
+
+'Not I, Master Philip. We passed a convent wall but now, but 'twas
+a nunnery, as good as a grave against poor travelers.  I would ride
+on, and get some of Sir Francis's folk to bring a litter or coach,
+but I doubt me if I could get past the barrier without my young
+Lord's safe-conduct.'
+
+Berenger, hearing all, here made an effort to raise himself, but
+sank back against Philip's shoulder.  Just then, a trampling and
+lumbering became audible, and on the road behind appeared first
+three horsemen riding abreast, streaming with black and white
+ribbons; then eight pair of black horses, a man walking at the
+crested heads of each couple, and behind these a coach, shaped like
+an urn reversed, and with a coronet on the top, silvered, while the
+vehicle itself was, melon-like, fluted, alternately black, with
+silver figures, and white with black landscapes; and with white
+draperies, embroidered with black and silver, floating from the
+windows.  Four lacqueys, in the same magpie-colouring, stood
+behind, and outriders followed; but as the cavalcade approached the
+group by the road-side, one of the horsemen paused, saying lightly,
+'Over near the walls from an affair of honour!  Has he caught it
+badly?  Who was the other?'
+
+Ere Guibert could answer, the curtains were thrust aside, the coach
+stopped, a lady's head and hand appeared, and a female voice
+exclaimed, in much alarm, 'Halt!  Ho, you there, in our colours,
+come here.  What is it?  My brother here?  Is he wounded?'
+
+'It is no wound, Madame,' said Guibert, shoved forward by his
+English comrades, 'it is M.le Baron de Ribaumont who is taken ill,
+and--ah! here is Monsieur Philippe.'
+
+For Philip, seeing a thick black veil put back from the face of the
+most beautiful lady who had ever appeared to him, stepped forward,
+hat in hand, as she exclaimed, 'Le Baron de Ribaumont!  Can it be
+true?  What means this?  What ails him?'
+
+'It is his wound, Madame,' said Philip, in his best French; 'it has
+broken out again, and he has almost dropped from his horse from
+_defaillance_.'
+
+'Ah, bring him here--lay him on the cushions, we will have the
+honour of transporting him,' cried the lady; and, regardless of the
+wet road, she sprang out of the coach, with her essences in her
+hand, followed by at least three women, two pages, and two little
+white dogs which ran barking towards the prostrate figure, but were
+caught up by their pages.  'Ah, cousin, how dreadful,' she cried,
+as she knelt down beside him, and held her essences towards him.
+Voice and scent revived him, and with a bewildered look and gesture
+half of thanks, half of refusal, he gazed round him, then rose to
+his feet without assistance, bent his head, and making a sign that
+he was unable to speak, turned towards his horse.
+
+'Cousin, cousin,' exclaimed the lady, in whose fine black eyes
+tears were standing, 'you will let me take you into the city--you
+cannot refuse.'
+
+'Berry, indeed you cannot ride,' entreated Philip; 'you must take
+her offer.  Are you getting crazed at last?'
+
+Berenger hesitated for a moment, but he felt himself again dizzy;
+the exertion of springing into his saddle was quite beyond him, and
+bending his head he submitted passively to be helped into the black
+and white coach.  Humfrey, however, clutched Philip's arm, and said
+impressively, 'Have a care, sir; this is no other than the fine
+lady, sister to the murderous villain that set upon him.  If you
+would save his life, don't quit him, nor let her take him elsewhere
+than to our Ambassador's.  I'll not leave the coach-door, and as
+soon as we are past the barriers, I'll send Jack Smithers to make
+known we are coming.'
+
+Philip, without further ceremony, followed the lady into the coach,
+where he found her insisting that Berenger, who had sunk back in a
+corner, should lay his length of limb, muddy boots and all, upon
+the white velvet cushions richly worked in black and silver, with
+devices and mottoes, in which the crescent moon, and eclipsed or
+setting suns, made a great figure.  The original inmates seemed to
+have disposed of themselves in various nooks of the ample
+conveyance, and Philip, rather at a loss to explain his intrusion,
+perched himself awkwardly on the edge of the cushions in front of
+his brother, thinking that Humfrey was an officious, suspicious
+fellow, to distrust this lovely lady, who seemed so exceedingly
+shocked and grieved at Berenger's condition.  'Ah! I never guessed
+it had been so frightful as this.  I should not have known him.
+Ah! had I imagined---'  She leant back, covered her face, and wept,
+as one overpowered; then, after a few seconds, she bent forward,
+and would have taken the hand that hung listlessly down, but it was
+at once withdrawn, and folded with the other on his breast.
+
+'Can you be more at ease?  Do you suffer much?' she asked, with
+sympathy and tenderness that went to Philip's heart, and he
+explained.  'He cannot speak, Madame; the shot in his cheek' (the
+lady shuddered, and put her handkerchief to her eyes) 'from time to
+time cases this horrible swelling and torture.  After that he will
+be better.'
+
+'Frightful, frightful,' she sighed, 'but we will do our best to
+make up.  You, sir, must be his _trucheman_.'
+
+Philip, not catching the last word, and wondering what kind of man
+that might be, made answer, 'I am his brother, Madame.'
+
+'_Eh! Monsieur son frere_.  Had _Madame sa mere_ a son so old?'
+
+'I am Philip Thistlewood, her husband's son, at your service,
+Madame,' said Philip, colouring up to the ears; 'I came with him
+for he is too weak to be alone.'
+
+'Great confidence must be reposed in you, sir,' she said, with a
+not unflattering surprise.  'But whence are you come?  I little
+looked to see Monsieur here.'
+
+'We came from Anjou, Madame.  We went to La Sablerie,' and he broke
+off.
+
+'I understand.  Ah! let us say no more!  It rends the heart;' and
+again she wiped away tear.  'And now---'
+
+'We are coming to the Ambassador's to obtain'--he stopped, for
+Berenger gave him a touch of peremptory warning, but the lady saved
+his embarrassment by exclaiming that she could not let her dear
+cousin go to the Ambassador's when he was among his own kindred.
+Perhaps Monsieur did not know her; she must present herself as
+Madame de Selinville, _nee_ de Ribaumont, a poor cousin of _ce cher
+Baron_, 'and even a little to you, _M. le frere_, if you will own
+me,' and she held out a hand, which he ought to have kissed, but
+not knowing how, he only shook it.  She further explained that her
+brother was at Cracow with Monsieur, now King of Poland, but that
+her father lived with her at her hotel, and would be enchanted to
+see his dear cousin, only that he, like herself, would be desolated
+at the effects of that most miserable of errors.  She had been
+returning from her Advent retreat at a convent, where she had been
+praying for the soul of the late M. de Selinville, when a true
+Providence had made her remark the colours of her family.  And now,
+nothing would serve her, but that this dear Baron should be carried
+at once to their hotel, which was much nearer than that of the
+Ambassador, and where every comfort should await him.  She clasped
+her hands in earnest entreaty, and Philip, greatly touched by her
+kindness and perceiving that every jolt of the splendid by
+springless vehicle caused Berenger's head a shoot of anguish, was
+almost acceding to her offer, when he was checked by one of the
+most imperative of those silent negatives.  Hitherto, Master
+Thistlewood had been rather proud of his bad French, and as long as
+he could be understood, considered trampling on genders, tenses,
+and moods as a manful assertion of Englishry, but he would just now
+have given a great deal for the command of any language but a
+horseboy's, to use to this beautiful gracious personage.  '_Merci,
+Madame, nous ne fallons pas, nous avons passe notre parole d'aller
+droit a l'Ambassadeur's et pas ou else_,' did not sound very right
+to his ears ; he coloured up to the roots of his hair, and knew
+that if Berry had had a smile left in him, poor fellow, he would
+have smiled now.  But this most charming and polite of ladies never
+betrayed it, if it were ever such bad French; she only bowed her
+head, and said something very pretty--if only he could make it out
+--of being the slave of one's word, and went on persuading.  Nor
+did it make the conversation easier, that she inquired after
+Berenger, and mourned over his injuries as if he were unconscious,
+while Philip knew, nay, was reminded every instant, that he was
+aware of all that was passing, most anxious that as little as
+possible should be said, and determined against being taken to her
+hotel.  So unreasonable a prejudice did this seem to Philip, that
+had it not been for Humfrey's words, he would have doubted whether,
+in spite of all his bleeding, his brother's brain were not
+wandering.
+
+However, what with Humfrey without, and Berenger within, the turn
+to the Ambassador's hotel was duly taken, and in process of time a
+hearty greeting passed between Humfrey and the porter; and by the
+time the carriage drew up, half the household were assembled on the
+steps, including Sir Francis himself, who had already heard more
+than a fortnight back from Lord Walwyn, and had become uneasy at
+the non-arrival of his two young guests.  On Smithers's appearance,
+all had been made ready; and as Berenger, with feeble, tardy
+movements, made courteous gestures of thanks to the lady, and
+alighted form the coach, he was absolutely received into the
+dignified arms of the Ambassador.  'Welcome, my poor lad, I am glad
+to see you here again, though in such different guise.  Your
+chamber is ready for you, and I have sent my secretary to see if
+Maitre Par be at home, so we will, with God's help, have you better
+at ease anon.'
+
+Even Philip's fascination by Madame de Selinville could not hold
+out against the comfort of hearing English voices all round him,
+and of seeing his brother's anxious brow expand, and his hand and
+eyes return no constrained thanks.  Civilities were exchanged on
+both sides; the Ambassador thanked the lady for the assistance she
+had rendered to his young friend and guest; she answered with a
+shade of stiffness, that she left her kinsman in good hands, and
+said she should send to inquire that evening, and her father would
+call on the morrow; then, as Lady Walsingham did not ask her in,
+the black and white coach drove away.
+
+The lady threw herself back in one corner, covered her face, and
+spoke no word.  Her coach pursued its way through the streets, and
+turned at length into another great courtyard, surrounded with
+buildings, where she alighted, and stepped across a wide but dirty
+hall, where ranks of servants stoop up and bowed as she passed;
+then she ascended a wide carved staircase, opened a small private
+door, and entered a tiny wainscoted room hardly large enough for
+her farthingale to turn round in.  'You, Veronique, come in--only
+you,' she said, at the door; and a waiting-woman, who had been in
+the carriage, obeyed, no longer clad in the Angevin costume, but in
+the richer and less characteristic dress of the ordinary Parisian
+_femme de chambre_.
+
+'Undo my mantle in haste!' gasped Madame de Selinville. 'O
+Veronique--you saw--what destruction!'
+
+'Ah! if my sweet young lady only known how frightful he had become,
+she had never sacrificed herself,' sighed Veronique.
+
+'Frightful!  What, with the grave blue eyes that seem like the
+steady avenging judgment of St. Michael in his triumph in the
+picture at the Louvre?' murmured Madame de Selinville; then she
+added quickly, 'Yes, yes, it is well.  She and you, Veronique, may
+see him frightful and welcome.  There are other eyes--make haste,
+girl.  There--another handerchief.  Follow me not.'
+
+And Madame de Selinville moved out of the room, past the great
+state bedroom and the _salle_ beyond, to another chamber where more
+servants waited and rose at her entrance.
+
+'Is any one with my father?'
+
+'No, Madame;' and a page knocking, opened the door and announced,
+'Madame la Comtesse.'
+
+The Chevalier, in easy _deshabille_, with a flask of good wine,
+iced water, and delicate cakes and _confitures_ before him, a witty
+and licentious epigrammatic poem close under his hand, sat lazily
+enjoying the luxuries that it had been his daughter's satisfaction
+to procure for him ever since her marriage.  He sprang up to meet
+her with a grace and deference that showed how different a person
+was the Comtesse de Selinville from Diane de Ribaumont.
+
+'Ah! _ma belle_, my sweet,' as there was a mutual kissing of hands,
+'thou art returned.  Had I known thine hour, I had gone down for
+thy first embrace.  But thou lookest fair, my child; the convent
+has made thee lovelier than ever.'
+
+'Father, who think you is here?  It is he--the Baron.'
+
+'The Baron?  Eh, father!' she cried impetuously.  'Who could it be
+but one?'
+
+'My child, you are mistaken!  That young hot-head can never be
+thrusting himself here again.'
+
+'But he is, father; I brought him into Paris in my coach!  I left
+him at the Ambassador's.'
+
+'Thou shouldest have brought him here.  There will be ten thousand
+fresh imbroglios.'
+
+'I could not; he is as immovable as ever, though unable to speak!
+Oh, father, he is very ill, he suffers terribly.  Oh, Narcisse!
+Ah! may I never see him again!'
+
+'But what brings him blundering her again?' exclaimed the
+Chevalier.  'Speak intelligibly, child!  I thought we had guarded
+against that!  He knows nothing of the survivance.'
+
+'I cannot tell much.  He could not open his mouth, and his half-
+brother, a big dull English boy, stammered out a few words of
+shocking French against his will.  But I believe they had heard of
+_la pauvre petite_ at La Sablerie, came over for her, and finding
+the ruin my brother makes wherever he goes, are returning seeking
+intelligence and succour for HIM.'
+
+'That may be,' said the Chevalier, thoughtfully. 'It is well thy
+brother is in Poland.  I would not see him suffer any more; and we
+may get him back to England ere my son learns that he is here.'
+
+'Father, there is a better way!  Give him my hand.'
+
+'_Eh quoi_, child; if thou art tired of devotion, there are a
+thousand better marriages.'
+
+'No, father, none so good for this family.  See, I bring him all--
+all that I was sold for.  As the price of that, he resigns for ever
+all his claims to the ancestral castle--to La Leurre, and above
+all, that claim to Nid de Merle as Eustacie's widower, which,
+should he ever discover the original contract, will lead to endless
+warfare.'
+
+'His marriage with Eustacie was annulled.  Yet--yet there might be
+doubts.  There was the protest; and who knows whether they formally
+renewed their vows when so much went wrong at Montpipeau.  Child,
+it is a horrible perplexity.  I often could wish we had had no
+warning, and the poor things had made off together.  We could have
+cried shame till we forced out a provision for thy brother; and my
+poor little Eustacie---' He had tears in his eyes as he broke off.
+
+Diane made an impatient gesture.  'She would have died of tedium in
+England, or broken forth so as to have a true scandal.  That is all
+over, father, now; weigh my proposal!  Nothing else will save my
+brother from all that his cruel hand merits!  You will win infinite
+credit at court.  The King loved him more than you thought safe.'
+
+'The King has not a year to live, child, and he has personally
+offended the King of Poland.  Besides, this youth is heretic.'
+
+'Only by education.  Have I not heard you say that he had by an
+abjuration.  And as to Monsieur's enmity, if it be not forgotten,
+the glory of bringing about a conversion would end that at once.'
+
+'Then, daughter, thou shouldst not have let him bury himself among
+the English.'
+
+'It was unavoidable, father, and perhaps if he were here he would
+live in an untamable state of distrust, whereas we may now win him
+gradually.  You will go and see him to-morrow, my dear father.'
+
+'I must have time to think of this thy sudden device.'
+
+'Nay, he is in no condition to hear of it at present.  I did but
+speak now, that you might not regard it as sudden when the fit
+moment comes.  It is the fixed purpose of my mind.  I am no girl
+now, and I could act for myself if I would; but as it is for your
+interest and that of my brother thus to dispose of me, it is better
+that you should act for me.'
+
+'Child, headstrong child, thou wilt make no scandal,' said the
+Chevalier, looking up at his daughter's handsome head drawn up
+proudly with determination.
+
+'Certainly not, sir, if you will act for me.'  And Diane sailed
+away in her sweeping folds of black brocade.
+
+In a few moments more she was kneeling with hands locked together
+before a much-gilded little waxem figure of St. Eustacie with his
+cross-bearing stag by his side, which stood in a curtained recess
+in the alcove where her stately bed was placed.
+
+'Monseigneur St. Eustache, ten wax candles everyday to your shrine
+at Bellaise, so he recovers; ten more if he listen favourably and
+loves me.  Nay, all--all the Selinville jewels to make you a
+shrine.  All--all, so he will only let me love him;' and then,
+while taking up the beads, and pronouncing the repeated devotions
+attached to each, her mind darted back to the day when, as young
+children, she had played unfairly, defrauded Landry Osbert, and
+denied it; how Berenger, though himself uninjured, had refused to
+speak to her all that day--how she had hated him then--how she had
+thought she had hated him throughout their brief intercourse in the
+previous year; how she had played into her brother's hands; and
+when she thought to triumph over the man who had scorned her, found
+her soul all blank desolation, and light gone out from the earth!
+Reckless and weary, she had let herself be united to M. de
+Selinville, and in her bridal honours and amusements had tried to
+crowd out the sense of dreariness and lose herself in excitement.
+Then came the illness and death of her husband, and almost at the
+same time the knowledge of Berenger's existence.  She sought
+excitement again that feverish form of devotion then in vogue at
+Paris, and which resulted in the League.  She had hitherto stunned
+herself as it were with penances, processions, and sermons, for
+which the host of religious orders then at Paris had given ample
+scope; and she was constantly devising new extravagances.  Even at
+this moment she wore sackcloth beneath her brocade, and her rosary
+was of death's heads. She was living on the outward husk of the
+Roman Church not penetrating into its living power, and the phase
+of religion which fostered Henry III. and the League offered her no
+more.
+
+All, all had melted away beneath the sad but steadfast glance of
+those two eyes, the only feature still unchanged in the marred,
+wrecked countenance.  That honest, quiet refusal, that look which
+came from a higher atmosphere, had filled her heart with passionate
+beatings and aspirations once more, and more consciously than ever.
+Womanly feeling for suffering, and a deep longing to compensate to
+him, and earn his love, nay wrest it from him by the benefits she
+would heap upon him, were all at work; but the primary sense was
+the longing to rest on the only perfect truth she had ever known in
+man, and thus with passionate ardour she poured forth her
+entreaties to St. Eustache, a married saint, who had known love,
+and could feel for her, and could surely not object to the
+affection to which she completely gave way for one whose hand was
+now as free as her own.
+
+But St. Eustache was not Diane's only hope.  That evening she sent
+Veronique to Rene of Milan, the court-perfumer, but also called by
+the malicious, _l'empoisonneur de le Reine_, to obtain from him the
+most infallible charm and love potion in his whole repertory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.  THE CHEVALIER'S EXPIATION
+
+
+
+                  Next, Sirs, did he marry?
+And whom, Sirs, did he marry?  One like himself,
+Though doubtless graced with many virtues, young,
+And erring, and in nothing more astray
+Than in this marriage.--TAYLOR, EDWIN THE FAIR.
+
+
+Nothing could be kinder than the Ambassador's family, and Philip
+found himself at once at home there, at least in his brother's
+room, which was all the world to him.  fortunately, Ambroise Pare,
+the most skillful surgeon of his day, had stolen a day from his
+attendance of King Charles, at St. Germain, to visit his Paris
+patients, and, though unwilling to add to the list of cases, when
+he heard from Walsingham's secretary who the suffer was, and when
+injured, he came at once to afford his aid.
+
+He found, however, that there was little scope for present
+treatment, he could only set his chief assistant to watch the
+patient and to inform him when the crisis should be nearer; but
+remarking the uneasy, anxious expression in Berenger's eyes, he
+desired to know whether any care on his mind might be interfering
+with his recovery.  A Huguenot, and perfectly trustworthy, he was
+one who Walsingham knew might safely hear the whole, and after
+hearing all, he at once returned to his patient, and leaning over
+him, said, 'Vex not yourself, sir; your illness is probably serving
+you better than health could do.'
+
+Sir Francis thought this quite probable, since Charles was so
+unwell and so beset with his mother's creatures that no open
+audience could be obtained from him, and Pare, who always had
+access to him, might act when no one else could reach him.
+Meantime the Ambassador rejoiced to hear of the instinctive caution
+that had made Berenger silence Philip on the object of the journey
+to Paris, since if the hostile family guessed at the residence of
+the poor infant, they would have full opportunity for obliterating
+all the scanty traces of her.  Poor persecuted little thing! the
+uncertain hope of her existence seemed really the only thread that
+still bound Berenger to life.  He had spent eighteen months in hope
+deferred, and constant bodily pain; and when the frightful
+disappointment met him at La Sablerie, it was not wonder that his
+heart and hope seemed buried in the black scorched ruins where all
+he cared for had perished.  He was scarcely nineteen, but the life
+before him seemed full of nothing but one ghastly recollection,
+and, as he said in the short sad little letter which he wrote to
+his grandfather from his bed, he only desired to live long enough
+to save Eustacie's child from being a nameless orphan maintained
+for charity in a convent, and to see her safe in Aunt Cecily's
+care; and then he should be content to have done with this world
+for ever.
+
+The thought that no one except himself could save the child, seemed
+to give him the resolution to battle for life that often bears the
+patient through illness, though now he as suffering more severely
+and consciously than ever he had done before; and Lady Walsingham
+often gave up hopes of him.  He was tenderly cared for by her and
+her women; but Philip was the most constant nurse, and his
+unfailing assiduity and readiness amazed the household, who had
+begun by thinking him ungainly, loutish, and fit for nothing but
+country sports.
+
+The Chevalier de Ribaumont came daily to inquire; and the first
+time he was admitted actually burst into tears at the sight of the
+swollen disfigured face, and the long mark on the arm which lay
+half-uncovered.  Presents of delicacies, ointments, and cooling
+drinks were frequently sent from him and from the Countess de
+Selinville; but Lady Walsingham distrusted these, and kept her
+guest strictly to the regimen appointed by Pare.  Now and then,
+billets would likewise come.  The first brought a vivid crimson
+into Berenger's face, and both it and all its successors he
+instantly tore into the smallest fragments, without letting any one
+see them.
+
+On the day of the Carnival, the young men of the household had
+asked Master Thistlewood to come out with them and see the
+procession of the _Boeuf Gras_; but before it could take place,
+reports were flying about that put the city in commotion, caused
+the Ambassador to forbid all going out, and made Philip expect
+another Huguenot massacre.  The Duke of Alencon and the King of
+Navarre had been detected, it was said, in a conspiracy for
+overthrowing the power of the Queen-mother, bringing in the
+Huguenots, and securing the crown to Alencon on the King's death.
+Down-stairs, the Ambassador and his secretaries sat anxiously
+striving to sift the various contradictory reports; up-stairs,
+Philip and Lady Walsingham were anxiously watching Berenger in what
+seemed the long-expected crisis, and Philip was feeling as if all
+the French court were welcome to murder one another so that they
+would only let Ambroise Pare come to his brother's relief.  And it
+was impossible even to send!
+
+At last, however, when Ash-Wednesday was half over, there was a
+quiet movement, and a small pale man in black was at the bedside,
+without Philip's having ever seen his entrance.  He looked at his
+exhausted patient, and said, 'It is well; I could not have done you
+any good before.'
+
+And when he had set Berenger more at ease, he told how great had
+been the confusion at St. Germain when the plot had become known to
+the Queen-mother.  The poor King had been wakened at two o'clock in
+the morning, and carried to his litter, when Pare and his old nurse
+had tended him.  He only said, 'Can they not let me die in peace?'
+and his weakness had been so great on arriving, that the surgeon
+could hardly have left him for M. de Ribaumont, save by his own
+desire.  'Yes, sir,' added Pare, seeing Berenger attending to him,
+'we must have you well quickly; his Majesty knows all about you,
+and is anxious to see you.'
+
+In spite of these good wishes, the recovery was very slow; for, as
+the surgeon had suspected, the want of skill in those who had had
+the charge of Berenger at the first had been the cause of much of
+his protracted suffering.  Pare, the inventor of trephining, was,
+perhaps, the only man in Europe who could have dealt with the
+fracture in the back of the head, and he likewise extracted the
+remaining splinters of the jaw, though at the cost of much severe
+handling and almost intolerable pain: but by Easter, Berenger found
+the good surgeon's encouragement verified, and himself on the way
+to a far more effectual cure than he had hitherto thought possible.
+Sleep had come back to him, he experienced the luxury of being free
+from all pain, he could eat without difficulty; and Pare, always an
+enemy to wine, assured him that half the severe headaches for which
+he had been almost bled to death, were the consequence of his
+living on bread soaked in sack instead of solid food; and he was
+forbidden henceforth to inflame his brain with anything stronger
+than sherbet.  His speech, too, was much improved; he still could
+not utter all the consonants perfectly, and could not speak
+distinctly without articulating very slowly, but all the discomfort
+and pain were gone; and though still very weak, he told Philip that
+now all his course seemed clear towards his child, instead of being
+like a dull, distraught dream.  His plan was to write to have a
+vessel sent from Weymouth, to lie off the coast till his signal
+should be seen from la Motte-Achard, and then to take in the whole
+party and the little yearling daughter, whom he declared he should
+trust to no one but himself.  Lady Walsingham remonstrated a little
+at the wonderful plans hatched by the two lads together, and yet
+she was too glad to see a beginning of brightening on his face to
+make many objections.  It was only too sand to think how likely he
+was again to be disappointed.
+
+He was dressed, but had not left his room, and was lying on
+cushions in the ample window overlooking the garden, while Frances
+and Elizabeth Walsingham in charge of their mother tried to amuse
+him by their childish airs and sports, when a message was brought
+that M. le Chevalier de Ribaumont prayed to be admitted to see him
+privily.
+
+'What bodes that?' he languidly said.
+
+'Mischief, no doubt,' said Philip Walsingham.  'Send him word that
+you are seriously employed.'
+
+'Nay, that could scarce be, when he must have heard the children's
+voices,' said Lady Walsingham.  'Come away, little ones.'
+
+The ladies took the hint and vanished, but Philip remained till the
+Chevalier had entered, more resplendent than ever, in a brown
+velvet suit slashed with green satin, and sparkling with gold lace
+-a contrast to the deep mourning habit in which Berenger was
+dressed.  After inquiries for his health, the Chevalier looked at
+Philip, and expressed his desire of speaking with his cousin alone.
+
+'If it be of business,' said Berenger, much on his guard, 'my head
+is still weak, and I would wish to have the presence of the
+Ambassador or one of his secretaries.'
+
+'This is not so much a matte of business as of family,' said the
+Chevalier, still looking so uneasily at Philip that Berenger felt
+constrained to advise him to join the young ladies in the garden;
+but instead of doing this, the boy paced the corridors like a
+restless dog waiting for his master, and no sooner heard the old
+gentleman bow himself out than he hurried back again, to find
+Berenger heated, panting, agitated as by a sharp encounter.
+
+'Brother, what is it--what has the old rogue done to you?'
+
+'Nothing,' said Berenger, tardily and wearily; and for some minutes
+he did not attempt to speak, while Philip devoured his curiosity as
+best he might.  At last he said, 'He was always beyond me.  What
+think you?  Now he wants me to turn French courtier and marry his
+daughter.'
+
+'His daughter!' exclaimed Philip, 'that beautiful lady I saw in the
+coach?'
+
+A nod of assent.
+
+'I only wish it were I.'
+
+'Philip,' half angrily, 'how can you be such a fool?'
+
+'Of course, I know it can't be,' said Philip sheepishly, but a
+little offended.  'But she's the fairest woman my eyes ever
+beheld.'
+
+'And the falsest.'
+
+'My father says all women are false; only they can't help it, and
+don't mean it.'
+
+'Only some do mean it,' said Berenger, dryly.
+
+'Brother!' cried Philip, fiercely, as if ready to break a lance,
+'what right have you to accuse that kindly, lovely dame of
+falsehood?'
+
+'It skills not going through all,' said Berenger, wearily.  'I know
+her of old.  She began by passing herself off on me as my wife.'
+
+'And you were not transported?'
+
+'I am not such a gull as you.'
+
+'How very beautiful your wife must have been!' said Philip, with
+gruff amazement overpowering his consideration.
+
+'Much you know about it,' returned Berenger, turning his face away.
+
+There was a long silence, first broken by Philip, asking more
+cautiously, 'And what did you say to him?'
+
+'I said whatever could show it was most impossible.  Even I said
+the brother's handwriting was too plain on my face for me to offer
+myself to the sister.  But it seems all that is to be passed over
+as an unlucky mistake.  I wish I could guess what the old fellow is
+aiming at.'
+
+'I am sure the lady looked at you as if she loved you.'
+
+'Simpleton!  She looked to see how she could beguile me.  Love!
+They do nothing for love here, you foolish boy, save _par amour_.
+If she loved me, her father was the last person she would have sent
+me.  No, no; 'tis a new stratagem, if I could only seen my way into
+it.  Perhaps Sir Francis will when he can spend an hour on me.'
+
+Though full of occupation, Sir Francis never failed daily to look
+in upon his convalescent guest, and when he heard of the
+Chevalier's interview, he took care that Berenger should have full
+time to consult him; and, of course, he inquired a good deal more
+into the particulars of the proposal than Philip had done.  When he
+learnt that the Chevalier had offered all the very considerable
+riches and lands that Diane enjoyed in right of her late husband as
+an equivalent for Berenger's resignation of all claims upon the
+Nid-de-Merle property, he noted it on his tables, and desired to
+know what these claims might be.  'I cannot tell,' said Berenger.
+'You may remember, sir, the parchments with our contract of
+marriage had been taken away from Chateau Leurre, and I have never
+seen them.'
+
+'Then,' said the Ambassador, 'you may hold it as certain that those
+parchments give you some advantage which he hears, since he is
+willing to purchase it at so heavy a price.  Otherwise he himself
+would be the natural heir of those lands.'
+
+'After my child,' said Berenger, hastily.
+
+'Were you on your guard against mentioning your trust in your
+child's life?' said Sir Francis.
+
+The long scar turned deeper purple than ever.  'Only so far as that
+I said there still be rights I had no power to resign,' said
+Berenger.  'And then he began to prove to me---what I had no mind to
+hear' (and his voice trembled) '---all that I know but too well.'
+
+'Hum! you must not be left alone again to cope with him,' said
+Walsingham.  'Did he make any question of the validity of your
+marriage?'
+
+'No, sir, it was never touched on.  I would not let him take her
+name into his lips.'
+
+Walsingham considered for some minutes, and then said, 'It is
+clear, then, that he believes that the marriage can be sufficiently
+established to enable you to disturb him in his possession of some
+part, at least, of the Angevin inheritance, or he would not
+endeavour to purchase your renunciation of it by the hand of a
+daughter so richly endowed.'
+
+'I would willingly renounce it if that were all!  I never sought
+it; only I cannot give up her child's rights.'
+
+'And that you almost declared,' proceeded Walsingham; 'so that the
+Chevalier has by his negotiation gathered from you that you have
+not given up hope that the infant lives.  Do your men know where
+you believe she is?'
+
+'My Englishmen know it, of course,' said Berenger; 'but there is no
+fear of them.  The Chevalier speaks no English, and they scarcely
+any French; and, besides, I believe they deem him equally my
+butcher with his son.  The other fellow I only picked up after I
+was on my way to Paris, and I doubt his knowing my purpose.'
+
+'The Chevalier must have had speech with him, though,' said Philip;
+'for it was he who brought word that the old rogue wished to speak
+with you.'
+
+'It would be well to be quit yourself of the fellow ere leaving
+Paris,' said Walsingham.
+
+'Then, sir,' said Berenger, with an anxious voice, 'do you indeed
+think I have betrayed aught that can peril the poor little one?'
+
+Sir Francis smiled.  'We do not set lads of your age to cope with
+old foxes,' he answered; 'and it seems to me that you used far
+discretion in the encounter.  The mere belief that the child lives
+does not show him where she may be.  In effect, it would seem
+likely to most that the babe would be nursed in some cottage, and
+thus not be in the city of La Sablerie at all.  He might, mayhap,
+thus be put on a false scent.'
+
+'Oh no,' exclaimed Berenger, startled; 'that might bring the death
+of some other person's child on my soul.'
+
+'That shall be guarded against,' said Sir Francis.  'In the
+meantime, my fair youth, keep your matters as silent as may be
+---do not admit the Chevalier again in my absence; and, as to this
+man Guibert, I will confer with my steward whether he knows too
+much, and whether it be safer to keep of dismiss him!'
+
+'If only I could see the King, and leave Paris,' sighed Berenger.
+
+And Walsingham, though unwilling to grieve the poor youth further,
+bethought himself that this was the most difficult and hopeless
+matter of all.  As young Ribaumont grew better, the King grew
+worse; he himself only saw Charles on rare occasions, surrounded by
+a host of watchful eyes and ears, and every time he marked the
+progress of disease; and though such a hint could be given by an
+Ambassador, he thought that by far the best chance of recovery of
+the child lay in the confusion that might probably follow the death
+of Charles IX. in the absence of his next heir.
+
+Berenger reckoned on the influence of Elisabeth of Austria, who had
+been the real worker in his union with Eutacie; but he was told
+that it was vain to expect assistance from her.  In the first year
+of her marriage, she had fondly hoped to enjoy her husband's
+confidence, and take her natural place in his court; but she was of
+no mould to struggle with Catherine de Medicis, and after a time
+had totally desisted.  Even at the time of the St. Bartholomew, she
+had endeavoured to uplift her voice on the side of mercy, and had
+actually saved the lives of the King of Navarre and Prince of
+Conde; and her father, the good Maximilian II., had written in the
+strongest terms to Charles IX. expressing his horror of the
+massacre.  Six weeks later, the first hour after the birth of her
+first and only child, she had interceded with her husband for the
+lives of two Huguenots who had been taken alive, and failing then
+either through his want of will or want of power, she had collapsed
+and yielded up the endeavour.  She ceased to listen to petitions
+from those who had hoped for her assistance, as if to save both
+them and herself useless pain, and seemed to lapse into a sort of
+apathy to all public interests.  She hardly spoke, mechanically
+fulfilled her few offices in the court, and seemed to have turned
+her entire hope and trust into prayer for her husband.  Her German
+confessor had been sent home, and a Jesuit given her in his stead,
+but she had made no resistance; she seemed to the outer world a
+dull, weary stranger, obstinate in leading a conventual life; but
+those who knew her best--and of these few was the Huguenot surgeon
+Pare--knew that her heart had been broken two guilty lives, or to
+make her husband free himself from his bondage to bloody counsels.
+To pray for him was all that remained to her--and unwearied had
+been those prayers.  Since his health had declined, she had been
+equally indefatigable in attending on him, and did not seem to have
+a single interest beyond his sick chamber.
+
+As to the King of Navarre, for whose help Berenger had hoped, he
+had been all these months in the dishonouable thraldom of Catherine
+de Medicis, and was more powerless than ever at this juncture,
+having been implicated in Alencon's plot, and imprisoned at
+Vincennes.
+
+And thus, the more Berenger heard of the state of things, the less
+hopeful did his cause appear, till he could almost have believed
+his best chance lay in Philip's plan of persuading the Huguenots to
+storm the convent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.  THE DYING KING
+
+
+
+    Die in terror of thy guiltiness,
+Dream on, dream on of bloody deeds and death,
+Fainting, despair, despairing yield thy breath
+                                   KING RICHARD III.
+
+
+A few days later, when Berenger had sent out Philip, under the
+keeping of the secretaries, to see the Queen-mother represent
+Royalty in one of the grand processions of Rogation-tide, the
+gentle knock came to his door that always announced the arrival of
+his good surgeon.
+
+'You look stronger, M. le Baron; have you yet left your room?'
+
+'I have walked round the gallery above the hall,' said Berenger.
+'I have not gone down-stairs; that is for to-morrow.'
+
+'What would M. le Baron say if his chirurgeon took him not merely
+down-stairs, but up on flight at the Louvre?'
+
+'Ha!' cried Berenger; 'to the King?'
+
+'It is well-nigh the last chance, Monsieur; the Queen-mother and
+all her suite are occupied with services and sermons this week; and
+next week private access to the King will be far more difficult.  I
+have waited as long as I could that you might gain strength to
+support the fatigue.'
+
+'Hope cancels fatigue,' said Berenger, already at the other end of
+the room searching for his long-disused cloak, sword, gloves, hat,
+and mask.
+
+'Not the sword,' said Pare, 'so please you.  M. le Baron must
+condescend to obtain entrance as my assistant--the plain black
+doublet--yes, that is admirable; but I did not know that Monsieur
+was so tall,' he added, in some consternation, as, for the first
+time, he saw his patient standing up at his full height--unusual
+even in England, and more so in France.  Indeed, Berenger had grown
+during his year of illness, and being, of course, extremely thin,
+looked all the taller, so as to be a very inconvenient subject to
+smuggle into to palace unobserved.
+
+However, Ambroise had made up his mind to the risk, and merely
+assisted Berenger in assuming his few equipments, then gave him his
+arm to go down the stairs.  Meeting Guibert on the way, Berenger
+left word with him that he was going out to take the air with
+Maitre Pare; and on the man's offering to attend him, refused the
+proposal.
+
+Pare carriage waited in the court, and Berenger, seated in its
+depths, rolled unseen through the streets, till he found himself at
+the little postern of the Louvre, the very door whence he was to
+have led off his poor Eustacie.  Here Ambroise made him take off
+his small black mask, in spite of all danger of his scars being
+remarked, since masks were not etiquette in the palace, and,
+putting into his arms a small brass-bound case of instruments,
+asked his pardon for preceding him, and alighted from the carriage.
+
+This was Ambroise's usual entrance, and it was merely guarded by a
+Scottish archer, who probably observed nothing.  They then mounted
+the stone stair, the same where Osbert had dragged down his
+insensible master; and as, at the summit, the window appeared where
+Berenger had waited those weary hours, and heard the first notes of
+the bell of St.-Germain-l'Auxerrois, his breath came in such
+hurried sobs, that Pare would fain have given him time to recover
+himself, but he gasped, 'Not here--not here;' and Pare, seeing that
+he could still move on, turned, not to the corridor leading to the
+King's old apartments, now too full of dreadful associations for
+poor Charles, but towards those of the young Queen.  Avoiding the
+ante-room, where no doubt waited pages, users, and attendants, Pare
+presently knocked at a small door, so hidden in the wain-scoting of
+the passage that only a _habitue_ could have found it without
+strict search.  It was at once opened, and the withered, motherly
+face of an old woman, with keen black eyes under a formal tight
+white cap, looked out.
+
+'Eh!  Maitre Pare,' she said, 'you have brought the poor young
+gentleman?  On my faith, he looks scarcely able to walk!  Come in,
+sir, and rest a while in my chamber while Maitre Ambroise goes on
+to announce you to the King.  He is more at ease to-day, the poor
+child, and will relish some fresh talk.
+
+Berenger knew this to be Philippe, the old Huguenot nurse, whom
+Charles IX. loved most fondly, and in whom he found his greatest
+comfort.  He was very glad to sink into the seat she placed for
+him, the only one is her small, bare room and recover breath there
+while Pare passed on to the King, and she talked as one delighted
+to have a hearer.
+
+'Ah, yes, rest yourself--stay; I will give you a few spoonfuls of
+the cordial potage I have here for the King; it will comfort your
+heart.  Ah! you have been cruelly mauled--but he would have saved
+you if he could.
+
+'Yes, good mother, I know that; the King has been my very good
+lord.
+
+'Ah! blessings on you if you say so from your heart, Monsieur; you
+know me for one of your poor Reformed.  And I tell you--I who saw
+him born, who nursed him from his birth--that, suffer as you may,
+you can never suffer as he does.  Maitre Ambroise may talk of his
+illness coming from blowing too much on his horn; I know better.
+But, ah! to be here at night would make a stone shed tears of
+blood.  The Queen and I know it; but we say nothing, we only pray.
+
+The sight of a Huguenot was so great a treat to the old woman in
+her isolated life, that her tongue ran thus freely while Berenger
+sat, scarce daring to speak or breathe in the strange boding
+atmosphere of the palace, where the nurse and surgeon moved as
+tolerated, privileged persons, in virtue of the necessity of the
+one to the King--of the other to all the world.  After all brief
+interval Pare returned and beckoned to Berenger, who followed him
+across a large state-bedroom to a much smaller one, which he
+entered from under a heavy blue velvet curtain, and found himself
+in an atmosphere heavy with warmth and perfume, and strangely
+oppressed besides.  On one side of the large fire sat the young
+Queen, faded, wan, and with all animation or energy departed, only
+gazing with a silent, wistful intentness at her husband.  he was
+opposite to her in a pillowed chair, his feet on a stool, with a
+deadly white, padded, puffy cheek, and his great black eyes, always
+prominent, now with a glassy look, and strained wide, as though
+always gazing after some horrible sight.  'Madame la Comtesse
+stood in her old, wooden, automaton fashion behind the Queen;
+otherwise, no one was present save Pare, who, as he held up the
+curtain, stood back to let M. de Ribaumont advance.  He stood
+still, however, merely bowing low, awaiting an invitation to come
+forward, and trying to repress the startled tear called up by the
+very shock of pity at the mournful aspect of the young King and
+Queen.
+
+Elisabeth, absorbed in her husband, and indifferent to all besides,
+did not even turn her head as he entered; but Charles signed to him
+to approach, holding out a yellow, dropsical-looking hand; and as
+he dropped on one knew and kissed it fervently, the King said,
+'Here he is, Madame, the Baron de Ribaumont, the same whose little
+pleasure-boat was sucked down in our whirlpool.
+
+All Elisabeth's memories seemed to have been blotted out in that
+whirlpool, for she only bowed her head formally, and gave no look
+of recognition, though she, too, allowed Berenger to salute her
+listless, dejected hand.  'One would hardly have known him again,
+continued the King, in a low husky voice; 'but I hope, sir, I see
+you recovering.
+
+'Thanks, Sire, to Heaven's goodness, and to your goodness in
+sparing to me the services of Maitre Pare.
+
+'Ah! there is none like Pare for curing a wound OUTSIDE,' said
+Charles, then leant back silent; and Berenger, still kneeling, was
+considering whether he ought to proffer his petition, when the King
+continued, 'How fares your friend Sidney, M. le Baron?
+
+'Right well, Sire.  The Queen has made him one of her gentlemen.
+
+'Not after this fashion,' said Charles, as with his finger he
+traced the long scar on Berenger's face.  'Our sister of England
+has different badges of merit from ours for her good subjects.  Ha!
+what say they of us in England, Baron?
+
+'I have lain sick at home, Sire, and have neither seen nor heard,
+said Berenger.
+
+'Ah! one day more at Montpipeau had served your turn,' said the
+King; 'but you are one who has floated up again.  One--one at least
+whose blood is not on my head.
+
+The Queen looked up uneasy and imploring, as Charles continued:
+'Would that more of you would come in this way!  They have scored
+you deep, but know you what is gashed deeper still?  Your King's
+heart!  Ah! you will not come, as Coligny does, from his gibbet,
+with his two bleeding hands.  My father was haunted to his dying
+day by the face of one Huguenot tailor.  Why, I see a score, night
+by night!  You are solid; let me feel you, man.
+
+'M. Pare,' exclaimed the poor Queen, 'take him away.
+
+'No, Madame,' said the King, holding tight in his hot grasp
+Berenger's hand, which was as pale as his own, long, thin, and
+wasted, but cold from strong emotion; 'take not away the only
+welcome sight I have seen for well-nigh two years.'  He coughed,
+and the handkerchief he put to his lips had blood on it; but he did
+not quit his hold of his visitor, and presently said in a feeble
+whisper, 'Tell me, how did you escape?
+
+Pare, over the King's head, signed to him to make his narrative
+take time; and indeed his speech was of necessity so slow, that by
+the time he had related how Osbert had brought him safely to
+England, the King had recovered himself so as to say, 'See what it
+is to have a faithful servant.  Which of those they have left me
+would do as much for me?  And now, being once away with your life,
+what brings you back to this realm of ours, after your last
+welcome?
+
+'I left my wife here, Sire.
+
+'Ha! and the cousin would have married her--obtained permission to
+call himself Nid de Merle--but she slipped through his clumsy
+fingers; did she not?  Did you know anything of her, Madame?
+
+'No,' said the Queen, looking up.  'She wrote to me once from her
+convent; but I knew I could do nothing for her but bring her
+enemies' notice on her; so I made no answer.
+
+Berenger could hardly conceal his start of indignation--less at the
+absolute omission, than at the weary indifference of the Queen's
+confession.  Perhaps the King saw it, for he added, 'So it is,
+Ribaumont; the kindest service we can do our friends is to let them
+alone; and, after all, it was not the worse for her.  She did evade
+her enemies?
+
+'Yes, Sire,' said Berenger, commanding and steadying his voice with
+great difficulty, 'she escaped in time to give birth to our child
+in the ruined loft of an old grange of the Templars, under the care
+of a Huguenot farmer, and a pastor who had known my father.  Then
+she took refuge in La Sablerie, and wrote to my mother, deeming me
+dead.  I was just well enough to go in quest of her.  I came--ah!
+Sire, I found only charred ruins.  Your Majesty knows how Huguenot
+bourgs are dealt with.
+
+'And she---?
+
+Berenger answered but by a look.
+
+'Why did you come to tell me this?' said the King, passionately.
+'Do you not know that they have killed me already?  I thought you
+came because there was still some one I could aid.
+
+'There is, there is, Sire,' said Berenger, for once interrupting
+royalty.  'None save you can give me my child.  It is almost
+certain that a good priest saved it; but it is in a convent, and
+only with a royal order can one of my religion either obtain it, or
+even have my questions answered.
+
+'Nor with one in Paris,' said the King dryly; 'but in the country
+the good mothers may still honour their King's hand.  Here,
+Ambroise, take pen and ink, and write the order.  To whom?
+
+'To the Mother Prioress of the Ursulines at Lucon, so please our
+Majesty,' said Berenger, 'to let me have possession of my
+daughter.
+
+'Eh! is it only a little girl?
+
+'Yes, Sire; but my heart yearns for her all the more,' said
+Berenger, with glistening eyes.
+
+'You are right,' said the poor King.  'Mine, too, is a little girl;
+and I bless God daily that she is no son--to be the most wretched
+thing the France.  Let her come in, Madame.  She is little older
+than my friend's daughter.  I would show her to him.
+
+The Queen signed to Madame la Comtesse to fetch the child, and
+Berenger added, 'Sire, you could do a further benefit to my poor
+little one.  One more signature of yours would attest that
+ratification of my marriage which took place in your Majesty's
+presence.
+
+'Ah! I remember,' said Charles.  'You may have any name of mine
+that can help you to oust that villain Narcisse; only wait to use
+it--spare me any more storms.  It will serve your turn as well when
+I am beyond they, and you will make your claim good.  What,' seeing
+Berenger's interrogative look, 'do you not know that by the
+marriage-contract the lands of each were settled on the survivor?
+
+'No, Sire; I have never seen the marriage-contract.
+
+'Your kinsman knew it well,' said Charles.
+
+Just then, Madame la Comtesse returned, leading the little Princess
+by the long ribbons at her waist; Charles bent forward, calling,
+'Here, _ma petite_, come here.  Here is one who loves thy father.
+Look well at him, that thou mayest know him.
+
+The little Madame Elisabeth so far understood, that, with a certain
+lofty condescension, she extended her hand for the stranger to
+kiss, and thus drew from the King the first smile that Berenger had
+seen.  She was more than half a year older than the Berangere on
+whom his hopes were set, and whom he trusted to find not such a
+pale, feeble, tottering little creature as this poor young daughter
+of France, whose round black eyes gazed wonderingly at his scar;
+but she was very precocious, and even already too much of a royal
+lady to indulge in any awkward personal observation.
+
+By the time she had been rewarded for her good behaviour by one of
+the dried plums in her father's comfit-box, the order had been
+written by Pare, and Berenger had prepared the certificate for the
+King's signature, according to the form given him by his
+grandfather.
+
+'Your writing shakes nearly as much as mine,' said the poor King,
+as he wrote his name to this latter.  'Now, Madame, you had better
+sign it also; and tell this gentleman where to find Father Meinhard
+in Austria.  He was a little too true for us, do you see--would not
+give thanks for shedding innocent blood.  Ah!'--and with a gasp of
+mournful longing, the King sank back, while Elisabeth, at his
+bidding, added her name to the certificate, and murmured the name
+of a convent in Vienna, where her late confessor could be found.
+
+'I cannot thank you Majesty enough,' said Berenger; 'My child's
+rights are now secure in England at least, and this'--as he held
+the other paper for the King--'will give her to me.
+
+'Ah! take it for what it is worth,' said the King, as he scrawled
+his 'CHARLES' upon it.  'This order must be used promptly, or it
+will avail you nothing.  Write to Ambroise how you speed; that is,
+if it will bring me one breath of good news.'  And as Berenger
+kissed his hand with tearful, inarticulate thanks, he proceeded,
+'Save for that cause, I would ask you to come to me again.  It does
+me good.  It is like a breath from Montpipeau--the last days of
+hope--before the frenzy--the misery.
+
+'Whenever your Majesty does me the honour---' began Berenger,
+forgetting all except the dying man.
+
+'I am not so senseless,' interrupted the King sharply; 'it would be
+losing the only chance of undoing one wrong.  Only, Ribaumont,' he
+added fervently, 'for once let me hear that one man has pardoned
+me.
+
+'Sire, Sire,' sobbed Berenger, totally overcome, 'how can I speak
+the word?  How feel aught but love, loyalty, gratitude?
+
+Charles half smiled again as he said in sad meditation--'Ah! it was
+in me to have been a good king if they had let me.  Think of me,
+bid your friend Sidney think of me, as I would have been--not as I
+have been--and pray, pray for me.'  Then hiding his face in his
+handkerchief, in a paroxysm of grief and horror, he murmured in a
+stifled tone, 'Blood, blood, deliver me, good Lord!
+
+In effect, there was so sudden a gush of blood from mouth and nose
+that Berenger sprang to his feet in dismay, and was _bona fide_
+performing the part of assistant to the surgeon, when, at the
+Queen's cry, not only the nurse Philippe hurried in, but with her a
+very dark, keen-looking man, who at once began applying strong
+essences to the King's face, as Berenger supported his head.  In a
+few moments Pare looked up at Berenger, and setting him free,
+intimated to him, between sign and whisper, to go into Philippe's
+room and wait there; and it was high time, for though the youth had
+felt nothing in the stress of the moment, he was almost swooning
+when he reached the little chamber, and lay back in the nurse's
+chair, with closed eyes, scarcely conscious how time went, or even
+where he was, till he was partly aroused by hearing steps
+returning.
+
+'The poor young man,' said Philippe's kind voice, 'he is fainting.
+Ah! no wonder it overcame any kind heart.
+
+'How is the King?' Berenger tried to say, but his own voice still
+sounded unnatural and far away.
+
+'He is better for the time, and will sleep,' said Pare,
+administering to his other patient some cordial drops as he spoke.
+'There, sir; you will soon be able to return to the carriage.  This
+has been a sore trial to your strength.
+
+'But I have gained all--all I could hope,' said Berenger, looking
+at his precious papers.  'But, alas! the poor King!
+
+'You will never, never let a word of blame pass against him,' cried
+Philippe earnestly.  'It is well that one of our people should have
+seen how it really is with him.  All I regret is that Maitre Rene
+thrust himself in and saw you.
+
+'Who?' said Berenger, who had been too much engrossed to perceive
+any one.
+
+'Maitre Rene of Milan, the Queen-mother's perfume.  He came with
+some plea of bringing a pouncet-box from her, but I wager it was as
+a spy.  I was doing my best to walk him gently off, when the
+Queen's cry called me, and he must needs come in after me.
+
+'I saw him not,' said Berenger; 'perhaps he marked not me in the
+confusion.
+
+'I fear,' said Pare gravely, 'he was more likely to have his senses
+about him than you.  M. le Baron; these bleedings of the King's are
+not so new to us familiars to the palace.  The best thing now to be
+done is to have you to the carriage, if you can move.
+
+Berenger, now quite recovered, stood up, and gave his warm thanks
+to the old nurse for her kindness to him.
+
+'Ah! sir,' she said, 'you are one of us.  Pray, pray that God will
+have mercy on my poor child!  He has the truth in his heart.  Pray
+that it may save him at the last.
+
+Ambroise, knowing that she would never cease speaking while there
+was any one to hear her, almost dragged Berenger out at the little
+secret door, conveyed him safely down the stairs, and placed him
+again in the carriage.  Neither spoke till the surgeon said, 'You
+have seen a sad sight, Monsieur le Baron: I need not bid you be
+discreet.
+
+'There are some things that go too deep for speech,' sighed the
+almost English Berenger; then, after a pause, 'Is there no hope for
+him?  Is he indeed dying?
+
+'Without a miracle, he cannot live a month.  He is as truly slain
+by the St. Bartholomew as ever its martyrs were,' said Pare, moved
+out of his usual cautious reserve towards one who had seen so much
+and felt so truly.  'I tell you, sir, that his mother hath as truly
+slain her sons, as if she had sent Rene there to them with his
+drugs.  According as they have consciences and hearts, so they pine
+and perish under her rule.
+
+Berenger shuddered, and almost sobbed, 'And hath he no better hope,
+no comforter?' he asked.
+
+'None save good old Flipote.  As you heard, the Queen-mother will
+not suffer his own Church to speak to him in her true voice.  No
+confessor but one chosen by the Cardinal of Lorraine may come near
+him; and with him all is mere ceremony.  But if at the last he
+opens his ear and heart to take in the true hope of salvation, it
+will be from the voice of poor old Philippe.
+
+And so it was!  It was Philippe, who heard him in the night sobbing
+over the piteous words, 'My God, what horrors, what blood!' and, as
+she took from his tear-drenched handkerchief, spoke to him of the
+Blood that speakth better things than the blood of Abel; and it was
+she who, in the final agony, heard and treasured these last words,
+'If the Lord Jesus will indeed receive me into the company of the
+blest!'  Surely, never was repentance deeper than that of Charles
+IX.--and these, his parting words, were such as to inspire the
+trust that it was not remorse.
+
+All-important as Berenger's expedition had been, he still could
+think of little but the poor King; and, wearied out as he was, he
+made very little reply to the astonished friends who gathered round
+him on his return.  He merely told Philip that he had succeeded,
+and then lay almost without speaking on his bed till the Ambassador
+made his evening visit, when he showed him the two papers.  Sir
+Francis could hardly believe his good fortune in having obtained
+this full attestation of the marriage, and promised to send to the
+English Ambassador in Germany, to obtain the like from Father
+Meinhard.  The document itself he advised Berenger not to expose to
+the dangers of the French journey, but to leave it with him to be
+forwarded direct to Lord Walwyn.  It was most important, both as
+obviating any dispute on the legitimacy of the child, if she lived;
+or, if not, it would establish those rights of Berenger to the Nid
+de Merle estates, of which he had heard from the King.  This
+information explained what were the claims that the Chevalier was
+so anxious to hush up by a marriage with Madame de Selinville.
+Berenger, as his wife's heir, was by this contract the true owner
+of the estates seized by the Chevalier and his son, and could only
+be ousted, either by his enemies proving his contract to Eustacie
+invalid and to be unfulfilled, or by his own voluntary resignation.
+The whole scheme was clear to Walsingham, and he wasted advice upon
+unheeding ears, as to how Berenger should act to obtain restitution
+so soon as he should be of age, and how he should try to find out
+the notary who had drawn up the contract.  If Berenger cared at
+all, it was rather for the sake of punishing and balking Narcisse,
+than with any desire of the inheritance; and even for righteous
+indignation he was just now too weary and too sad.  He could not
+discuss his rights to Nid de Merle, if they passed over the rights
+of Eustacie's child, round whom his affection were winding
+themselves as his sole hope.
+
+The next evening Pare came in quest of Berenger, and after a calm,
+refreshing, hopeful Ascension-day, which had been a real balm to
+the weary spirit, found him enjoying the sweet May sunshine under a
+tree in the garden.  'I am glad to find you out of doors,' he said;
+'I fear I must hasten your departure.
+
+'I burn to lose no time,' cried Berenger.  'Prithee tell them I may
+safely go!  They all call it madness to think of setting out.
+
+'Ordinarily it would be,' said Pare; 'but Rene of Milan has sent
+his underlings to see who is my new, tall assistant.  He will
+report all to the Queen-mother; and though in this house you could
+scarcely suffer personal harm, yet the purpose of your journey
+might be frustrated, and the King might have to undergo another of
+those _bourrasques_ which he may well dread.
+
+'I will go this very night,' said Berenger, starting up; 'where is
+Philip?--where is Sir Francis?
+
+Even that very night Pare thought not too soon, and the Ascension-
+tide illuminations brought so many persons abroad that it would be
+easy to go unnoticed; and in the general festivity, when every one
+was coming and going from the country to gaze or worship at the
+shrines and the images decked in every church, it would be easy for
+the barriers to be passed without observation.  Then the brothers
+would sleep at a large hostel, the first on the road to England,
+where Walsingham's couriers and guest always baited, and the next
+morning he would send out to them their attendants, with houses for
+their further journey back into Anjou.  If any enemies were on the
+watch, this would probably put them off the scent, and it only
+remained further to be debated, whether the Norman Guibert had
+better be dismissed at once or taken with them.  There was always
+soft place in Berenger's heart for a Norman, and the man was really
+useful; moreover, he would certainly be safer employed and in their
+company, than turned loose to tell the Chevalier all he might have
+picked up in the Hotel d'Angleterre.  It was therefore decided that
+he should be the attendant of the two young men, and he received
+immediate orders that night to pack up their garments, and hold
+himself ready.
+
+Nevertheless, before the hour of departure, Guibert had stolen out,
+had an interview with the Chevalier de Ribaumont at the Hotel de
+Selinville, and came back with more than one good French crown in
+his pocket, and hopes of more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.  THE ORPHANS OF LA SABLERIE
+
+
+
+The cream tarts with pepper in them.--ARABIAN NIGHTS.
+
+
+Hope, spring, and recovery carried the young Baronde Ribaumont on
+his journey infinitely better than his companions had dared to
+expect.  He dreaded nothing so much as being overtaken by those
+tidings which would make King Charles's order mere waste paper; and
+therefore pressed on with little regard to his own fatigue,
+although happily with increasing strength, which carried him a
+further stage every day.
+
+Lucon was a closely-guarded, thoroughly Catholic city, and his
+safe-conduct was jealously demanded; but the name of Ribaumont
+silenced all doubt.  'A relation, apparently, of M. de Nid de
+Merle,' said the officer on guard, and politely invited him to
+dinner and bed at the castle; but these he thought it prudent to
+decline, explaining that he brought a letter from the King to the
+Mother Prioress.
+
+The convent walls were pointed out to him, and he only delayed at
+the inn long enough to arrange his dress as might appear to the
+Abbess most respectful, and, poor boy, be least likely to startle
+the babe on whom his heart was set.  At almost every inn, the
+little children had shrieked and run from his white and gashed
+face, and his tall, lank figure in deep black; and it was very
+sadly that he said to Philip, 'You must come with me.  If she turns
+from me as an ogre, your bright ruddy face will win her.
+
+The men were left at the inn with charge to let Guibert speak for
+them, and to avoid showing their nationality.  The three months of
+Paris, and the tailors there, had rendered Philip much less
+conspicuous than formerly; but still people looked at him narrowly
+as he followed his brother along the street.  The two lads had made
+up their minds to encumber themselves with no nurses, or womanfolk.
+The child should be carried, fondled, and fed by her boy-father
+alone.  He believed that, when he once held her in his arms, he
+should scarcely even wish to give her up to any one else; and, in
+his concentration of mind, had hardly thought of all the
+inconveniences and absurdities that would arise; but, really, was
+chiefly occupied by the fear that she would not at first let him
+take her in his arms, and hold her to his heart.
+
+Philip, a little more alive to the probabilities, nevertheless was
+disposed to regard them as 'fun and pastime.'  He had had many a
+frolic with his baby-sisters, and this would be only a prolonged
+one; besides, it was 'Berry's' one hope, and to rescue any creature
+from a convent was a good work, in his Protestant eyes, which had
+not become a whit less prejudiced at Paris.  So he was quite
+prepared to take his full share of his niece, or more, if she
+should object to her father's looks, and he only suggested halting
+at an old woman's stall to buy some sweetmeats by way of
+propitiation--a proceeding which much amazed the gazing population
+of Lucon.  Two reports were going about, one that the King had
+vowed a silver image of himself to St. Ursula, if her Prioress
+would obtain his recovery by their prayers; the other that he was
+going to translate her to the royal Abbey of Fontevrault to take
+charge of his daughter, Madame Elisabeth.  Any way, high honour by
+a royal messenger must be intended to the Prioress, Mere Monique,
+and the Luconnais were proud of her sanctity.
+
+The portress had already heard the report, and opened her wicket
+even before the bell could be rung, then eagerly ushered him into
+the parlour, the barest and most ascetic-looking of rooms, with a
+boarded partition across, unenlivened except by a grated hollow,
+and the outer portion empty, save of a table, three chairs, and a
+rugged woodcut of a very tall St. Ursula, with a crowd of pigmy
+virgins, not reaching higher than the ample hem of her petticoat.
+
+'Did Aunt Cecily live in such a place as this?' exclaimed Philip,
+gazing round; 'or do they live on the fat among down cushions
+inside there?
+
+'Hush--sh,' said Berenger, frowning with anxiety; for a rustling
+was heard behind the screen, and presently a black veil and white
+scapulary appeared, and a sweet calm voice said, 'Peace be with
+you, sir; what are your commands?
+
+Berenger bowed low, and replied, 'Thanks, reverend Lady; I bring a
+letter from the King, to request your aid in a matter that touches
+me nearly.
+
+'His Majesty shall be obeyed.  Come you from him?
+
+He was forced to reply to her inquiries after the poor King's
+health before she opened the letter, taking it under her veil to
+read it; so that as he stood, trembling, almost sickening with
+anxiety, and scarcely able to breathe, he could see nothing but the
+black folds; and at her low murmured exclamation he started as if
+at a cannon-shot.
+
+'De Ribaumont!' she said; 'can it be--the child--of--of--out poor
+dear little _pensionnaire_ at Bellaise?
+
+'It is--it is!' cried Berenger.  'O Madame, you knew her at
+Bellaise?
+
+'Even so,' replied the Prioress, who was in fact the Soeur Monique
+so loved and regretted by Eustacie.  'I loved and prayed for her
+with all my heart when she was claimed by the world.  Heaven's will
+be done; but the poor little thing loved me, and I have often
+thought that had I been still at Bellaise when she returned she
+would not have fled.  But of this child I have no knowledge.
+
+'You took charge of the babes of La Sablerie, Madame,' said
+Berenger, almost under his breath.
+
+'Her infant among those poor orphans!' exclaimed the Prioress, more
+and more startled and amazed.
+
+'If it be anywhere in this life, it is in your good keeping,
+Madame,' said Berenger, with tears in his eyes.  'Oh! I entreat,
+withhold her no longer.
+
+'But,' exclaimed the bewildered nun, 'who would you then be, sir?
+
+'I--her husband--widower of Eustacie--father of her orphan!' cried
+Berenger.  'She cannot be detained from me, either by right or
+law.
+
+'Her husband,' still hesitated Monique.  'But he is dead.  The poor
+little one--Heaven have mercy on her soul--wrote me a piteous
+entreaty, and gave large alms for prayers and masses for his soul.
+
+The sob in his throat almost strangled his speech.  'She mourned me
+to the last as dead.  I was borne away senseless and desperately
+wounded; and when I recovered power to seek her it was too late!
+O Madame! have pity--let me see all she has left to me.
+
+'Is it possible?' said the nun.  'We would not learn the parentage
+of our nurslings since all alike become children of Mother Church.
+Then, suddenly bethinking herself, 'But, surely, Monsieur cannot be
+a Huguenot.
+
+It was no doubt the first time she had been brought in contact with
+a schismatic, and she could not believe that such respectful
+courtesy could come from one.  He saw he must curb himself, and
+explain.  'I am neither Calvinist nor Sacrementaire, Madame.  I was
+bred in England, where we love our own Church.  My aunt is a
+Benedictine Sister, who keeps her rule strictly, though her convent
+is destroyed; and it is to her that I shall carry my daughter.  Ah,
+Lady, did you but know my heart's hunger for her!
+
+The Prioress, better read in the lives of the saints than in the
+sects of heretics, did not know whether this meant that he was of
+her own faith or not; and her woman's heart being much moved by his
+pleadings, she said, 'I will heartily give your daughter to you,
+sir, as indeed I must, if she be here; but you have never seen
+her?
+
+'No; only her empty cradle in the burnt house.  But I MUST know
+her.  She is a year old.
+
+'We have two babes of that age; but I fear me you will scarce see
+much likeness in either of them to any one you knew,' said the
+Prioress, thoughtfully.  'However, there are two girls old enough
+to remember the parentage of their companions, though we forbade
+them to mention it.  Would you see them, sir?
+
+'And the infants, so please you, reverend Mother,' exclaimed
+Berenger.
+
+She desired him to wait, and after an interval of suspense there
+was a pattering of little _sabots_ behind the partition, and
+through the grating he beheld six little girls in blue serge frocks
+and tight white caps.  Of the two infants, one with a puny, wizen,
+pinched face was in the arms of the Prioress; the other, a big,
+stout, coarse child, with hard brown cheeks and staring black-eyes,
+was on its own feet, but with a great basket-work frame round its
+head to save it from falls.  There were two much more prepossessing
+children of three or four, and two intelligent-looking girls of
+perhaps eight and ten, to the elder of whom the Prioress turned,
+saying, 'Agathe, I release you from my command not to speak of your
+former life, and desire you to tell this gentleman if you know who
+were the parents of these two little ones.
+
+'Yes, reverend Mother,' said Agathe, readily; 'the old name of
+Claire' (touching the larger baby) 'was Salome Potier: her mother
+was the washerwoman; and Nannonciade, I don't know what her name
+was, but her father worked for Maitre Brassier who made the
+kettles.
+
+Philip felt relieved to be free from all doubt about these very
+uninviting little ones, but Berenger, though sighing heavily, asked
+quickly, 'Permit me, Madame, a few questions.--Little maid, did you
+ever hear of Isaac Gardon?
+
+'Maitre Isaac!  Oh yes, sir.  We used to hear him preach at the
+church, and sometimes he catechized us,' she said, and her lip
+quivered.
+
+'He was a heretic, and I abjure him,' added the other girl, perking
+up her head.
+
+'Was he in the town?  What became of him?' exclaimed Berenger.
+
+'He would not be in the town,' said the elder girl.  'My poor
+father had sent him word to go away.
+
+'_Eh quoi_?
+
+'Our father was Bailli la Grasse,' interposed the younger girl,
+consequentially.  'Our names were Marthe and Lucie la Grasse, but
+Agathe and Eulalie are much prettier.
+
+'But Maitre Gardon?' still asked Berenger.
+
+'He ought to be take and burnt,' said the new Eulalie; 'he brought
+it all on us.
+
+'How was it?  Was my wife with him--Madame de Ribaumont?  Speak, my
+child.
+
+'That was the name,' said one girl.
+
+'But Maitre Gardon had no great lady with him,' said the other,
+'only his son's widow and her baby, and they lodged with Noemi
+Laurent, who made the _patisserie_.
+
+'Ah!' cried Berenger, lighting up with the new ray of hope.  'Tell
+me, my dear, that they fled with him, and where.
+
+'I do not know of their going,' said Agathe, confused and overborne
+by his eagerness.
+
+'Curb yourself, sir,' said the Prioress, 'they will recollect
+themselves and tell you what they can.
+
+'It was the little cakes with lemoned sugar,' suggested the younger
+girl.  'Maitre Tressan always said there would be a judgment on us
+for our daintiness.  Ah! he was very cross about them, and after
+all it was the Maitre of Lucon who ate fifteen of them all at once;
+but then he is not a heretic.
+
+Happily for Berenger, Agathe unraveled this speech.
+
+'Mademoiselle Gardon made the sugar-lemoned cakes, and the Mayor of
+Lucon, one day when he supped with us, was so delighted with them
+that he carried one away to show his wife, and afterwards he sent
+over to order some more.  Then, after a time, he sent secretly to
+my father to ask him if Maitre Gardon was there; for there was a
+great outcry about the lemon cakes, and the Duke of Alencon's army
+were coming to demand his daughter-in-law; because it seems she was
+a great lady, and the only person who could make the cakes.
+
+'Agathe!' exclaimed the Prioress.
+
+'I understand,' said Berenger.  'The Cure of Nissard told me that
+she was traced through cakes, the secret of which was only known at
+Bellaise.
+
+'That might be,' said Mere Monique.  'I remember there was
+something of pride in the cakes of Bellaise, though I always tried
+to know nothing of them.
+
+'Well, little one, continue,' entreated Berenger.  'You are giving
+me life and hope.
+
+'I heard my father and mother talk about it,' said Agathe, gaining
+courage.  'He said he knew nothing of great people, and would give
+nobody up to the Catholics, but as to Maitre Isaac, he should let
+him know that the Catholic army were coming, and that it would be
+the better for us if we had no pastor within our walls; and that
+there was a cry that his daughter's lemon cakes were made by the
+lady that was lost.
+
+'And they escaped!  Ah! would that I could thank the good man!
+
+'Surely yes, sir, I never saw them again.  Maitre Tressan the elder
+prayed with us.  And when the cruel soldiers came and demanded the
+lady and Maitre Isaac, and all obstinate Calvinists, our mayor and
+my father and the rest made answer that they had no knowledge of
+the lady, and did not know where Maitre Gardon was; and as to
+Huguenots, we were all one as obstinate as the other, but that we
+would pay any fine within our means so they would spare our lives.
+Then the man in the fine coat said, it was the lady they wanted,
+not the fine; and a great deal he said besides, I know not what but
+my father said, 'It is our life's blood that they want,' and he put
+on his breastplate and kissed us all, and went away.  Then came
+horrible noises and firing of cannon, and the neighbours ran in and
+said that the enemy were battering down the old crumbly bit of wall
+where the monastery was burnt; and just then our man Joseph ran
+back all pale, and staring , to tell us my father was lying badly
+hurt in the street.  My mother hurried out, and locked the door to
+keep us from following.
+
+The poor child broke down in tears, and her sister went on.  'Oh,
+we were so frightened--such frightful sounds came close, and people
+ran by all blood and shrieking--and there was a glare in the sky--
+and nobody came home--till at last it grew so dreadful that we hid
+in the cellar to hear and see nothing.  Only it grew hotter and
+hotter, and the light through the little grating was red.  And at
+last there was a noise louder than thunder, and, oh, such a
+shaking--for it was the house falling down.  But we did not know
+that; we tried to open the door, and could not; then we cried and
+called for father and mother--and no one heard--and we sat still
+for fear, till we slept--and then it was all dark, and we were very
+hungry.  I don't know how time went, but at last, when I was
+daylight again, there was a talking above, a little baby crying,
+and a kind voice too; and then we called out, 'Oh, take us out and
+give us bread.'  Then a face looked down the grating.  Oh, it was
+like the face of an angel to us, with all the white hair flying
+round.  It was the holy priest of Nissard; and when one of the
+cruel men said we were only little heretics who ought to die like
+rats in a hole, he said we were but innocents who did not know the
+difference.
+
+'Ah! we did,' said the elder girl.  'You are younger, sister, you
+forget more;' and then, holding out her hands to Berenger, she
+exclaimed, 'Ah! sir, take us away with you.
+
+'My child!' exclaimed the Prioress, 'you told me you were happy to
+be in the good course.
+
+'Oh yes!' cried the poor child; 'but I don't want to be happy!  I
+am forgetting all my poor father and mother used to say.  I can't
+help it, and they would be so grieved.  Oh, take me away, sir!
+
+'Take care, Agathe, you will be a relapsed heretic,' said her
+sister, solemnly.  'For me, I am a true Catholic.  I love the
+beautiful images and the processions.
+
+'Ah! but what would our mother have said!' cried poor Agathe,
+weeping more bitterly.
+
+'Poor child, her old recollections have been renewed,' said the
+Prioress, with unchanged sweetness; 'but it will pass.  My dear,
+the gentleman will tell you that it is as impossible for him to
+take you as it is for me to let you go.
+
+'It is so, truly, little one,' said Berenger.  'The only little
+girl I cold have taken with me would have been my own;' and as her
+eyes looked at him wistfully, he added, 'No doubt, if your poor
+mother could, she would thank this good Mother-prioress for
+teaching you to serve God and be a good child.
+
+'Monsieur speaks well and kindly,' said the Prioress; 'and now,
+Agathe, make your curtsey, and take away the little ones.
+
+'Let me ask one question more, reverend Mother,' said Berenger.
+'Ah! children, did you ever see her whom you call Isaac Gardon's
+daughter-in-law?
+
+'No, sir,' said the children; 'but mother did, and she promised one
+day to take us to see the baby, for it was so pretty--so white,
+that she had never seen the like.
+
+'So white!' repeated Berenger to himself; and the Prioress, struck,
+perhaps, by the almost flaxen locks that sparsely waved on his
+temples, and the hue of the ungloved hand that rested on the edge
+of the _grille_, said, smiling, 'You come of a fair family,
+Monsieur.
+
+'The White Ribaumonts,' said Berenger, 'and, moreover, my mother
+was called the Swan of England; my little sisters have skins like
+snow.  Ah! Madame, though I have failed, I go away far happier than
+if I had succeeded.
+
+'And reveal the true faith,' began the nun; but Philip in the
+meantime was nudging his brother, and whispering in English, 'No
+Popish prayers, I say!  Stay, give these poor little prisoners one
+feast of the sweetmeats we brought.
+
+Of this last hint Berenger was glad, and the Prioress readily
+consented to a distribution of the dainties among the orphans.  He
+wished to leave a more lasting token of his gratitude to the little
+maiden whose father had perhaps saved Eustacie's life, and
+recollecting that he had about him a great gold coin, bearing the
+heads of Philip and Mary, he begged leave to offer it to Agathe,
+and found that it was received by good Mere Monique almost in the
+light of a relic, as bearing the head of so pious a queen.
+
+Then, to complete Philip's disgust he said, 'I took with me my
+aunt's blessing when I set out; let me take yours with me also,
+reverend Mother.
+
+When they were in the street again, Philip railed at him as though
+he had subjected himself to a spell.
+
+'She is almost a saint,' answered Berenger.
+
+'And have we not saints enough of our own, without running after
+Popish ones behind grates? Brother, if ever the good old days come
+back of invading France, I'll march straight hither, and deliver
+the poor little wretches so scandalously mewed up here, and true
+Protestants all the time!
+
+'Hush!  People are noticing the sound of your English.
+
+'Let them!  I never thanked Heaven properly before that I have not
+a drop of French---'  Here Berenger almost shook him by the
+shoulder, as men turned at his broad tones and foreign words, and
+he walked on in silence, while Berenger at his side felt as one
+treading on air, so infinite was the burden taken off his mind.
+Though for the present absolutely at sea as to where to seek
+Eustacie, the relief from acquiescence in the horrible fate that
+had seemed to be hers was such, that a flood of unspeakable
+happiness seemed to rush in on him, and bear him up with a new
+infusion of life, buoyancy, and thankfulness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.  IN THE KING'S NAME
+
+
+
+'Under which king, Bezonian? speak or die.
+
+'Under King Harry.
+                      --KING HENRY IV.
+
+
+'One bird in the hand is not always worth two in the bush,
+assuredly,' said Philip, when Berenger was calm enough to hold
+council on what he called this most blessed discovery; 'but where
+to seek them?
+
+'I have no fears now,' returned Berenger.  'We have not been bore
+through so much not to be brought together at last.  Soon, soon
+shall we have her!  A minister so distinguished as Isaac Gardon is
+sure to be heard of either at La Rochelle, Montauban, or Nimes,
+their great gathering places.
+
+'For Rochelle, then?' said Philip.
+
+'Even so.  We will be off early to-morrow, and from thence, if we
+do not find her there, as I expected, we shall be able to write the
+thrice happy news to those at home.
+
+Accordingly, the little cavalcade started in good time, in the cool
+of the morning of the bright long day of early June, while apple
+petal floated down on them in the lanes like snow, and nightingales
+in every hedge seemed to give voice and tune to Berenger's eager,
+yearning hopes.
+
+Suddenly there was a sound of horse's feet in the road before them,
+and as they drew aside to make way, a little troop of gendarmes
+filled the narrow lane.  The officer, a rough, harsh-looking man,
+laid his hand on Berenger's bridle, with the words, 'In the name of
+the King!
+
+Philip began to draw his sword with one hand, and with the other to
+urge his horse between the officer and his brother, but Berenger
+called out, 'Back!  This gentleman mistakes my person.  I am the
+Baron de Ribaumont, and have a safe-conduct from the King.
+
+'What king?' demanded the officer.
+
+'From King Charles.
+
+'I arrest you,' said the officer, 'in the name of King Henry III,
+and of the Queen Regent Catherine.
+
+'The King dead?' Exclaimed Berenger.
+
+'On the 30th of May.  Now, sir.
+
+'Your warrant--your cause?' still demanded Berenger.
+
+'There will be time enough for that when you are safely lodged,
+said the captain, roughly pulling at the rein, which he had held
+all the time.
+
+'What, no warrant?' shouted Philip, 'he is a mere robber!' and with
+drawn sword he was precipitating himself on the captain, when
+another gendarme, who had been on the watch, grappled with him, and
+dragged him off his horse before he could strike a blow.  The other
+two English, Humfrey Holt and John Smithers, strong full-grown men,
+rode in fiercely to the rescue, and Berenger himself struggled
+furiously to loose himself from the captain, and deliver his
+brother.  Suddenly there was the report of a pistol: poor Smithers
+fell, there was a moment of standing aghast, and in that moment the
+one man and the two youths were each pounced on by three or four
+gendarmes, thrown down and pinioned.
+
+'Is this usage for gentlemen?' exclaimed Berenger, as he was
+roughly raised to his feet.
+
+'The King's power has been resisted,' was all the answer; and when
+he would have been to see how it was with poor Smithers, one of the
+men-at-arms kicked over the body with sickening brutality, saying,
+'Dead enough, heretic and English carrion!
+
+Philip uttered a cry of loathing horror, and turned white;
+Berenger, above all else, felt a sort of frenzied despair as he
+thought of the peril of the boy who had been trusted to him.
+
+'Have you had enough, sir?' said the captain.  'Mount and come.
+
+They could only let themselves be lifted to their horses, and their
+hands were then set free to use their bridles, each being guarded
+by a soldier on each side of him.  Philip attempted but once to
+speak, and that in English: 'Next time I shall take my pistol.
+
+He was rudely silenced, and rode on with wide-open stolid eyes and
+dogged face, steadfastly resolved that no Frenchman should see him
+flinch, and vexed that Berenger had his riding mask on so that his
+face could not be studied; while he, on his side, was revolving all
+causes possible for his arrest, and all means of enforcing he
+liberation, if not of himself at least of Philip and Humfrey.  He
+looked round for Guibert, but could not see him.
+
+They rode on through the intricate lanes till the sun was high and
+scorching, and Berenger felt how far he was from perfect recovery.
+At last, however, some little time past noon, the gendarmes halted
+at a stone fountain, outside a village, and disposing a sufficient
+guard around his captives, the officer permitted them to dismount
+and rest, while he, with the rest of the troop and the horses, went
+to the village CABARET.  Philip would have asked his brother what
+it meant, and what was to be done, but Berenger shook his head, and
+intimated that silence was safest as present, since they might be
+listened to; and Philip, who so much imagined treachery and
+iniquity to be the order of the day in France that he was scarcely
+surprised at the present disaster, resigned himself to the same
+sullen endurance.  Provisions and liquor were presently sent up
+from the inn, but Berenger could taste nothing but the cold water
+of the fountain, which trickled out cool and fresh beneath an arch
+surmounted by a figure of Our Lady.  He bathed his face and head in
+the refreshing spring, and lay down on a cloak in the shade, Philip
+keeping a constant change of drenched kerchiefs on his brow, and
+hoping that he slept, till at the end to two or three hours the
+captain returned, gave the word to horse, and the party rode on
+through intricate lanes, blossoming with hawthorn, and ringing with
+songs of birds that spoke a very different language now to
+Berenger's heart from what they had said in the hopeful morning.
+
+A convent bell was ringing to evensong, when passing its gateway;
+the escort turned up a low hill, on the summit of which stood a
+chateau, covering a considerable extent of ground, with a circuit
+of wall, whitewashed so as perfectly to glare in the evening sun;
+at every angle a round, slim turret, crowned by a brilliant red-
+tiled extinguisher-like cap; and the whole surmounted by a tall old
+keep in the centre.  There was a square projection containing an
+arched gateway, with heavy doorways, which were thrown open as the
+party approached.  Philip looked up as he rode in, and over the
+doorway beheld the familiar fretted shield, with the leopard in the
+corner, and _'A moi Ribaumont'_ round it.  Could it then be
+Berenger's own castle, and was it thus that he was approaching it?
+He himself had not looked up; he was utterly spent with fatigue,
+dejection, and the severe headache brought on by the heat of the
+sun, and was only intent on rallying his powers for the crisis of
+fate that was probably approaching; and thus scarcely took note of
+the court into which he rode, lying between the gateway and the
+_corps de logis_, a building erected when comfort demanded more
+space than was afforded by the old keep, against which one end
+leant; but still, though inclosed in a court, the lower windows
+were small and iron-barred, and all air of luxury was reserved for
+the mullioned casements of the upper storey.  The court was
+flagged, but grass shot up between the stones, and the trim air of
+ease and inhabited comfort to which the brothers were used at home
+was utterly wanting.  Berenger was hustled off his horse, and
+roughly pushed through a deep porch, where the first thing he heard
+was the Chevalier de Ribaumont's voice in displeasure.
+
+'How now, sir; hands off!  Is this the way you conduct my nephew?
+
+'He resisted, sir.
+
+'Sir,' said Berenger, advancing into the hall, 'I know not the
+meaning of this.  I am peacefully traveling with a passport from
+the King, when I am set upon, no warrant shown me, my faithful
+servant slain, myself and my brother, an English subject,
+shamefully handled.
+
+'The violence shall be visited on whatever rascal durst insult a
+gentleman and my nephew,' said the Chevalier.  'For release, it
+shall be looked to; but unfortunately it is too true that there are
+orders from the Queen in Council for your apprehension, and it was
+only on my special entreaty for the honour of the family, and the
+affection I bear you, that I was allowed to receive you here
+instead of your being sent to an ordinary prison.
+
+'On what pretext?' demanded Berenger.
+
+'It is known that you have letters in your possession from escaped
+traitors now in England, to La Noue, Duplessis Mornay, and other
+heretics.
+
+'That is easily explained,' said Berenger.  'You know well, sir,
+that they were to facilitate my search at La Sablerie.  You shall
+see them yourself, sir.
+
+'That I must assuredly do,' replied the Chevalier, 'for it is the
+order of her Majesty, I regret to say, that your person and baggage
+be searched;' then, as indignant colour rushed into Berenger's
+face, and an angry exclamation was beginning, he added, 'Nay, I
+understand, my dear cousin, it is very painful, but we would spare
+you as much as possible.  It will be quite enough if the search is
+made by myself in the presence of this gentleman, who will only
+stand by for form's sake.  I have no doubt it will enable us
+quickly to clear up matters, and set you free again.  Do me the
+honour to follow me to the chamber destined for you.
+
+'Let me see the order for my arrest,' said Berenger, holding his
+head high.
+
+'The English scruple must be gratified,' said the Chevalier.  And
+accordingly the gendarme captain unfolded before him a paper, which
+was evidently a distinct order to arrest and examine the person of
+Henri Beranger Eustache, Baron de Ribaumont and Sieur de Leurre,
+suspected of treasonable practices--and it bore the signature of
+Catherine.
+
+'There is nothing here said of my step-father's son, Philip
+Thistlewood, nor of my servant, Humfrey Holt,' said Berenger,
+gathering the sense with his dizzy eyes as best he could.  'They
+cannot be detained, being born subjects of the Queen of England.
+
+'They intercepted the justice of the King,' said the captain,
+laying his hand on Philip's shoulder.  'I shall have them off with
+me to the garrison of Lugon, and deal with them there.
+
+'Wait!' said the Chevalier, interposing before Berenger's fierce,
+horror-struck expostulation could break forth; 'this is an
+honourable young gentleman, son of a chevalier of good reputation
+in England, and he need not be so harshly dealt with.  You will not
+separate either him or the poor groom from my nephew, so the
+Queen's authority be now rightly acknowledged.
+
+The captain shrugged his shoulders, as if displeased; and the
+Chevalier, turning to Berenger, said, 'You understand, nephew, the
+lot of you all depends on your not giving umbrage to these officers
+of her Majesty.  I will do my poor best for you; but submission is
+first needed.
+
+Berenger knew enough of his native country to be aware that _la
+justice du Roi_ was a terrible thing, and that Philip's resistance
+had really put him in so much danger that it was needful to be most
+careful not further to offend the functionary of Government; and
+abhorrent as the proposed search was to him, he made no further
+objection, but taking Philip's arm, lest they should he separated,
+he prepared to follow wherever he was to be conducted.  The
+Chevalier led the way along a narrow stone passage, with loophole-
+windows here and there; and Philip, for all his proud, indifferent
+bearing, felt his flesh creep as he looked for a stair descending
+into the bowels of the earth.  A stair there was, but it went up
+instead of down, and after mounting this, and going through a sort
+of ante-room, a door was opened into a tolerably spacious
+apartment, evidently in the old keep; for the two windows on
+opposite sides were in an immensely massive wall, and the floor
+above and vaulting below were of stone; but otherwise there was
+nothing repulsive in the appearance of the room.  There was a wood
+fire on the hearth; the sun, setting far to the north, peeped in
+aslant at one window; a mat was on the floor, tapestry on the lower
+part of the walls; a table and chairs, and a walnut chest, with a
+chess-board and a few books on it, were as much furniture as was to
+be seen in almost any living-room of the day.  Humfrey and Guibert,
+too, were already there, with the small riding valises they and
+poor Smithers had had in charge.  These were at one opened, but
+contained merely clothes and linen, nothing else that was noticed,
+except three books, at which the captain looked with a stupid air;
+and the Chevalier did not seem capable of discovering more than
+that all three were Latin--one, he believed, the Bible.
+
+'Yes, sir, the Vulgate--a copy older than the Reformation, so not
+liable to be called an heretical version,' said Berenger, to whom a
+copy had been given by Lady Walwyn, as more likely to be saved if
+his baggage were searched.  'The other is the Office and Psalter
+after our English rite; and this last is not mine, but Mr.
+Sidney's--a copy of Virgilius Maro, which he had left behind at
+Paris.
+
+The Chevalier, not willing to confess that he had taken the English
+Prayer-book for Latin, hastily said, 'Nothing wrong there--no, no,
+nothing that will hurt the State; may it only be so with what you
+carry on your person, fair cousin.  Stand back, gentleman, this is
+gear for myself alone.  Now, fair nephew,' he added, 'not a hand
+shall be laid on you, if you will give me your honourable word, as
+a nobleman, that you are laying before me all that you carry about
+you.
+
+An instant's thought convinced Berenger that resistance would save
+nothing, and merely lead to indignity to himself and danger to
+Philip; and therefore he gave the promise to show everything about
+him, without compulsion.  Accordingly, he produced his purse for
+current expenses, poor King Charles's safe-conduct, and other
+articles of no consequence, from his pockets; then reluctantly
+opened his doublet, and took off the belt containing his store of
+gold, which had been replenished at Walsingham's.  This was
+greedily eyed by the captain, but the Chevalier at once made it
+over to Philip's keeping, graciously saying, 'We do no more than
+duty requires;' but at the same time he made a gesture towards
+another small purse that hung round Berenger's neck by a black
+ribbon.
+
+'On my sacred word and honour,' said Berenger, 'it contains nothing
+important to any save myself.
+
+'Alas! my bounden duty,' urged the Chevalier.
+
+An angry reply died on Berenger's lip.  At the thought of Philip,
+he opened the purse, and held out the contents on his palm: a tiny
+gold ring, a tress of black hair, a fragment of carnation-ribbon
+pricked with pin-holes, a string of small worthless yellow shells,
+and, threaded with them, a large pear-shaped pearl of countless
+price.  Even the Chevalier was touched at the sight of this
+treasury, resting on the blanched palm of the thin, trembling hand,
+and jealously watched by eyes glistening with sudden moisture,
+though the lips were firm set.  'Alas! my poor young cousin,' he
+said, 'you loved her well.
+
+'Not loved, but love,' muttered Berenger to himself, as if having
+recourse to the only cordial that could support him through the
+present suffering; and he was closing his fingers again over his
+precious hoard, when the Chevalier added, 'Stay! Nephew--that
+pearl?
+
+'Is one of the chaplet; the token she sent to England,' he
+answered.
+
+'_Pauvre petite!_  Then, at least a fragment remains of the reward
+of our ancestor's courage,' said the Chevalier.
+
+And Berenger did not feel it needful to yield up that still better
+possession, stored within his heart, that _la petite_ and her
+pearls were safe together.  It was less unendurable to produce the
+leather case from a secret pocket within his doublet, since,
+unwilling as he was that any eye should scan the letters it
+contained, there was nothing in them that could give any clue
+towards tracing her.  Nothing had been written or received since
+his interview with the children at Lucon.  There was, indeed,
+Eustacie's letter to his mother, a few received at Paris from Lord
+Walwyn, reluctantly consenting to his journey in quest of his
+child, his English passport, the unfortunate letters to La Noue;
+and what evidently startled the Chevalier more than all the rest,
+the copy of the certificate of the ratification of the marriage;
+but his consternation was so arranged as to appear to be all on
+behalf of his young kinsman.  'This is serious!' he said, striking
+his forehead; 'you will be accused of forging the late King's
+name.
+
+'This is but a copy,' said Berenger, pointing to the heading; 'the
+original has been sent with our Ambassador's dispatches to
+England.
+
+'It is a pity,' said the Chevalier, looking thoroughly vexed, 'that
+you should have brought fresh difficulties on yourself for a mere
+piece of waste paper to be affected by the validity of your
+marriage.  Dear cousin,'--he glanced at the officer and lowered his
+voice,--'let me tear this paper; it would only do you harm, and the
+Papal decree annuls it.
+
+'I have given my word,' said Berenger, 'that all that could do me
+harm should be delivered up!  Besides,' he added, 'even had I the
+feeling for my own honour and that of my wife and child, living or
+dead, the harm, it seems to me, would be to those who withhold her
+lands from me.
+
+'Ah, fair nephew! you have fallen among designing persons who have
+filled your head with absurd claims; but I will not argue the point
+now, since it becomes a family, not a State matter.  These papers'-
+-and he took them into his hand--'must be examined, and to-morrow
+Captain Delarue will take them to Paris, with any explanation you
+may desire to offer.  Meantime you and your companions remain my
+guest, at full liberty, provided you will give me your parole to
+attempt no escape.
+
+'No, sir,' said Berenger, hotly, 'we will not become our own
+jailers, nor acquiesce in this unjust detention.  I warn you that I
+am a naturalized Englishman, acknowledged by the Queen as my
+grandfather's heir, and the English Ambassador will inform the
+court what Queen Elizabeth thinks of such dealings with her
+subjects.
+
+'Well said,' exclaimed Philip, and drawing himself up, he added, 'I
+refuse my parole, and warn you that it is at your peril that you
+imprison an Englishman.
+
+'Very well, gentlemen,' said the Chevalier; 'the difference will be
+that I shall unwillingly be forced to let Captain Delarue post
+guards at the outlets of this tower.  A room beneath is prepared
+for your grooms, and the court is likewise free to you.  I will
+endeavour to make your detention as little irksome as you will
+permit, and meantime allow me to show you your sleeping chamber.
+He then politely, as if he had been ushering a prince to his
+apartment, led the way, pointing to the door through which they had
+entered the keep, and saying, 'This is the only present
+communication with the dwelling-house.  Two gendarmes will always
+be on the outside.'  He conducted the young men up a stone spiral
+stair to another room, over that which they had already seen, and
+furnished as fairly as ordinary sleeping chambers were wont to be.
+
+Here, said their compulsory host, he would leave them to prepare
+for supper, when they would do him the honour to join him in the
+eating-hall on their summons by the steward.
+
+His departing bow was duly returned by Berenger, but no sooner did
+his steps die away on the stairs than the young man threw himself
+down on his bed, in a paroxysm of suffering both mental and bodily.
+
+'Berry, Berry, what is this?  Speak to me.  What does it all mean?
+cried Philip.
+
+'How can I tell?' said Berenger, showing his face for a moment,
+covered with tears; 'only that my only friend is dead, and some
+villainous trick has seized me, just--just as I might have found
+her.  And I've been the death of my poor groom, and got you into
+the power of these vile dastards!  Oh, would that I had come alone!
+Would that they had had the sense to aim direct!
+
+'Brother, brother, anything but this!' cried Philip.  'The rogues
+are not worth it.  Sir Francis will have us out in no time, or know
+the reason why.  I'd scorn to let them wring a tear from me.
+
+'I hope they never may, dear Phil, nor anything worse.
+
+'Now,' continued Philip, 'the way will be to go down to supper,
+since they will have it so, and sit and eat at one's ease as if one
+cared for them no more than cat and dog.  Hark! there's the steward
+speaking to Guibert.  Come, Berry, wash your face and come.
+
+'I--my head aches far too much, were there nothing else.
+
+'What! it is nothing but the sun,' said Philip.  'Put a bold face
+on it, man, and show them how little you heed.
+
+'How LITTLE I heed!' bitterly repeated Berenger, turning his face
+away, utterly unnerved between disappointment, fatigue, and pain;
+and Philip at that moment had little mercy.  Dismayed and vaguely
+terrified, yet too resolute in national pride to betray his own
+feelings, he gave vent to his vexation by impatience with a
+temperament more visibly sensitive than his own:  'I never thought
+you so mere a Frenchman,' he said contemptuously.  'If you weep and
+wail so like a sick wench, they will soon have their will of you!
+I'd have let them kill me before they searched me.
+
+''Tis bad enough without this from you, Phil,' said Berenger,
+faintly, for he was far too much spent for resentment or self-
+defence, and had only kept up before the Chevalier by dint of
+strong effort.  Philip was somewhat aghast, both at the involuntary
+gesture of pain, and at finding there was not even spirit to be
+angry with him: but his very dismay served at the moment only to
+feed his displeasure; and he tramped off in his heavy boots, which
+he chose to wear as a proof of disdain for his companions.  He
+explained that M. de Ribaumont was too much fatigued to come to
+supper, and he was accordingly marched along the corridor, with the
+steward before him bearing a lighted torch, and two gendarmes with
+halberds behind him.  And in his walk he had ample time for, first,
+the resolution that illness, and not dejection, should have all the
+credit of Berenger's absence; then for recollecting of how short
+standing had been his brother's convalescence; and lastly, for a
+fury of self-execration for his own unkindness, rude taunts, and
+neglect of the recurring illness.  He would have turned about and
+gone back at once, but the two gendarmes were close behind, and he
+knew Humfrey would attend to his brother; so he walked on to the
+hall--a handsome chamber, hung with armour and spoils of hunting,
+with a few pictures on the panels, and a great carved music-gallery
+at one end.  The table was laid out somewhat luxuriously for four,
+according to the innovation which was beginning to separate the
+meals of the grandees from those of their household.
+
+Great concern was expressed by the Chevalier, as Philip, in French,
+much improved since the time of his conversation with Madame de
+Selinville, spoke of his brother's indisposition, saying with
+emphasis, as he glared at Captain Delarue, that Maitre Pare had
+forbidden all exposure to mid-day heat, and that all their journeys
+had been made in morning or evening coolness.  'My young friend,'
+as his host called him, 'should, he was assured, have mentioned
+this, since Captain Delarue had no desire but to make his situation
+as little painful as possible.'  And the Chevalier sent his steward
+at once to offer everything the house contained that his prisoner
+could relish for supper; and then anxiously questioned Philip on
+his health and diet, obtaining very short and glum answers.  The
+Chevalier and the captain glanced at each other with little shrugs;
+and Philip, becoming conscious of his shock hair, splashed doublet,
+and dirty boots, had vague doubts whether his English dignity were
+not being regarded as English lubberliness; but, of course, he
+hated the two Frenchmen all the more, and received their civility
+with greater gruffness.  They asked him the present object of his
+journey--though, probably, the Chevalier knew it before, and he
+told of the hope that they had of finding the child at Lucon.
+
+'Vain, of course?' said the Chevalier.  'Poor infant!  It is well
+for itself, as for the rest of us, that its troubles were ended
+long ago.'
+
+Philip started indignantly.
+
+'Does your brother still nurture any vain hope?' said the
+Chevalier.
+
+'Not vain, I trust,' said Philip.
+
+'Indeed!  Who can foolishly have so inspired him with a hope that
+merely wears out his youth, and leads him into danger?'
+
+Philip held his tongue, resolved to be impenetrable; and he was so
+far successful, that the Chevalier merely became convinced that the
+brothers were not simply riding to La Rochelle to embark for
+England, but had some hope and purpose in view; though as to what
+that might be, Philip's bluff replies and stubborn silence were
+baffling.
+
+After the meal, the Chevalier insisted on coming to see how his
+guest fared; and Philip could not prevent him.  They found Berenger
+sitting on the side of his bed, having evidently just started up on
+hearing their approach.  Otherwise he did not seem to have moved
+since Philip left him; he had not attempted to undress; and Humfrey
+told Philip that not a word had been extracted from him, but
+commands to let him alone.
+
+However, he had rallied his forces to meet the Chevalier, and
+answered manfully to his excuses for the broiling ride to which he
+had been exposed, that it mattered not, the effect would pass, it
+was a mere chance; and refused all offers of medicaments, potions,
+and TISANES, till his host at length left the room with a most
+correct exchange of good nights.
+
+'Berry, Berry, what a brute I have been!' cried Philip.
+
+'Foolish lad!' and Berenger half smiled.  'Now help me to bed, for
+the room turns round!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.  CAGED IN THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST
+
+
+
+      Let him shun castles;
+Safer shall he be on the sandy plain
+Than where castles mounted stand.--KING HENRY VI.
+
+
+While Berenger slept a heavy morning's sleep after a resless night,
+Philip explored the narrow domain above and below.  The keep and
+its little court had evidently been the original castle, built when
+the oddly-nicknamed Fulkes and Geoffreys of Anjou had been at
+daggers drawn with the Dukes of Normandy and Brittany, but it had
+since, like most other such ancient feudal fortresses, become the
+nucleus of walls and buildings for use, defence, or ornament, that
+lay beneath him like a spider's web, when he had gained the roof of
+the keep, garnished with pepper-box turrets at each of the four
+angles.  Beyond lay the green copses and orchards of the Bocage,
+for it was true, as he had at first suspected, that this was the
+chateau de Nid de Merle, and that Berenger was a captive in his
+wife's own castle.
+
+Chances of escape were the lad's chief thought, but the building on
+which he stood went sheer down for a considerable way.  Then on the
+north side there came out the sharp, high-pitched, tiled roof of
+the _corps du logis_; on the south, another roof, surmounted by a
+cross at the gable, and evidently belonging to the chapel; on the
+other two sides lay courts--that to the east, a stable-yard; that
+to the west, a small narrow, chilly-looking, paved inclosure, with
+enormously-massive walls, the doorway walled up, and looking like a
+true prison-yard.  Beyond this wall--indeed, on every side--
+extended offices, servants' houses, stables, untidy desolate-
+looking gardens, and the whole was inclosed by the white wall with
+flanking red-tiled turrets, whose gaudy appearance had last night
+made Philip regard the whole as a flimsy, Frenchchified erection,
+but he now saw it to be of extremely solid stone and lime, and with
+no entrance but the great barbican gateway they had entered by;
+moreover, with a yawning dry moat all round.  Wherever he looked he
+saw these tall, pointed red caps, resembling, he thought, those
+worn by the victims of an _auto-de-fe_, as one of Walsingham's
+secretaries had described them to him; and he ground his teeth at
+them, as thought they grinned at him like emissaries of the
+Inquisition.
+
+Descending, he found Berenger dressing in haste to avoid receiving
+an invalid visit from the Chevalier, looking indeed greatly shaken,
+but hardly so as would have been detected by eyes that had not seen
+him during his weeks of hope and recovery.  He was as resolved as
+Philip could wish against any sign of weakness before his enemy,
+and altogether disclaimed illness, refusing the stock of cooling
+drinks, cordials, and febrifuges, which the Chevalier said had been
+sent by his sister the Abbess of Bellaise.  He put the subject of
+his health aside, only asking if this were the day that the
+gendarme-captain would return to Paris, and then begging to see
+that officer, so as to have a distinct understanding of the grounds
+of his imprisonment.  The captain had, however, been a mere
+instrument; and when Philip clamoured to be taken before the next
+justice of the peace, even Berenger smiled at him for thinking that
+such a being existed in France.  The only cause alleged was the
+vague but dangerous suspicion of conveying correspondence between
+England and the heretics, and this might become extremely perilous
+to one undeniably half English, regarded as whole Huguenot, caught
+on the way to La Rochelle with a letter to La Noue in his pocket;
+and, moreover, to one who had had a personal affray with a king
+famous for storing up petty offences, whom the last poor king had
+favoured, and who, in fine, had claims to estates that could not
+spared to the Huguenot interest.
+
+He was really not sure that there was not some truth in the
+professions of the Chevalier being anxious to protect him from the
+Queen-mother and the Guises; he had never been able to divest
+himself of a certain trust in his old kinsman's friendliness, and
+he was obliged to be beholden to him for the forms in which to
+couch his defence.  At the same time he wrote to Sir Francis
+Walsingham, and to his grandfather, but with great caution, lest
+his letters should be inspected by his enemies, and with the less
+hope of their availing him because it was probable that the
+Ambassador would return home on the king's death.  No answer could
+be expected for at least a fortnight, and even then it was possible
+that the Queen-mother might choose to refer the cause to King
+Henry, who was then in Poland.
+
+Berenger wrote these letters with much thought and care, but when
+they were once sealed, he collapsed again into despair and
+impatience, and frantically paced the little court as if he would
+dash himself against the walls that detained him from Eustacie;
+then threw himself moodily into a chair, hid his face in his
+crossed arms, and fell a prey to all the wretched visions called up
+by an excited brain.
+
+However, he was equally alive with Philip to the high-spirited
+resolution that his enemies should not perceive or triumph in his
+dejection.  He showed himself at the noon-day dinner, before
+Captain Delarue departed, grave and silent, but betraying no
+agitation; and he roused himself from his sad musings at the
+supper-hour, to arrange his hair, and assume the ordinary dress of
+gentlemen in the evening; though Philip laughed at the roses
+adorning his shoes, and his fresh ruff, as needless attentions to
+an old ruffian like the Chevalier.  However, Philip started when he
+entered the hall, and beheld, not the Chevalier alone, but with him
+the beautiful lady of the velvet coach, and another stately,
+extremely handsome dame, no longer in her first youth, and in
+costly black and white garments.  When the Chevalier called her his
+sister, Madame de Bellaise, Philip had no notion that she was
+anything but a widow, living a secular life; and though a couple of
+nuns attended her, their dress was so much less conventual than
+Cecily's that he did not at first find them out.  It was explained
+that Madame de Selinville was residing with her aunt, and that,
+having come to visit her father, he had detained the ladies to
+supper, hoping to enliven the sojourn of his _beaux cousins_.
+
+Madame de Selinville, looking anxiously at Berenger, hoped she saw
+him in better health.  He replied, stiffly, that he was perfectly
+well; and then, by way of safety, repaired to the society of the
+Abbess, who immediately began plying him with questions about
+England, its court, and especially the secret marriage of Queen
+Elisabeth and '_ce_ Comte de Dudley,' on which she was so minutely
+informed as to put him to the blush.  Then she was very curious
+about the dispersed convents, and how many of the nuns had married;
+and she seemed altogether delighted to have secured the attention
+of a youth from the outer world.  His soul at first recoiled from
+her as one of Eustacie's oppressors, and from her unconvent-like
+talk; and yet he could not but think her a good-natured person, and
+wonder if she could rally have been hard upon his poor little wife.
+And she, who had told Eustacie she would strangle with her own
+hands the scion of the rival house!--she, like most women, was much
+more bitter against an unseen being out of reach, than towards a
+courteously-mannered, pale, suffering-looking youth close beside
+her.  She had enough affection for Eustacie to have grieved much at
+her wanderings and at her fate; and now the sorrow-stricken look
+that by no effort could be concealed really moved her towards the
+youth bereaved husband. Besides, were not all feuds on the point of
+being made up by the excellent device concocted between her brother
+and her niece?
+
+Meantime, Philip was in raptures with the kindness of the beautiful
+Madame de Selinville.  He, whom the Mistresses Walsingham treated
+as a mere clumsy boy, was promoted by her manner to be a man and a
+cavalier.  He blushed up to the roots of his hair and looked
+sheepish whenever one of her entrancing smiles lit upon him; but
+then she inquired after his brother so cordially, she told him so
+openly how brilliant had been Berenger's career at the court, she
+regretted so heartily their present danger and detention, and
+promised so warmly to use her interest with Queen Catherine, that
+in the delight of being so talked to, he forgot his awkwardness and
+spoke freely and confidentially, maybe too confidentially, for he
+caught Berenger frowning at him, and made a sudden halt in his
+narrative, disconcerted but very angry with his brother for his
+distrust.
+
+When the ladies had ridden away to the convent in the summer
+evening, and the two brothers had returned to their prison, Philip
+would have begun to rave about Madame de Selinville, but his mouth
+was stopped at once with 'Don't be such a fool, Phil!' and when
+Perrine shut his eyes, leant back, and folded his arms together,
+there was no more use in talking to him.
+
+This exceeding defection continued for a day or two, while
+Berenger's whole spirit chafed in agony at his helplessness, and
+like demons there ever haunted him the thoughts of what might
+betide Eustacie, young, fair, forsaken, and believing herself a
+widow.  Proudly defiant as he showed himself to all eyes beyond his
+tower, he seemed to be fast gnawing and pining himself away in the
+anguish he suffered through these long days of captivity.
+
+Perhaps it was Philip's excitement about any chance of meeting
+Madame de Selinville that first roused him from the contemplation
+of his own misery.  It struck him that if he did not rouse himself
+to exert his influence, the boy, left to no companionship save what
+he could make for himself, might be led away by intercourse with
+the gendarmes, or by the blandishments of Diane, whatever might be
+her game.  He must be watched over, and returned to Sir Marmaduke
+the same true-hearted honest lad who had left home.  Nor had
+Berenger lain so long under Cecily St. John's tender watching
+without bearing away some notes of patience, trust, and dutifulness
+that returned upon him as his mind recovered tone after the first
+shock.  The whispers that had bidden him tarry the Lord's leisure,
+be strong, and commit his way to Him who could bring it to pass,
+and could save Eustacie as she had already been saved, returned to
+him once more: he chid himself for his faintness of heart, rallied
+his powers, and determined that cheerfulness, dutifulness, and care
+for Philip should no longer fail.
+
+So he reviewed his resources, and in the first place arranged for a
+brief daily worship with his two English fellow-prisoners,
+corresponding to the home hours of chapel service.  Then he
+proposed to Philip to spend an hour every day over the study of the
+Latin Bible; and when Philip showed himself reluctant to give up
+his habit of staring over the battlements, he represented that an
+attack on their faith was not so improbable but that they ought to
+be prepared for it.
+
+'I'm quite prepared,' quoth Philip; 'I shall not listen to a word
+they say.'
+
+However, he submitted to this, but was more contumacious as to
+Berenger's other proposal of profiting by Sidney's copy of Virgil.
+Here at least he was away from Mr. Adderley and study, and it
+passed endurance to have Latin and captivity both at once.  He was
+more obliged for Berenger's offer to impart to him the instruction
+in fencing he had received during his first visit to Paris; the
+Chevalier made no difficulty about lending them foils, and their
+little court became the scene of numerous encounters, as well as of
+other games and exercises.  More sedentary sports were at their
+service, chess, tables, dice, or cards, but Philip detested these,
+and they were only played in the evening, or on a rainy afternoon,
+by Berenger and the Chevalier.
+
+It was clearly no part of the old gentleman's plan to break their
+health or spirits.  He insisted on taking them out riding
+frequently, though always with four gendarmes with loaded
+arquebuses, so as to preclude all attempt at escape, or
+conversation with the peasants. The rides were hateful to both
+youths, but Berenger knew that so many hours of tedium were thus
+disposed of, and hoped also to acquire some knowledge of the
+country; indeed, he looked at every cottage and every peasant with
+affectionate eyes, as probably having sheltered Eustacie; and
+Philip, after one visit paid to the convent at Bellaise, was always
+in hopes of making such another.  His boyish admiration of Madame
+de Selinville was his chief distraction, coming on in accesses
+whenever there was a hope of seeing her, and often diverting
+Berenger by its absurdities, even though at other times he feared
+that the lad might be led away by it, or dissension sown between
+them.  Meetings were rare--now and then Madame de Selinville would
+appear at dinner or at supper as her father's guest; and more
+rarely, the Chevalier would turn his horse's head in the direction
+of Bellaise, and the three gentlemen would be received in the
+unpartitioned parlour, and there treated to such lemon cakes as had
+been the ruin of La Sablerie; but in general the castle and the
+convent had little intercourse, or only just enough to whet the
+appetite of the prisoners for what constituted their only variety.
+
+Six weeks had lagged by before any answer from Paris was received,
+and then there was no reply from Walsingham, who had, it appeared,
+returned home immediately after King Charles's funeral.  The letter
+from the Council bore that the Queen-mother was ready to accept the
+Baron de Ribaumont's excuses in good part, and to consider his
+youth; and she had no doubt of his being treated with the like
+indulgence by the King, provided he would prove himself a loyal
+subject, by embracing the Catholic faith, renouncing all his
+illegitimate claims to the estates of Nid de Merle, and, in pledge
+of his sincerity, wedding his cousin, the Countess de Selinville,
+so soon as a dispensation should have been procured.  On no other
+consideration could he be pardoned or set at liberty.
+
+'Then,' said Berenger, slowly, 'a prisoner I must remain until it
+be the will of Heaven to open the doors.'
+
+'Fair nephew!' exclaimed the Chevalier, 'make no rash replies.
+Bethink you to what you expose yourself by obstinacy; I may no
+longer be able to protect you when the King returns.  And he
+further went on to represent that, by renouncing voluntarily all
+possible claims on the Nid de Merle estates, the Baron would save
+the honour of poor Eustacie (which indeed equally concerned the
+rest of the family), since they then would gladly drop all dispute
+of the validity of the marriage; and the lands of Selinville would
+be an ample equivalent for these, as well as for all expectations
+in England.
+
+'Sir, it is impossible!' said Berenger.  'My wife lives.'
+
+'Comment! when you wear mourning for her.'
+
+'I wear black because I have been able to procure nothing else
+since I have been convinced that she did not perish at La Sablerie.
+I was on my way to seek her when I was seized and detained here.'
+
+'Where would you have sought her, my poor cousin?' compassionately
+asked the Chevalier.
+
+'That I know not.  She may be in England by this time; but that she
+escaped from La Sablerie, I am well assured.'
+
+'Alas! my poor friend, you feed on delusion.  I have surer
+evidence--you shall see the man yourself--one of my son's people,
+who was actually at the assault, and had strict orders to seek and
+save her.  Would that I could feel the least hope left!'
+
+'Is the man here?  Let me see him,' said Berenger, hastily.
+
+He was at once sent for, and proved to be one of the stable
+servants, a rough, soldierly-looking man, who made no difficulty in
+telling that M. de Nid de Merle had bidden his own troop to use
+every effort to reach the Widow Laurent's house, and secure the
+lady.  They had made for it, but missed the way, and met with
+various obstacles; and when they reached it, it was already in
+flames, and he had seen for a moment Mademoiselle de Nid de Merle,
+whom he well knew by sight, with an infant in her arms at an upper
+window.  He had called to her by name, and was about to send for a
+ladder, when recognizing the Ribaumont colours, she had turned
+back, and thrown herself and her child into the flames.  M. de Nid
+de Merle was frantic when he heard of it, and they had searched for
+the remains among the ruins; but, bah! it was like a lime-kiln,
+nothing was to be found--all was calcined.
+
+'No fragment left?' said Berenger; 'not a corner of tile or beam?'
+
+'Not so much wood as you could boil an egg with; I will swear it on
+the Mass.'
+
+'That is needless,' said Berenger.  'I have seen the spot myself.
+That is all I desired to ask.'
+
+The Chevalier would have taken his hand and condoled with him over
+the horrible story; but he drew back, repeating that he had seen
+Widow Laurent's house, and that he saw that some parts of the man's
+story were so much falsified that he could not believe the rest.
+Moreover, he knew that Eustacie had not been in the town at the
+time of the siege.
+
+Now the Chevalier _bona fide_ believed the man's story, so far as
+that he never doubted that Eustacie had perished, and he looked on
+Berenger's refusal to accept the tale as the mournful last clinging
+to a vain hope.  In his eyes, the actual sight of Eustacie, and the
+total destruction of the house, were mere matters of embellishment,
+possibly untrue, but not invalidating the main fact.  He only said,
+'Well, my friend, I will not press you while the pain of this
+narration is still fresh.'
+
+'Thank you, sir; but this is not pain, for I believe not a word of
+it; therefore it is impossible for me to entertain the proposal,
+even if I could forsake my faith or my English kindred.  You
+remember, sir, that I returned this same answer at Paris, when I
+had no hope that my wife survived.'
+
+'True, my fair cousin, but I fear time will convince you that this
+constancy is unhappily misplaced.  You shall have time to consider;
+and when it is proved to you that my poor niece is out of the reach
+of your fidelity, and when you have become better acquainted with
+the claims of the Church to your allegiance, then may it only prove
+that your conversion does not come too late.  I have the honour to
+take my leave.'
+
+'One moment more, sir.  Is there no answer as to my brother?'
+
+'None, cousin.  As I told you, your country has at present no
+Ambassador; but, of course, on your fulfillment of the conditions,
+he would be released with you.'
+
+'So,' said Philip, when the old knight had quitted the room, 'of
+course you cannot marry while Eustacie lives; but if---'
+
+'Not another word, profane boy!' angrily cried Berenger.
+
+'I was only going to say, it is a pity of one so goodly not to
+bring her over to the true faith, and take her to England.'
+
+'Much would she be beholden to you!' said Berenger.  'So!' he
+added, sighing, 'I had little hope but that it would be thus.  I
+believe it is all a web of this old plotter's weaving, and that the
+Queen-mother acts in it at his request.  He wants only to buy me
+off with his daughter's estates from asserting my claim to this
+castle and lands; and I trow he will never rise up here till--till-
+--'
+
+'Till when, Berry?'
+
+'Till mayhap my grandfather can move the Queen to do something for
+us; or till Madame de Selinville sees a face she likes better than
+her brother's carving; or, what can I tell? till malice is tired
+out, and Heaven's will sets us free.  May Eustacie only have
+reached home!  But I'm sorry for you, my poor Phil.'
+
+'Never heed, brother,' said Philip; 'what is prison to me, so that
+I can now and then see those lovely eyes?'
+
+And the languishing air of the clumsy lad was so comical as to
+beguile Berenger into a laugh.  Yet Berenger's own feeling would go
+back to his first meeting with Diane; and as he thought of the eyes
+then fixed on him, he felt that he was under a trial that might
+become more severe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.  THE DARK POOL OF THE FUTURE
+
+
+
+Triumph, triumph, only she
+That knit his bonds can set him free.--SOUTHEY
+
+
+No change was made in the life of the captives of Nid de Merle
+after the answer from Paris, except that Pere Bonami, who had
+already once or twice dined at the Chevalier's table, was requested
+to make formal exposition of the errors of the Reformers and of the
+tenets of his own Church to the Baron de Ribaumont.
+
+Philip took such good care not to be deluded that, though he sat by
+to see fair play, yet it was always with his elbows on the table
+and his fingers in his ears, regardless of appearing to the priest
+in the character of the deaf adder.  After all, he was not the
+object, and good Pere Bonami at first thought the day his own, when
+he found that almost all his arguments against Calvinism were
+equally impressed upon Berenger's mind, but the differences soon
+revealed themselves; and the priest, though a good man, was not a
+very happily-chosen champion, for he was one of the old-fashioned,
+scantily-instructed country priests, who were more numerous before
+the Jesuit revival of learning, and knew nothing of controversy
+save that adapted to the doctrines of Calvin; so that in dealing
+with an Anglican of the school of Ridley and Hooker, it was like
+bow ad arrow against sword.  And tin those days of change,
+controversial reading was one of the primary studies even of young
+laymen, and Lord Walwyn, with a view to his grandson's peculiar
+position, had taken care that he should be well instructed, so that
+he was not at all unequal to the contest.  Moreover, apart from
+argument, he clung as a point of honour to the Church as to the
+wife that he had accepted in his childhood; and often tried to
+recall the sketch that Philip Sidney had once given him of a tale
+that a friend of his designed to turn into a poem, like Ariosto's,
+in _terza rima_, of a Red Cross knight separated from his Una as
+the true faith, and tempted by a treacherous Duessa, who
+impersonated at once Falsehood and Rome.  And he knew so well that
+the last relaxation of his almost terrified resistance would make
+him so entirely succumb to Diane's beauty and brilliancy, that he
+kept himself stiffly frigid and reserved.
+
+Diane never openly alluded to the terms on which he stood, but he
+often found gifts from unknown hands placed in his room.  The books
+which he had found there were changed when he had had time to study
+them; and marks were placed in some of the most striking passages.
+They were of the class that turned the brain of the Knight of La
+Mancha, but with a predominance of the pastoral, such as Diane of
+George of Montemayor and his numerous imitators--which Philip
+thought horrible stuff--enduring nothing but a few of the combats
+of Amadis de Gaul or Palmerin of England, until he found that
+Madame de Selinville prodigiously admired the 'silly swains more
+silly than their sheep,' and was very anxious that M. le Baron
+should be touched by their beauties; whereupon honest Philip made
+desperate efforts to swallow them in his brother's stead, but was
+always found fast asleep in the very middle of arguments between
+Damon and Thyrsis upon the _devoirs_ of love, or the mournings of
+some disconsolate nymph over her jealousies of a favoured rival.
+
+One day, a beautiful ivory box, exhaling sweet perfume, appeared in
+the prison chamber, and therewith a sealed letter in verse,
+containing an affecting description of how Corydon had been cruelly
+torn by the lions in endeavouring to bear away Sylvie from her
+cavern, how Sylvie had been rent from him and lost, and how vainly
+he continued to bewail her, and disregard the loving lament of
+Daphne, who had ever mourned and pined for him as she kept her
+flock, made the rivulets, the brooks, the mountains re-echo with
+her sighs and plaints, and had wandered through the hills and
+valleys, gathering simples wherewith she had compounded a balsam
+that might do away with the scars that the claws of the lions had
+left, so that he might again appear with the glowing cheeks and
+radiant locks that had excited the envy of the god of day.
+
+Berenger burst out laughing over the practical part of this
+poetical performance, and laughed the more at Philip's hurt,
+injured air at his mirth.  Philip, who would have been the first to
+see the absurdity in any other Daphne, thought this a passing
+pleasant device, and considered it very unkind in his brother not
+even to make experiment of the balsam of simples, but to declare
+that he had much rather keep his scars for Eustacie's sake than
+wear a smooth face to please Diane.
+
+Still Berenger's natural courtesy stood in his way.  He could not
+help being respectful and attentive to the old Chevalier, when
+their terms were, apparently at least, those of host and guest; and
+to a lady he COULD not be rude and repellant, though he could be
+reserved.  So, when the kinsfolk met, no stranger would have
+discovered that one was a prisoner and the others his captors.
+
+One August day, when Madame de Selinville and her lady attendants
+were supping at the castle at the early hour of six, a servant
+brought in word that an Italian pedlar craved leave to display his
+wares.  He was welcome, both for need's sake and for amusement, and
+was readily admitted.  He was a handsome olive-faced Italian, and
+was followed by a little boy with a skin of almost Moorish dye--and
+great was the display at once made on the tables, of
+
+   'Lawn as white as driven snow,
+    Cyprus, black as e'er was crow;
+    Gloves as sweet as fragrant posies,
+    Masks for faces and for noses;'
+
+and there was a good deal of the eager, desultory bargaining that
+naturally took place where purchasing was an unusual excitement and
+novelty, and was to form a whole evening's amusement.  Berenger,
+while supplying the defects of his scanty traveling wardrobe, was
+trying to make out whether he had seen the man before, wondering if
+he were the same whom he had met in the forest of Montipipeau,
+though a few differences in dress, hair, and beard made him
+somewhat doubtful.
+
+'Perfumes?  Yes, lady, I have store of perfumes: ambergris and
+violet dew, and the Turkish essence distilled from roses; yea, and
+the finest spirit of the Venus myrtle-tree, the secret known to the
+Roman dames of old, whereby they secured perpetual beauty and love
+--though truly Madame should need no such essence.  That which
+nature has bestowed on her secures to her all hearts--and one
+valued more than all.'
+
+'Enough,' said Diane, blushing somewhat, though with an effort at
+laughing off his words; 'these are the tricks of your trade.'
+
+'Madame is incredulous; yet, lady, I have been in the East.  Yonder
+boy comes from the land where there are spells that make known the
+secrets of lives.'
+
+The old Chevalier, who had hitherto been taken up with the abstruse
+calculation--derived from his past days of economy--how much ribbon
+would be needed to retrim his murrey _just-au-corps_, here began to
+lend an ear, though saying nothing. Philip looked on in open-eyed
+wonder, and nudged his brother, who muttered in return, 'Jugglery!'
+
+'Ah, the fair company are all slow to believe,' said the pedlar.
+'Hola, Alessio!' and taking a glove that Philip had left on the
+table, he held it to the boy.  A few unintelligible words passed
+between them; then the boy pointed direct to Philip, and waved his
+hand northwards.  'He says the gentleman who owns this glove comes
+from the North, from far away,' interpreted the Italian; then as
+the boy made the gesture of walking in chains, 'that he is a
+captive.'
+
+'Ay,' cried Philip, 'right, lad; and can he tell how long I shall
+be so?'
+
+'Things yet to come,' said the mountebank, 'are only revealed after
+long preparation.  For them must he gaze into the dark poor of the
+future.  The present and the past he can divine by the mere touch
+of what has belonged to the person.'
+
+'It is passing strange,' said Philip to Madame de Selinville.  'You
+credit it, Madame?'
+
+'Ah, have we not seen the wonders come to pass that a like diviner
+fortold to the Queen-mother?' said Diane: 'her sons should be all
+kings--that was told her when the eldest was yet Dauphin.'
+
+'And there is only one yet to come,' said Philip, awe-struck.  'But
+see, what has he now?'
+
+'Veronique's kerchief,' returned Madame de Selinville, as the
+Italian began to interpret the boy's gesture.
+
+'Pretty maidens, he says, serve fair ladies--bear tokens for them.
+This damsel has once been the bearer of a bouquet of heather of the
+pink and white, whose bells were to ring hope.'
+
+'Eh, eh, Madame, it is true?' cried Veronique, crimson with
+surprise and alarm.  'M. le Baron knows it is true.'
+
+Berenger had started at this revelation, and uttered an
+inarticulate exclamation; but at that moment the boy, in whose hand
+his master had placed a crown from the money newly paid, began to
+make vehement gestures, which the main interpreted.  '_Le Balafre_,
+he says, pardon me, gentlemen, _le Balafre_ could reveal even a
+deeper scar of the heart than of the visage'--and the boy's brown
+hand was pressed on his heart--'yet truly there is yet hope
+(_esperance_) to be found.  Yes'--as the boy put his hand to his
+neck--'he bears a pearl, parted from its sister pearls.  Where they
+are, there is hope.  Who can miss Hope, who has sought it at a
+royal death-bed?'
+
+'Ah, where is it?' Berenger could not help exclaiming.
+
+'Sir,' said the pedlar, 'as I told Messieurs and Mesdames before,
+the spirits that cast the lights of the future on the dark pool
+need invocation.  Ere he can answer M. le Baron's demands, he and I
+must have time and seclusion.  If Monsieur le Chevalier will grant
+us an empty room, there will we answer all queries on which the
+spirits will throw light.'
+
+'And how am I to know that you will not bring the devil to shatter
+the castle, my friend?' demanded the Chevalier.  'Or more likely
+still, that you are not laughing all the time at these credulous
+boys and ladies?'
+
+'Of that, sir, you may here convince yourself,' said the
+mountebank, putting into his hand a sort of credential in Italian,
+signed by Renato di Milano, the Queen's perfumer, testifying to the
+skill of his compatriot Ercole Stizzito both in perfumery,
+cosmetics, and in the secrets of occult sciences.
+
+The Chevalier was no Italian scholar, and his daughter interpreted
+the scroll to him, in a rapid low voice, adding, 'I have had many
+dealings with Rene of Milan, father.  I know he speaks sooth.
+There can be no harm in letting the poor man play out his play--all
+the castle servants will be frantic to have their fortunes told.'
+
+'I must speak with the fellow first, daughter,' said the Chevalier.
+'He must satisfy me that he has no unlawful dealings that could
+bring the Church down on us.'  And he looked meaningly at the
+mountebank, who replied by a whole muster-roll of ecclesiastics,
+male and female, who had heard and approved his predictions.
+
+'A few more words with thee, fellow,' said the Chevalier, pointing
+the way to one of the rooms opening out of the hall.  'As master of
+the house I must be convinced of his honesty,' he added.  'If I am
+satisfied, then who will may seek to hear their fortune.'
+
+Chevalier, man and boy disappeared, and Philip was the first to
+exclaim, 'A strange fellow!  What will he tell us?  Madame, shall
+you hear him?'
+
+'That depends on my father's report,' she said.  'And yet,' sadly
+and pensively, 'my future is dark and void enough.  Why should I
+vex myself with hearing it?'
+
+'Nay, it may brighten,' said Philip.
+
+'Scarcely, while hearts are hard,' she murmured with a slight shake
+of the head, that Philip thought indescribably touching; but
+Berenger was gathering his purchases together, and did not see.
+'And you, brother,' said Philip, 'you mean to prove him?'
+
+'No,' said Berenger.  'Have you forgotten, Phil, the anger we met
+with, when we dealt with the gipsy at Hurst Fair?'
+
+'Pshaw, Berry, we are past flogging now.'
+
+'Out of reach, Phil, of the rod, but scarce of the teaching it
+struck into us.'
+
+'What?' said Philip, sulkily.
+
+'That divining is either cozening manor forsaking God, Phil.
+Either it is falsehood, or it is a lying wonder of the devil.'
+
+'But, Berry, this man is not cheat.'
+
+'Then he is worse.'
+
+'Only, turn not away, brother.  How should he have known things
+that even I know not?--the heather.'
+
+'No marvel in that,' said Berenger.  'This is the very man I bought
+Annora's fan from; he was prowling round Montpipeau, and my heather
+was given to Veronique with little secrecy.  And as to the royal
+deathbed, it was Rene, his master, who met me there.'
+
+'Then you think it mere cozeing?  If so, we should find it out.'
+
+'I don't reckon myself keener than an accomplished Italian
+mountebank,' said Berenger, dryly.
+
+Further conference was cut short by the return of the Chevalier,
+saying, in his paternal genial way, 'Well, children, I have
+examined the fellow and his credentials, and for those who have
+enough youth and hope to care to have the future made known to
+them, bah! it is well.'
+
+'Is it sorcery, sir?' asked Philip, anxiously.
+
+The Chevalier shrugged his shoulders.  'What know I?' he said.
+'For those who have a fine nose for brimstone there may be, but he
+assures me it is but the white magic practiced in Egypt, and the
+boy is Christian!'
+
+'Did you try this secret, father?' inquired Madame de Selinville.
+
+'I, my daughter?  An old man's fortune is in his children.  What
+have I to ask?'
+
+'I--I scarcely like to be the first!' said the lady, eager but
+hesitating.  'Veronique, you would have your fortune told?'
+
+'I will be the first,' said Philip, stepping forward manfully.  'I
+will prove him for you, lady, and tell you whether he be a cozener
+or not, or if his magic be fit for you to deal with.'
+
+And confident in the inherent intuition of a plain Englishman, as
+well as satisfied to exercise his resolution for once in opposition
+to Berenger's opinion, Master Thistlewood stepped towards the
+closet where the Italian awaited his clients, and Berenger knew
+that it would be worse than useless to endeavour to withhold him.
+He only chafed at the smile which passed between father and
+daughter at this doughty self-assertion.
+
+There was a long silence.  Berenger sat with his eyes fixed on the
+window where the twilight horizon was still soft and bright with
+the pearly gold of the late sunset, thinking with an intensity of
+yearning what it would be could he truly become certain of
+Eustacie's present doings; questioning whether he would try to
+satisfy that longing by the doubtful auguries of the diviner, and
+then recollecting how he had heard from wrecked sailors that to
+seek to delude their thirst with sea-water did but aggravate their
+misery.  He knew that whatever he might hear would be unworthy of
+confidence.  Either it merely framed to soothe and please him--or,
+were it a genuine oracle, he had no faith in the instinct that was
+to perceive it, but what he HAD faith in was the Divine protection
+over his lost ones.  'No,' he thought to himself, 'I will not by a
+presumptuous sin, in my own impatience, risk incurring woes on them
+that deal with familiar spirits and wizards that peep and mutter.
+If ever I am to hear of Eustacie again, it shall be by God's will,
+not the devil's.'
+
+Diane de Selinville had been watching his face all the time, and
+now said, with that almost timid air of gaiety that she wore when
+addressing him: 'You too, cousin, are awaiting Monsieur Philippe's
+report to decide whether to look into the pool of mystery.'
+
+'Not at all, Madame,' said Berenger, gravely.  'I do not understand
+white magic.'
+
+'Our good cousin has been too well bred among the Reformers to
+condescend to our little wickednesses, daughter,' said the
+Chevalier; and the sneer-much like that which would await a person
+now who scrupled at joining in table-turning or any form of
+spiritualism--purpled Berenger's scar, now his only manner of
+blushing; but he instantly perceived that it was the Chevalier's
+desire that he should consult the conjurer, and therefore became
+the more resolved against running into a trap.
+
+'I am sure,' said Madame de Selinville, earnestly, though with an
+affectation of lightness, 'a little wickedness is fair when there
+is a great deal at stake.  For my part, I would not hesitate long,
+to find out how soon the King will relent towards my fair cousin
+here!'
+
+'That, Madame,' said Berenger, with the same grave dryness, 'is
+likely to be better known to other persons than this wandering
+Greek boy.'
+
+Here Philip's step was heard returning hastily.  He was pale, and
+looked a good deal excited, so that Madame de Selinville uttered a
+little cry, and exclaimed, 'Ah! is it so dreadful then?'
+
+'No, no, Madame,' said Philip, turning round, with a fervour and
+confidence he had never before shown.  'On my word, there is
+nothing formidable.  You see nothing--nothing but the Italia and
+the boy.  The boy gazes into a vessel of some black liquid, and
+sees--sees there all you would have revealed.  Ah!'
+
+'Then you believe?' asked Madame de Selinville.
+
+'It cannot be false,' answered Philip; 'he told me everything.
+Things he could not have known.  My very home, my father's house,
+passed in review before that strange little blackamoor's eyes;
+where I--though I would have given worlds to see it--beheld only
+the lamp mirrored in the dark pool.'
+
+'How do you know it was your father's house?' said Berenger.
+
+'I could not doubt.  Just to test the fellow, I bade him ask for my
+native place.  The little boy gazed, smiled, babbled his gibberish,
+pointed.  The man said he spoke of a fair mansion among green
+fields and hills, "a grand _cavalier embonpoint_,"--those were his
+very words,--at the door, with a tankard in one hand.  Ah! my dear
+father, why could not I see him too?  But who could mistake him or
+the Manor?'
+
+'And did he speak of future as well as past?' said Diane.
+
+'Yes, yes, yes,' said Philip, with more agitation.  'Lady, that
+will you know for yourself.'
+
+'It was not dreadful?' she said, rising.
+
+'Oh no!' and Philip had become crimson, and hesitated; 'certes, not
+dreadful.  But---I must not say more.'
+
+'Save good night,' said Berenger, rising; 'See, our gendarmes are
+again looking as if we had long exceeded their patience.  It is an
+hour later than we are wont to retire.'
+
+'If it be your desire to consult this mysterious fellow now you
+have heard your brother's report, my dear Baron,' said the
+Chevalier, 'the gendarmes may devour their impatience a little
+longer.'
+
+'Thanks, sir,' said Berenger; 'but I am not tempted,' and he gave
+the usual signal to the gendarmes, who, during meals, used to stand
+as sentries at the great door of the hall.
+
+'It might settle your mind,' muttered Philip, hesitating.  'And
+yet--yet---'
+
+But he used no persuasions, and permitted himself to be escorted
+with his brother along the passages to their own chamber, where he
+threw himself into a chair with a long sigh, and did not speak.
+Berenger meantime opened the Bible, glanced over the few verses he
+meant to read, found the place in the Prayer-book, and was going to
+the stairs to call Humfrey, when Philip broke forth: 'Wait, Berry;
+don't be in such haste.'
+
+'What, you want time to lose the taste of your dealings with the
+devil?' said Berenger, smiling.
+
+'Pshaw! No devil in the matter,' testily said Philip.  'No, I was
+only wishing you had not had a Puritan fit, and seen and heard for
+yourself.  Then I should not have had to tell you,' and he sighed.
+
+'I have no desire to be told,' said Berenger, who had become more
+fixed in the conviction that it was an imposture.
+
+'No desire!  Ah! I have none when I knew what it was.  But you
+ought to know.'
+
+'Well,' said Berenger, 'you will burst anon if I open not my ears.'
+
+'Dear Berry, speak not thus.  It will be the worse for you when you
+do hear.  Alack, Berenger, all ours have been vain hopes.  I asked
+for HER--and the boy fell well-nigh into convulsions of terror as
+he gazed; spoke of flames and falling houses.  That was wherefore I
+pressed you not again--it would have wrung your heart too much.
+The boy fairly wept and writhed himself, crying out in his tongue
+for pity on the fair lady and the little babe in the burning house.
+Alack! brother,' said Philip, a little hurt that his brother had
+not changed countenance.
+
+'This is the lying tale of the man-at-arms which our own eyes
+contradicted,' said Berenger; 'and no doubt was likewise inspired
+by the Chevalier.'
+
+'See the boy, brother!  How should he have heard the Chevalier?
+Nay, you might hug your own belief, but it is hard that we should
+both be in durance for your mere dream that she lives.'
+
+'Come, Phil, it will be the devil indeed that sows dissension
+between us,' said Berenger.  'You know well enough that were it
+indeed with my poor Eustacie as they would fain have us believe,
+rather than give up her fair name I would not in prison for life.
+Or would you have me renounce my faith, or wed Madame de Selinville
+upon the witness of a pool of ink that I am a widower?' he added,
+almost laughing.
+
+'For that matter,' muttered Philip, a good deal ashamed and half
+affronted, 'you know I value the Protestant faith so that I never
+heard a word from the will old priest.  Nevertheless, the boy, when
+I asked of our release, saw the gates set open by Love.'
+
+'What did Love look like in the pool?  Had he wings like the Cupids
+in the ballets at the Louvre?' asked Berenger provokingly.
+
+'I tell you I saw nothing,' said Philip, tartly: 'this was the
+Italian's interpretation of the boy's gesture.  It was to be by
+means of love, he said, and of a lady who---he made it plain enough
+who she was,' added the boy, colouring.
+
+'No doubt, as the Chevalier have instructed him to say that I--I--'
+he hesitated, 'that my--my love--I mean that he saw my shield per
+pale with the field fretty and the sable leopard.'
+
+'Oh! it is to be my daughter, is it?' said Berenger, laughing; 'I
+am very happy to entertain your proposals for her.'
+
+'Berenger, what mocking fiend has possessed you?' cried Philip,
+half angrily, half pitifully.  'How can you so speak of that poor
+child?'
+
+'Because the more they try to force on me the story of her fate,
+the plainer it is to me that they do not believe it.  I shall find
+her yet, and then, Phil, you shall have the first chance.'
+
+Philip growled.
+
+'Well, Phil,' said his brother, good-humouredly, 'any way, till
+this Love comes that is to let us out, don't let Moor or fiend come
+between us.  Let me keep my credence for the honest Bailli's
+daughters at Lucon; and remember I would give my life to free you,
+but I cannot give away my faith.'  Philip bent his head.  He was of
+too stubborn a mould to express contrition or affection, but he
+mused for five minutes, then called Humfrey, and at the last
+moment, as the heavy tread came up-stairs, he turned round and
+said, 'You're in the right on't there, Berry.  Hap what hap, the
+foul fiend may carry off the conjurer before I murmur at you again!
+Still I wish you had seen him.  You would know 'tis sooth.'
+
+While Berenger, in his prison chamber, with the lamplight beaming
+on his high white brow and clear eye, stood before his two comrades
+in captivity, their true-hearted faces composed to reverence, and
+as he read, 'I have hated them that hold of superstitious vanities,
+and my trust hath been in the Lord.  I will be glad and rejoice in
+Thy mercy, for Thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my
+soul in adversities,' feeling that here was the oracle by which he
+was willing to abide--Diane de Selinville was entering the cabinet
+where the secrets of the future were to be unveiled.
+
+There she stood--the beautiful court lady--her lace coif (of the
+Mary of Scotland type) well framed the beautiful oval of her face,
+and set of the clear olive of her complexion, softened by short
+jetty curls at the temples, and lighted splendid dark eyes, and by
+the smiles of a perfect pair of lips.  A transparent veil hung back
+over the ruff like frostwork-formed fairy wings, and over the white
+silk bodice and sleeves laced with violet, and the violet skirt
+that fell in ample folds on the ground; only, however, in the dim
+light revealing by an occasional gleam that it was not black.  It
+was a stately presence, yet withal there was a tremor, a quiver of
+the downcast eyelids, and a trembling of the fair hand, as though
+she were ill at ease; even though it was by no means the first time
+she had trafficked with the dealers in mysterious arts who swarmed
+around Catherine de Medicis.  There were words lately uttered that
+weighed with her in their simplicity, and she could not forget them
+in that gloomy light, as she gazed on the brown face of the
+Italian, Ercole, faultless in outline as a classical mask, but the
+black depths of the eyes sparkling with intensity of observation,
+as if they were everywhere at once and gazed through and through.
+He wore his national dress, with the short cloak over one shoulder;
+but the little boy, who stood at the table, had been fantastically
+arrayed in a sort of semi-Albanian garb, a red cap with a long
+tassel, a dark, gold-embroidered velvet jacket sitting close to his
+body, and a white kilt over his legs, bare except for buskins stiff
+with gold.  The poor little fellow looked pale in spite of his
+tawny hue, his enormous black eyes were heavy and weary, and he
+seemed to be trying to keep aloof from the small brazen vessel
+formed by the coils of two serpents that held the inky liquid of
+which Philip had spoken.
+
+No doubt of the veritable nature of the charm crossed Diane; her
+doubt was of its lawfulness, her dread of the supernatural region
+she was invading.  She hesitated before she ventured on her first
+question, and started as the Italian first spoke,--'What would the
+Eccelentissima?  Ladies often hesitate to speak the question
+nearest their hearts.  Yet is it ever the same. But the lady must
+be pleased to form it herself in words, or the lad will not see her
+vision.'
+
+'Where, then, is my brother?' said Diane, still reluctant to come
+direct to the point.
+
+The boy gazed intently into the black pool, his great eyes dilating
+till they seemed like black wells, and after a long time, that
+Diane could have counted by the throbs of her heart, he began to
+close his fingers, perform the action over the other arm of one
+playing on the lute, throw his head back, close his eyes, and
+appear to be singing a lullaby.  Then he spoke a few words to his
+master quickly.
+
+'He see,' said Ercole, 'a gentleman touching the lute, seated in a
+bedroom, where lies, on a rich pillow, another gentleman,'--and as
+the boy stroked his face, and pointed to his hands--'wearing a mask
+and gloves.  It is, he says, in my own land, in Italy,' and as the
+boy made the action of rowing, 'in the territory of Venice.'
+
+'It is well,' said Madame de Selinville, who knew that nothing was
+more probable than that her brother should be playing the King to
+his sleep in the medicated mask and gloves that cherished the royal
+complexion, and, moreover, that Henry was lingering to take his
+pastime in Italy to the great inconvenience of his kingdom.
+
+Her next question came nearer her heat--'You saw the gentleman with
+a scar.  Will he leave this castle?'
+
+The boy gazed, then made gestures of throwing his arms wide, and of
+passing out; and as he added his few words, the master explained:
+'He sees the gentleman leaving the castle, through open gate, in
+full day, on horseback; and--and it is Madame who is with them,' he
+added, as the lad pointed decidedly to her, 'it is Madame who opens
+their prison.'
+
+Diane's face lighted with gladness for a moment; then she said,
+faltering (most women of her day would not have been even thus
+reserved), 'Then I shall marry again?'
+
+The boy gazed and knitted his brow; then, without any pantomime,
+looked up and spoke.  'The Eccellentissima shall be a bride once
+more, he says,' explained the man, 'but after a sort he cannot
+understand.  It is exhausting, lady, thus to gaze into the
+invisible future; the boy becomes confused and exhausted ere long.'
+
+'Once more--I will only ask of the past.  My cousin, is he married
+or a widower?'
+
+The boy clasped his hands and looked imploringly, shaking his head
+at the dark pool, as he murmured an entreating word to his master.
+'Ah! Madame,' said the Italian, 'that question hath already been
+demanded by the young Inglese.  The poor child has been so
+terrified by the scene it called up, that he implored he may not
+see it again.  A sacked and burning town, a lady in a flaming
+house---'
+
+'Enough, enough,' said de; 'I could as little bear to hear as he to
+see.  It is what we have ever known and feared.  And now'--she
+blushed as she spoke--'sir, you will leave me one of those potions
+that Signor Renato is wont to compound.'
+
+'_Capisco_!' said Ercole; 'but the Eccellentissima shall he obeyed
+if she will supply the means, for the expense will be heavy.'
+
+The bargain was agreed upon, and a considerable sum advanced for a
+philter, compounded of strange Eastern plants and mystic jewels;
+and then Diane, with a shudder of relief, passed into the full
+light of the hall, bade her father good night, and was handed by
+him into the litter that had long been awaiting her at the door.
+
+The Chevalier, then, with care on his brow, bent his steps towards
+the apartment where the Italian still remained counting the money
+he had received.
+
+'So!' he said as he entered, 'so, fellow, I have not hindered your
+gains, and you have been true to your agreement?'
+
+'Illustrissimo, yes.  The pool of vision mirrored the flames, but
+nothing beyond--nothing--nothing.'
+
+'They asked you then no more of those words you threw out of
+Esperance?'
+
+'Only the English youth, sir; and there were plenty of other hopes
+to dance before the eyes of such a lad!  With M. le Baron it will
+be needful to be more guarded.'
+
+'M. le Baron shall not have the opportunity,' said the Chevalier.
+'He may abide by his decision, and what the younger one may tell
+him.  Fear not, good man, it shall be made good to you, if you obey
+my commands.  I have other work for you.  But first repeat to me
+more fully what you told me before.  Where was it that you saw this
+unhappy girl under the name of Esperance?'
+
+'At a hostel, sir, at Charente, where she was attending on an old
+heretic teacher of the name of Gardon, who had fallen sick there,
+being pinched by the fiend with rheumatic pains after his deserts.
+She bore the name of Esperance Gardon, and passed for his son's
+widow.'
+
+'And by what means did you know her not to be the mean creature she
+pretended?' said the Chevalier, with a gesture of scornful horror.
+
+'Illustrissimo, I never forget a face.  I had seen this lady with
+M. le Baron when they made purchases of various trinkets at
+Montpipeau; and I saw her full again.  I had the honour to purchase
+from her certain jewels, that the Eccellenza will probably redeem;
+and even--pardon, sir--I cut off and bought of her, her hair.'
+
+'Her hair!' exclaimed the Chevalier, in horror.  'The miserable
+girl to have fallen so low!  Is it with you, fellow?'
+
+'Surely, Illustrissimo.  Such tresses--so shining, so silky, so
+well kept,--I reserved to adorn the heads of Signor Renato's most
+princely customers', said the man, unpacking from the inmost
+recesses of one of his most ingeniously arranged packages, a parcel
+which contained the rich mass of beautiful black tresses.  'Ah! her
+head looked so noble,' he added, 'that I felt it profane to let my
+scissors touch those locks; but she said that she could never wear
+them openly more, and that they did but take up her time, and were
+useless to her child and her father--as she called him; and she
+much needed the medicaments for the old man that I gave her in
+exchange.'
+
+'Heavens!  A daughter of Ribaumont!' sighed the Chevalier,
+clenching his hand.  'And now, man, let me see the jewels with
+which the besotted child parted.'
+
+The jewels were not many, nor remarkable.  No one but a member of
+the family would have identified them, and not one of the pearls
+was there; and the Chevalier refrained from inquiring after them,
+lest, by putting the Italian on the scent of anything so
+exceptionally valuable, he should defeat his own object, and lead
+to the man's securing the pearls and running away with them.  But
+Ercole understood his glance, with the quickness of a man whose
+trade forced him to read countenances.  'The Eccellenza is looking
+for the pearls of Ribaumont?  The lady made no offer of them to
+me.'
+
+'Do you believe that she has them still?'
+
+'I am certain of it, sir.  I know that she has jewels--though she
+said not what they were--which she preserved at the expense of her
+hair.  It was thus.  The old man had, it seems, been for weeks on
+the rack with pains caught by a chill when they fled from La
+Sablerie, and, though the fever had left him, he was still so stiff
+in the joints as to be unable to move.  I prescribed for him
+unguents of balm and Indian spice, which, as the Eccellenza knows,
+are worth far more than their weight in gold; nor did these jewels
+make up the cost of these, together with the warm cloak for him,
+and the linen for her child that she had been purchasing.  I tell
+you, sir, the babe must have no linen but the finest fabric of
+Cambrai--yes, and even carnation-coloured ribbons--though, for
+herself, I saw the homespun she was sewing.  As she mused over what
+she could throw back, I asked if she had no other gauds to make up
+the price, and she said, almost within herself, "They are my
+child's, not mine."  Then remembering that I had been buying the
+hair of the peasant maidens, she suddenly offered me her tresses.
+But I could yet secure the pearls, if Eccellenza would.'
+
+'Do you then believe her to be in any positive want or distress?'
+said the Chevalier.
+
+'Signor, no.  The heretical households among whom she travels
+gladly support the families of their teachers, and at Catholic inns
+they pay their way.  I understood them to be on their way to a
+synod of Satan at the nest of heretics, Montauban, where doubtless
+the old miscreant would obtain an appointment to some village.'
+
+'When did you thus full in with them?'
+
+'It was on one of the days of the week of Pentecost,' said Ercole.
+'It is at that time I frequent fairs in those parts, to gather my
+little harvest on the maidens' heads.'
+
+'_Parbleu_! class not my niece with those sordid beings, man,' said
+the Chevalier, angrily.  'Here is your price'--tossing a heavy
+purse on the table--'and as much more shall await you when you
+bring me sure intelligence where to find my niece.  You understand;
+and mark, not one word of the gentleman you saw here.  You say she
+believes him dead?'
+
+'The Illustrissimo must remember that she never dropped her
+disguise with me, but I fully think that she supposed herself a
+widow.  And I understand the Eccellenza, she is still to think so.
+I may be depended on.'
+
+'You understand,' repeated the Chevalier, 'this sum shall reward
+you when you have informed me where to find her--as a man like you
+can easily trace her from Montauban.  If you have any traffickings
+with her, it shall be made worth your while to secure the pearls
+for the family; but, remember, the first object is herself, and
+that she should be ignorant of the existence of him whom she
+fancied her husband.'
+
+'I see, Signor; and not a word, of course, of my having come from
+you.  I will discover her, and leave her noble family to deal with
+her.  Has the Illustrissimo any further commands?'
+
+'None,' began the Chevalier; then, suddenly, 'This unhappy infant--
+is it healthy?  Did it need any of your treatment?'
+
+'Signor, no.  It was a fair, healthy bambina of a year old, and I
+heard the mother boasting that it had never had a day's illness.'
+
+'Ah, the less a child has to do in the world, the more is it bent
+on living,' said the Chevalier with a sigh; and then, with a
+parting greeting, he dismissed the Italian, but only to sup under
+the careful surveillance of the steward, and then to be conveyed by
+early morning light beyond the territory where the affairs of
+Ribaumont were interesting.
+
+But the Chevalier went through a sleepless night.  Long did he pace
+up and down his chamber, grind his teeth, clench his fist and point
+them at his head, and make gestures of tearing his thin gray locks;
+and many a military oath did he swear under his breath as he
+thought to what a pass things had come.  His brother's daughter
+waiting on an old Huguenot _bourgeois_, making sugar-cakes, selling
+her hair!  And what next?  Here was she alive after all, alive and
+disgracing herself; alive--yes, both she and her husband--to
+perplex the Chevalier, and force him either to new crimes or to
+beggar his son!  Why could not the one have really died on the St.
+Bartholomew, or the other at La Sablerie, instead of putting the
+poor Chevalier in the wrong by coming to live again?
+
+What had he done to be thus forced to peril his soul at his age?
+Ah, had he but known what he should bring on himself when he wrote
+the unlucky letter, pretending that the silly little child wished
+to dissolve the marriage!  How should he have known that the lad
+would come meddling over?  And then, when he had dexterously
+brought about that each should be offended with the other, and
+consent to the separation, why must royalty step in and throw them
+together again?  Yes, and he surely had a right to feel ill-used,
+since it was in ignorance of the ratification of the marriage that
+he had arranged the frustration of the elopement, and that he had
+forced on the wedding with Narcisse, so as to drive Eustacie to
+flight from the convent--in ignorance again of her life that he had
+imprisoned Berenger, and tried to buy off his clams to Nid de Merle
+with Diane's hand.  Circumstances had used him cruelly, and he
+shrank from fairly contemplating the next step.
+
+He knew well enough what it must be.  Without loss of time a letter
+must be sent to Rome, backed by strong interest, so as to make it
+appear that the ceremony at Montpipeau, irregular, and between a
+Huguenot and Catholic, had been a defiance of the Papal decree, and
+must therefore be nullified.  This would probably be attainable,
+though he did not feel absolutely secure of it.  Pending this,
+Eustacie must be secluded in a convent; and, while still believing
+herself a widow, must immediately on the arrival of the decree and
+dispensation, be forced into the marriage with Narcisse before she
+heard of Berenger's being still alive.  And then Berenger would
+have no longer any excuse for holding out.  His claims would be
+disposed of, and he might be either sent to England, or he might be
+won upon by Madame de Selinville's constancy.
+
+And this, as the Chevalier believed, was the only chance of saving
+a life that he was unwilling to sacrifice, for his captive's
+patience and courtesy had gained so much upon his heart that he was
+resolved to do all that shuffling and temporizing could do to save
+the lad from Narcisse's hatred and to secure him Diane's love.
+
+As to telling the truth and arranging his escape, that scarcely
+ever crossed the old man's mind.  It would have been to resign the
+lands of Nid de Merle, to return to the makeshift life he knew but
+too well, and, what was worse, to ruin and degrade his son, and
+incur his resentment.  It would probably be easy to obtain a
+promise from Berenger, in his first joy and gratitude, of yielding
+up all pretensions of his own or his wife's; but, however
+honourably meant, such a promise would be worth very little, and
+would be utterly scorned by Narcisse.  Besides, how could he thwart
+the love of his daughter and the ambition of his son both at once?
+
+No; the only security for the possession of Nid de Merle lay in
+either the death of the young baron and his child or else in his
+acquiescence in the invalidity of his marriage, and therefore in
+the illegitimacy of the child.
+
+And it was within the bounds of possibility that, in his seclusion,
+he might at length learn to believe in the story of the destruction
+at La Sablerie, and, wearying of captivity, might yield at length
+to the persuasions of Diane and her father, and become so far
+involved with them as to be unable to draw back, or else be so
+stung by Eustacie's desertion as to accept her rival willingly.
+
+It was a forlorn hope, but it was the only medium that lay between
+either the death or the release of the captive; and therefore the
+old man clung to it as almost praiseworthy, and did his best to
+bring it about by keeping his daughter ignorant that Eustacie
+lived, and writing to his son that the Baron was on the point of
+becoming a Catholic and marrying his sister: and thus that all
+family danger and scandal would be avoided, provided the matter
+were properly represented at Rome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.  'JAM SATIS'
+
+
+
+You may go walk, and give me leave a while,
+My lessons make no music in three parts.
+                 TAMING OF THE SHREW
+
+
+Whether the dark pool really showed Sir Marmaduke Thistlewood or
+not, at the moment that his son desired that his image should be
+called up, the good knight was, in effect, sitting nodding over the
+tankard of sack with which his supper was always concluded, while
+the rest of the family, lured out of the sunny hall by the charms
+of a fresh summer evening, had dispersed into the gardens or hall.
+
+Presently a movement in the neighbourhood made him think it
+incumbent on him to open his eyes wide, and exclaim, 'I'm not
+asleep.'
+
+'Oh no! you never are asleep when there's anything you ought to
+see!' returned Dame Annora, who was standing by him with her hand
+on his chair.
+
+'How now?  Any tidings of the lads?' he exclaimed.
+
+'Of the lads?  No, indeed; but there will be bad tidings for the
+lads if you do not see to it!  Where do you think your daughter is,
+Sir Duke?'
+
+'Where?  How should I know?  She went out to give her sisters some
+strawberries, I thought.'
+
+'See here,' said Lady Thistlewood, leading the way to the north end
+of the hall, where a door opened into what was called the Yew-tree
+Grove.  This consisted of five rows of yew-trees, planted at
+regular intervals, and their natural mode of growth so interfered
+with by constant cutting, that their ruddy trunks had been obliged
+to rise branchless, till about twelve feet above ground they had
+been allowed to spread out their limbs in the form of ordinary
+forest trees; and, altogether, their foliage became a thick,
+unbroken, dark, evergreen roof, impervious to sunshine, and almost
+impervious to rain, while below their trunks were like columns
+forming five arcades, floored only by that dark red crusty earth
+and green lichen growth that seems peculiar to the shelter of yew-
+trees.  The depth of the shade and the stillness of the place made
+it something peculiarly soothing and quiet, more especially when,
+as now, the sunset light came below the branches, richly tinted the
+russet pillars, cast long shadows, and gleamed into all the
+recesses of the interlacing boughs and polished leafage above.
+
+'Do you see, Sir Duke?' demanded his lady.
+
+'I see my little maids making a rare feast under the trees upon
+their strawberries set out on leaves.  Bless their little hearts!
+what a pretty fairy feast they've made of it, with the dogs looking
+on as grave as judges!  It takes me young again to get a smack of
+the haut-bois your mother brought from Chelsea Gardens.'
+
+'Haut-bois!  He'd never see if the house ere afire overhead.
+What's that beyond?'
+
+'No fire, my dear, but the sky all aglow with sunset, and the red
+cow standing up against the light, chewing her cud, and looking as
+well pleased as though she knew there wasn't her match in Dorset.'
+
+Lady Thistlewood fairly stamped, and pointed with her fan, like a
+pistol, down a side aisle of the grove, where two figures were
+slowly moving along.
+
+'Eh! what?  Lucy with her apron full of rose-leaves, letting them
+float away while she cons the children's lesson for the morrow with
+Merrycourt?  They be no great loss, when the place is full of
+roses.  Or why could you not call to the wench to take better heed
+of them, instead of making all this pother?'
+
+'A pretty sort of lesson it is like to be! A pretty sort of return
+for my poor son, unless you take the better heed!'
+
+'Would that I saw any return at all for either of the poor dear
+lads,' sighed the knight wearily; 'but what you may be driving at I
+cannot perceive.'
+
+'What!  When 'tis before your very eyes, how yonder smooth-tongued
+French impostor, after luring him back to his ruin beyond seas, is
+supplanting him even here, and your daughter giving herself over to
+the wily viper!'
+
+'The man is a popish priest,' said Sir Marmaduke; 'no more given to
+love than Mr. Adderley or Friar Rogers.'
+
+The dame gave a snort of derision:' Prithee, how many popish
+priests be now wedded parsons?  Nor, indeed, even if his story be
+true, do I believe he is a priest at all.  I have seen many a young
+abbe, as they call themselves, clerk only in name, loitering at
+court, free to throw off the cassock any moment they chose, and as
+insolent as the rest.  Why, the Abbe de Lorraine, cardinal that is
+now, said of my complexion---'
+
+'No vows, quotha!' muttered Sir Marmaduke, well aware of the
+Cardinal de Lorraine's opinion of his lady's complexion.  'So much
+the better; he is too good a young fellow to be forced to mope
+single, and yet I hate men's breaking their word.'
+
+'And that's all you have to say!' angrily cried her ladyship.  'No
+one save myself ever thinks how it is to be with my poor dear
+wounded, heart-broken son, when he comes home, to find himself so
+scurvily used by that faithless girl of yours, ready---'
+
+'Hold, madam,' said Sir Marmaduke, with real sternness; 'nothing
+rash against my daughter.  How should she be faithless to a man who
+has been wedded ever since she knew him?'
+
+'He is free now,' said Lady Thistlewood, beginning to cry (for the
+last letters received from Berenger had been those from Paris,
+while he still believed Eustacie to have perished at La Sablerie);
+'and I do say it is very hard that just when he is  rid of the
+French baggage, the bane of his life, and is coming home, maybe
+with a child upon his hands, and all wounded, scarred, and blurred,
+the only wench he would or should have married should throw herself
+away on a French vagabond beggar, and you aiding and abetting.'
+
+'Come, come, Dame Nan,' said Sir Marmaduke, 'who told you I was
+aiding and abetting?'
+
+'Tell me not, Sir Duke, you that see them a courting under your
+very eyes, and will not stir a finger to hinder it.  If you like to
+see your daughter take up with a foreign adventurer, why, she's no
+child of mine, thank Heaven! And I've nought to do with it.'
+
+'Pshaw, dame, there's no taking up in the case; and if there were,
+sure it is not you that should be hard on Lucy.'
+
+Whereupon Annora fell into such a flood of tears at the cruelty of
+casting such things up to her, that Sir Marmaduke was fain in his
+blundering way to declare that he only meant that an honest
+Englishman had no chance where a Frenchman once came in, and then
+very nearly to surrender at discretion.  At any rate, he escaped
+from her tears by going out at the door, and calling to Lucy to
+mind her rose-leaves; then, as she gazed round, dismayed at the
+pink track along the ground, he asked her what she had been doing.
+Whereto she answered with bright face and honest eyes, that Mr.
+Mericour had been going over with her the ode '_Jam satis_,' of
+Horatius, wherewith to prepare little Nan for him to-morrow, and
+then she ran hurriedly away to secure the remainder of the rose-
+leaves, while her companion was already on his knees picking up the
+petals she had dropped.
+
+'Master Merrycourt,' said Sir Marmaduke, a little gruffly, 'never
+heed the flower-leaves.  I want a word with you.'
+
+Claude de Mericour rose hastily, as if somewhat struck by the tone.
+
+'The matter is this,' said the knight, leading him from the house,
+and signing back the little girls who had sprung towards them--'it
+has been brought to my mind that you are but a youth, and, pardon
+me, my young master, but when lads and lasses have their heads
+together over one book, tongues wag.'
+
+The colour rushed hotly into young Mericour's face, and he answered
+quickly, 'My rank--I mean my order--should answer that.'
+
+'Stay, young man, we are not in France; your order, be it what it
+may, has not hindered many a marriage in England; though, look you,
+no man should ever wed with my consent who broke his word to God in
+so doing; but they tell me your vows are not always made at your
+age.'
+
+'Nor are they,' exclaimed Mericour, in a low voice, but with a
+sudden light on his countenance.  'The tonsure was given me as a
+child, but no vow of celibacy has passed my lips.'
+
+Sir Marmaduke exclaimed, 'Oh!--' with a prolongation of the sound
+that lasted till Mericour began again.
+
+'But, sir, let tongues wag as they will, it is for nought.  Your
+fair daughter was but as ever preparing beforehand with me the
+tasks with which she so kindly indoctrinates her little sisters.  I
+never thought of myself as aught but a religious, and should never
+dream of human love.'
+
+'I thought so! I said so!' said Sir Marmaduke, highly gratified.
+'I knew you were an honourable man that would never speak of love
+to my daughter by stealth, nor without means to maintain her after
+her birth.'
+
+The word 'birth' brought the blood into the face of the son of the
+peer of France, but he merely bowed with considerable stiffness and
+pride, saying, 'You did me justice, sir.'
+
+'Come, don't be hurt, man,' said Sir Marmaduke, putting his hand on
+his shoulder.  'I told you I knew you for an honourable man!
+You'll be over here to-morrow to hear the little maids their _Jam
+satis_, or whatever you call it, and dine with us after to taste
+Lucy's handiwork in jam cranberry, a better thing as I take it.'
+
+Mericour had recovered himself, smiled, shook the good Sir
+Marmaduke proffered hand, and, begging to excuse himself from
+bidding good night to the ladies on the score of lateness, he
+walked away to cross the downs on his return to Combe Walwyn, where
+he was still resident, according to the arrangement by which he was
+there to await Berenger's return, now deferred so much beyond all
+reasonable expectation.
+
+Sir Marmaduke, with a free heart, betook himself to the house,
+dreading to find that Lucy had fallen under the objurgations of her
+step-mother, but feeling impelled to stand her protector, and
+guided to the spot by the high key of Dame Annora's voice.
+
+He found Lucy--who, on the race occasions when good-natured Lady
+Thistlewood was really angry with her, usually cowered meekly--now
+standing her ground, and while the dame was pausing for breath, he
+heard her gentle voice answering steadily, 'No, madam, to him I
+could never owe faith, nor troth, nor love, save such as I have for
+Philip.'
+
+'Then it is very unfeeling and ungrateful of you.  Nor did you
+think so once, but it is all his scars and---'
+
+By this time Sir Marmaduke had come near enough to put his arm
+round his daughter, and say, 'No such thing, dame.  It had been
+unseemly in the lass had it been otherwise.  She is a good girl and
+a discreet; and the Frenchman, if he has made none of their vows,
+feels as bound as though he had.  He's an honest fellow, thinking
+of his studies and not of ladies or any such trumpery.  So give me
+a kiss, Lucy girl, and thou shalt study _Jam satis_, or any other
+jam he pleases, without more to vex thee.'
+
+Lucy, now that the warfare was over, had begun to weep so profusely
+that so soon as her father released her, she turned, made a mute
+gesture to ask permission to depart, and hurried away; while Lady
+Thistlewood, who disliked above all that her husband should think
+her harsh to her step-children, began to relate the exceeding
+tenderness of the remonstrance which had been followed with such
+disproportionate floods of tears.
+
+Poor Sir Marmaduke hoped at least that the veil of night had put an
+end to the subject which harassed him at a time when he felt less
+capable than usual of bearing vexation, for he was yearning sadly
+after his only son.  The youths had been absent ten months, and had
+not been heard of for more than three, when they were just leaving
+Paris in search of the infant.  Sir Francis Walsingham, whose
+embassy had ended with the death of Charles IX., knew nothing of
+them, and great apprehensions respecting them were beginning to
+prevail, and, to Sir Marmaduke especially, seemed to be eating out
+the peace and joy of his life.  Philip, always at his father's side
+ever since he could run alone, was missed at every visit to stable
+or kennel; the ring of his cheery voice was wanting to the house;
+and the absence of his merry whistle seemed to make Sir Marmaduke's
+heart sink like lead as he donned his heavy boots, and went forth
+in the silver dew of the summer morning to judge which of his
+cornfields would soonest be ready for the sickle.  Until this
+expedition of his sons he had, for more than fourteen years never
+been alone in those morning rounds on his farm; and much as he
+loved his daughters, they seemed to weigh very light in the scale
+compared with the sturdy heir who loved every acre with his own
+ancestral love.  Indeed, perhaps, Sir Marmaduke had deeper, fonder
+affection for the children of his first marriage, because he had
+barely been able to give his full heart to their mother before she
+was taken from him, and he had felt almost double tenderness to be
+due to them, when he at length obtained his first and only true
+love.  Now, as he looked over the shinning billows of the waving
+barley, his heart was very sore with longing for Philip's gladsome
+shout at the harvest-field, and he thought with surprise and
+compunction how he had seen Lucy leave him struggling with a flood
+of tears.  While he was still thus gazing, a head appeared in the
+narrow path that led across the fields, and presently he recognized
+the slender, upright form of the young Frenchman.
+
+'A fair good morrow to you, Master Merrycourt!  You come right
+early to look after your ode?'
+
+'Sir,' said Mericour, gravely saluting him, 'I come to make you my
+confession.  I find that I did not deal truly with you last night,
+but it was all unwittingly.'
+
+'How?' exclaimed Sir Marmaduke, recollecting Lucy's tears and
+looking much startled.  'You have not---' and there he broke off,
+seeing Mericour eager to speak.
+
+'Sir,' he said, 'I was bred as one set apart from love.  I had
+never learnt to think it possible to me,--I thought so even when I
+replied to you last evening; but, sir, the words you then spoke,
+the question you asked me set my heart burning, and my senses
+whirling---'  And between agitation and confusion he stammered and
+clasped his hands passionately, trying to continue what he was
+saying, but muttering nothing intelligible.
+
+Sir Marmaduke filled up the interval with a long whistle of
+perplexity; but, too kind not to pity the youth's distress, he laid
+his hand on his shoulder, saying, 'You found out you were but a
+hot-blooded youth after all, but an honest one.  For, as I well
+trust, my lass knows nought of this.'
+
+'How should she know, sir, what I knew not myself?'
+
+'Ha! ha!' chuckled Sir Duke to himself, 'so 'twas all Dame Nan's
+doing that the flame has been lighted!  Ho! ho!  But what is to
+come next is the question?' and he eyed the French youth from head
+to foot with the same considering look with which he was wont to
+study a bullock.
+
+'Sir, sir,' cried Mericour, absolutely flinging himself on his knee
+before him with national vehemence, 'do give me hope!  Oh! I will
+bless you, I will---'
+
+'Get up, man,' said the knight, hastily; 'no fooling of this sort.
+The milkmaids will be coming.  Hope--why, what sort of hope can be
+given you in the matter?' he continued; 'you are a very good lad,
+and I like you well enough, but you are not the sort of stuff one
+gives one's daughter to.  Ay, ay, I know you are a great man in
+your own country, but what are you here?'
+
+'A miserable fugitive and beggar, I know that,' said Mericour,
+vehemently, 'but let me have but hope, and there is nothing I will
+not be!'
+
+'Pish!' said Sir Marmaduke.
+
+'Hear me,' entreated the youth, recalled to common sense: 'you know
+that I have lingered at the chateau yonder, partly to study
+divinity and settle my mind, and partly because my friend Ribaumont
+begged me to await his return.  I will be no longer idle; my mind
+is fixed.  To France I cannot return, while she gives me no choice
+between such doctrine and practice as I saw at court, and such as
+the Huguenots would have imposed on me.  I had already chosen
+England as my country before--before this wild hope had awakened in
+me.  Here, I know my nobility counts for nothing, though, truly,
+sir, few names in France are prouder.  But it shall be no
+hindrance.  I will become one of your men of the robe.  I have
+heard that they can enrich themselves and intermarry with your
+country _noblesse_.'
+
+'True, true,' said Sir Marmaduke, 'there is more sense in that
+notion than there seemed to be in you at first.  My poor brother
+Phil was to have been a lawyer if he had lived, but it seems to me
+you are a long way off from that yet!  Why, our Templars be mostly
+Oxford scholars.'
+
+'So it was explained to me,' said Mericour, 'but for some weeks
+past the Lady Burnet, to whose sons, as you know, I have been
+teaching French, has been praying me to take the charge of them at
+Oxford, by which means I should at least be there maintained, and
+perchance obtain the means for carrying on my studies at the
+Temple.'
+
+'Not ill thought of,' said the knight; 'a fair course enough for
+you; but look you, you must have good luck indeed to be in a state
+to marry within ten or fifteen years,--very likely not then--having
+nothing of your own, and my wench but little, for Lucy's portion
+cannot be made equal to her sisters', her mother having been no
+heiress like Dame Nan.  And would you have me keep the maid
+unwedded till she be thirty or thirty-five years old, waiting for
+your fortune?'
+
+Mericour looked terribly disconcerted at this.
+
+'Moreover,' added the knight, 'they will all be at me, so soon as
+those poor lads come home--Heaven grant they do--to give her to
+Berenger.'
+
+'Sir,' said Mericour, looking up with a sudden smile, 'all that I
+would ask is, what you are too good a father to do, that you would
+not put any force on her inclinations.'
+
+'How now? you said you had never courted her!'
+
+'Nor have I, sir.  But I see the force of your words.  Should she
+love another man, my dream were, of course, utterly vain, but if
+not---'  He broke off.
+
+'Well, well, I am no man to force a girl to a match against her
+will; but never trust to that, man.  I know what women are; and let
+a fantastic stranger come across them, there's an end of old
+friends.  But yours is an honest purpose, and you are a good youth;
+and if you had anything to keep her with, you should have Lucy to-
+morrow, with all my heart.'
+
+Then came the further question whether Mericour should be allowed
+an interview with Lucy.  Sir Marmaduke was simple enough to fancy
+that she need not be made aware of the cause of Mericour's new
+arrangement, and decided against it.  The young man sorrowfully
+acquiesced, but whether such a secret could be kept was another
+thing.  To him it would have been impossible to renew their former
+terms of intercourse without betraying his feelings, and he
+therefore absented himself.  Lady Thistlewood triumphed openly in
+Sir Marmaduke's having found him out and banished him from the
+house; Lucy looked white and shed silent tears.  Her father's soft
+heart was moved, and one Sunday evening he whispered into her ear
+that Dame Nan was all wrong, and Mericour only kept away because he
+was an honourable man.  Then Lucy smiled and brightened, and Sir
+Duke fondly asked her if she were fool enough to fancy herself in
+love with the man.
+
+'Oh no, how should she, when he had never named love to her?  She
+was only glad her father esteemed him.'
+
+So then foolish, fond Sir Marmaduke told her all that had passed,
+and if it had not been too late, he would have sent for Mericour
+from Lady Burnet's; but his own story did almost as well in
+bringing back Lucy's soft pink color.  She crept up into Cecily's
+room one day, and found that she knew all about it, and was as kind
+and sympathizing as she could be--when a vocation had been given
+up, though no vows had been taken.  She did not quite understand
+it, but she would take it on trust.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.  THE SCANDAL OF THE SYNOD OF MONTAUBAN
+
+
+
+O ye, wha are sae guid yourself,
+   Sae pious and sae holy,
+Ye've naught to do but mark and tell
+   Your neebour's fauts and folly.--BURNS
+
+
+The old city of Montauban, once famous as the home of Ariosto's
+Rinaldo and his brethren, known to French romance as '_Les Quatre
+Fils Aymon_,' acquired in later times a very diverse species of
+fame,--that, namely, of being one of the chief strong-holds of the
+Reformed.  The Bishop Jean de Lettes, after leading a scandalous
+life, had professed a sort of Calvinism, had married, and retired
+to Geneva, and his successor had not found it possible to live at
+Montauban from the enmity of the inhabitants.  Strongly situated,
+with a peculiar municipal constitution of its own, and used to
+Provencal independence both of thought and deed, the inhabitants
+had been so unanimous in their Calvinism, and had offered such
+efficient resistance, as to have wrung from Government reluctant
+sanction for the open observance of the Reformed worship, and for
+the maintenance of a college for the education of their ministry.
+
+There then was convoked the National Synod, answering to the
+Scottish General Assembly, excepting that the persecuted French
+Presbyterians met in a different place every year.  Delegated
+pastors there gathered from every quarter.  From Northern France
+came men used to live in constant hazard of their lives; from
+Paris, confessors such as Merlin, the chaplain who, leaving
+Coligny's bedside, had been hidden for three days in a hayloft,
+feeding on the eggs that a hen daily laid beside him; army-
+chaplains were there who had passionately led battle-psalms ere
+their colleagues charged the foe, and had striven with vain
+endeavours to render their soldiers saints; while other pastors
+came from Pyrenean villages where their generation had never seen
+flames lighted against heresy, nor knew what it was to disperse a
+congregation in haste and secrecy for hear of the enemy.
+
+The audience was large and sympathizing.  Montauban had become the
+refuge of many Huguenot families who could nowhere else profess
+their faith without constant danger; and a large proportion of
+these were ladies, wives of gentlemen in the army kept up by La
+Noue, or widows who feared that their children might be taken from
+them to be brought up by their Catholic relations, elderly dames
+who longed for tranquillity after having lost husbands or sons by
+civil war.  Thickly they lodged in the strangely named _gasches_
+and _vertiers_, as the divisions and subdivisions of the city were
+termed, occupying floors or apartments of the tall old houses;
+walking abroad in the streets in grave attire, stiff hat, crimped
+ruff, and huge fan, and forming a society in themselves, close-
+packed, punctilious and dignified, rigidly devout but strictly
+censorious, and altogether as unlike their typical country folks of
+Paris as if they had belonged to a different nation.  And the
+sourest and most severe of all were such as had lived farthest
+south, and personally suffered the least peril and alarm.
+
+Dancing was unheard-of enormity; cards and dice were prohibited;
+and stronger expletive than the elegant ones invented for the
+special use of the King of Navarre was expiated either by the purse
+or the skin; Marot's psalmody was the only music, black or sad
+colour the only wear; and, a few years later, the wife of one of
+the most distinguished statesmen and councilors of Henri of Navarre
+was excommunicated for the enormity of wearing her hair curled.
+
+To such a community it was a delightful festival to receive a
+national assembly of ministers ready to regale them on daily
+sermons for a whole month, and to retail in private the points of
+discipline debated in the public assembly; and, apart from mere
+eagerness for novelty, many a discreet heart beat with gladness at
+the meeting with the hunted pastor of her native home, who had been
+the first to strike the spiritual chord, and awake her mind to
+religion.
+
+Every family had their honoured guest, every reception-room was in
+turn the scene of some pious little assembly that drank _eau
+sucree_, and rejoiced in its favourite pastor; and each little
+congress indulged in gentle scandal against its rival coterie.  But
+there was one point on which all the ladies agreed,--namely, that
+good Maitre Isaac Gardon had fallen into an almost doting state of
+blindness to the vanities of his daughter-in-law, and that she was
+a disgrace to the community, and ought to be publicly reprimanded.
+
+Isaac Gardon, long reported to have been martyred--some said at
+Paris, others averred at La Sablerie--had indeed been welcomed with
+enthusiastic joy and veneration, when he made his appearance at
+Montauban, pale, aged, bent, leaning on a staff, and showing the
+dire effect of the rheumatic fever which had prostrated him after
+the night of drenching and exposure during the escape from La
+Sablerie.  Crowded as the city was, there was a perfect competition
+among the tradesfolk for the honour of entertaining him and the
+young widow and child of a St. Bartholomew martyr.  A cordwainer of
+the street of the Soubirous Hauts obtained this honour, and the
+wife, though speaking only the sweet Provencal tongue, soon
+established the most friendly relations with M. Gardon's daughter-
+in-law.
+
+Two or three more pastors likewise lodged in the same house, and
+ready aid was given by Mademoiselle Gardon, as all called Eustacie,
+in the domestic cares thus entailed, while her filial attention to
+her father-in-law and her sweet tenderness to her child struck all
+this home circle with admiration.  Children of that age were seldom
+seen at home among the better classes in towns.  Then, as now, they
+were universally consigned to country nurses, who only brought them
+home at three or four years old, fresh from a squalid, neglected
+cottage life: and Eustacie's little moonbeam, _la petite
+Rayonette_, as she loved to call her, was quite an unusual
+spectacle; and from having lived entirely with grown people, and
+enjoyed the most tender and dainty care, she was intelligent and
+brightly docile to a degree that appeared marvellous to those who
+only saw children stupefied by a contrary system. She was a lovely
+little thing, exquisitely fair, and her plump white limbs small but
+perfectly moulded; she was always happy, because always healthy,
+and living in an atmosphere of love; and she was the pet and wonder
+of all the household, from the grinning apprentice to the grave
+young candidate who hoped to be elected pastor to the Duke de
+Quinet's village in the Cevennes.
+
+And yet it was _la petite Rayonette_ who first brought her mother
+into trouble.  Since her emancipation from swaddling clothes she
+had been equipped in a little gray woolen frock, such as Eustacie
+had learnt to knit among the peasants, and varied with broad while
+stripes which gave it something of the moonbeam effect; but the
+mother had not been able to resist the pleasure of drawing up the
+bosom and tying it with a knot of the very carnation colour that
+Berenger used to call her own.  That knot was discussed all up and
+down the Rue Soubirous Hauts, and even through the Carriera Major!
+The widow of an old friend of Maitre Gardon had remonstrated on the
+improprieties of such gay vanities, and Mdlle. Gardon had actually
+replied, reddening with insolences, that her husband had loved to
+see her wear the colour.
+
+Now, if the brethren at Paris had indulged their daughters in such
+backslidings, see what had come of it!  But that poor Theodore
+Gardon should have admired his bride in such unhallowed adornments,
+was an evident calumny; and many a head was shaken over it in grave
+and pious assembly.
+
+Worse still; when she had been invited to a supper at the excellent
+Madame Fargeau's, the presumptuous little _bourgeoise_ had
+evidently not known her place, but had seated herself as if she
+were a noble lady, a _fille de qualite_, instead of a mere
+minister's widow and a watchmaker's daughter.  Pretend ignorance
+that precedence was to be here observed!  That was another Parisian
+piece of impudence, above all in one who showed such ridiculous
+airs as to wipe her face with her own handkerchief instead of the
+table-cloth, and to be reluctant to help herself from the genera
+dish of _potage_ with her own spoon.  Even that might have been
+overlooked if she would have regaled them with a full and
+particular account of her own rescue from the massacre at Paris;
+but she merely coloured up, and said that she had been so ill as to
+know scarcely anything about it; and when they pressed her further,
+she shortly said, 'They locked me up;' and, before she could be
+cross-examined as to who was this 'they,' Maitre Gardon interfered,
+saying that she had suffered so much that he requested the subject
+might never be mentioned to her.  Nor would he be more explicit,
+and there was evidently some mystery, and he was becoming blindly
+indulgent and besotted by the blandishments of an artful woman.
+
+Eustacie was saved from hearing the gossip by her ignorance of the
+Provencal, which was the only languages of all but the highest and
+most cultivated classes, the hostess had very little _langue
+d'oui_, and never ventured on any complicated discourse; and Isaac
+Gardon, who could speak both the _oc_ and _oui_, was not a person
+whom it was easy to beset with mere hearsay or petty remonstrance,
+but enough reached him at last to make him one day say mildly, 'My
+dear child, might not the little one dispense with her ribbon while
+we are here?'
+
+'Eh, father?  At the bidding of those impertinents?'
+
+'Take care, daughter; you were perfect with the tradesfolk and
+peasants, but you cannot comport yourself as successfully with this
+_petite noblesse_, or the pastors' wives.'
+
+'They are insolent, father.  I, in my own true person, would treat
+no one as these petty dames treat me,' said Eustacie.  'I would not
+meddle between a peasant woman and her child, nor ask questions
+that must needs wring her heart.'
+
+'Ah, child! humility is a bitter lesson; and even this world needs
+it now from you.  We shall have suspicions; and I heard to-day that
+the King is in Dauphiny, and with him M. de Nid de Merle.  Be not
+alarmed; he has no force with him, and the peace still subsists;
+but we must avoid suspicion.  There is a _preche_ at the Moustier
+to-day, in French; it would be well if you were to attend it.'
+
+'I understand as little of French sermons as of Provencal,'
+murmured Eustacie; but it was only a murmur.
+
+Maitre Gardon had soon found out that his charge had not head
+enough to be made a thorough-going controversial Calvinist.
+Clever, intelligent, and full of resources as she was, she had no
+capacity for argument, and could not enter into theoretical
+religion.  Circumstances had driven her from her original Church
+and alienated her from those who had practiced such personal
+cruelties on her and hers, but the mould of her mind remained what
+it had been previously; she clung to the Huguenots because they
+protected her from those who would have forced an abhorrent
+marriage on her and snatched her child from her; and, personally,
+she loved and venerated Isaac Gardon with ardent, self-sacrificing
+filial love and gratitude, accepted as truth all that came from his
+lips, read the Scriptures, sang and prayed with him, and obeyed him
+as dutifully as ever the true Esperance could have done; but,
+except the merest external objections against the grossest and most
+palpable popular corruptions and fallacies, she really never
+entered into the matter.  She had been left too ignorant of her own
+system to perceive its true clams upon her; and though she could
+not help preferring High Mass to a Calvinist assembly, and
+shrinking with instinctive pain and horror at the many profanations
+she witnessed, the really spiritual leadings of her own individual
+father-like leader had opened so much that was new and precious to
+her, so full of truth, so full of comfort, giving so much moral
+strength, that, unaware that all the foundations had been laid by
+Mere Monique, the resolute, high-spirited little thing, out of
+sheer constancy and constitutional courage, would have laid down
+her life as a Calvinist martyr, in profound ignorance that she was
+not in the least a Calvinist all the time.
+
+Hitherto, her wandering life amid the persecuted Huguenots of the
+West had prevented her from hearing any preaching but good Isaac's
+own, which had been rather in the way of comfort and encouragement
+than of controversy, but in this great gathering it was impossible
+that there should not be plenty of vehement polemical oratory, such
+as was sue to fly over that weary little head.  After a specimen or
+two, the chances of the sermon being in Provencal, and the
+necessity of attending to her child, had been Eustacie's excuse for
+usually offering to attend to the _menage_, and set her hostess
+free to be present at the preachings.
+
+However, Rayonette was considered as no valid excuse; for did not
+whole circles of black-eyed children sit on the floor in sleepy
+stolidity at the feet of their mothers or nurses, and was it not a
+mere worldly folly to pretend that a child of sixteen months could
+not be brought to church?  It was another instance of the mother's
+frivolity and the grandfather's idolatry.
+
+The Moustier, or minster, the monastic church of Montauban, built
+on Mont Auriol in honour of St. Theodore, had, twelve years before,
+been plundered and sacked by the Calvinists, not only out of zeal
+for iconoclasm, but from long-standing hatred and jealousy against
+the monks. Catherine de Medicis had, in 1546, carried off two of
+the jasper columns from its chief door-way to the Louvre; and,
+after some years more, it was entirely destroyed.  The grounds of
+the Auriol Mountain Monastery have been desolate down to the
+present day, when they have been formed into public gardens.  When
+Eustacie walked through them, carrying her little girl in her arms,
+a rose in her bosom to console her for the loss of her bright
+breast-knot, they were in raw fresh dreariness, with tottering,
+blackened cloisters, garden flowers run wild, images that she had
+never ceased to regard as sacred lying broken and defiled among the
+grass and weeds.
+
+Up the broad path was pacing the municipal procession, headed by
+the three Consuls, each with a serjeant bearing a white rod in
+front and a scarlet mantle, and the Consuls themselves in long
+robes with wide sleeves of quartered black and scarlet, followed by
+six halberdiers, likewise in scarlet, blazoned with the shield of
+the city--gules, a golden willow-tree, pollarded and shedding its
+branches, a chief azure with the three _fleur-de-lys_ of royalty.
+As little Rayonette gleefully pointed at the brilliant pageant,
+Eustacie could not help saying, rather bitterly, that these
+_messieurs_ seemed to wish to engross all the gay colours from
+heaven and earth from themselves; and Maitre Isaac could not help
+thinking she had some right on her side as he entered the church
+once gorgeous with jasper, marbles, and mosaics, glowing with
+painted glass, resplendent with gold and jewels, rich with
+paintings and draperies of the most brilliant dyes; but now, all
+that was, soiled, dulled, defaced; the whole building, even up to
+the end of the chancel, was closely fitted with benches occupied by
+the 'sad-coloured' congregation.  Isaac was obliged by a strenuous
+effort of memory to recall 'Ne-hushtan' and the golden calves,
+before he could clear from his mind, 'Now they break down all the
+carved work thereof with axes and with hammers.'  But, then, did
+not the thorough going Reformers think Master Isaac a very weak and
+back-sliding brother?
+
+Nevertheless, in right of his age, his former reputation, and his
+sufferings, his place was full in the midst of the square-capped,
+black-robed ministers who sat herded on a sort of platform
+together, to address the Almighty and the congregation in prayers
+and discourses, interspersed with psalms sung by the whole
+assembly.  There was no want of piety, depth, force, or fervour.
+These were men refined by persecution, who had struggled to the
+light that had been darkened by the popular system, and, having
+once been forced into foregoing their scruples as to breaking the
+unity of the Church, regarded themselves even as apostles of the
+truth.  Listening to them, Isaac Gardon felt himself rapt into the
+hopes of cleansing the aspirations of universal re-integration that
+had shone before his early youth, ere the Church had shown herself
+deaf, and the Reformers in losing patience had lost purity, and
+disappointment had crushed him into an aged man.
+
+He was recalled by the echo of a gay, little inarticulate cry--
+those baby tones that had become such music to his ears that he
+hardly realized that they were not indeed from his grandchild.  In
+a moment's glance he saw how it was.  A little bird had flown in at
+one of the empty window, and was fluttering over the heads of the
+congregation, and a small, plump, white arm and hand was stretched
+out and pointing--a rosy, fair, smiling face upturned; a little
+gray figure had scrambled up on the knee of one of the still,
+black-hooded women; and the shout of irrepressible delight was
+breaking on the decorum of the congregation, in spite of hushes, in
+spite of the uplifted rod of a scarlet serjeant on his way down the
+aisle to quell the disturbance; nay, as the bird came nearer, the
+exulting voice, proud of the achievement of a new word, shouted
+'_Moineau, moineau_.'  Angered by defiance to authority, down came
+the rod, not indeed with great force, but with enough to make the
+arms clasp round the mother's neck, the face hide itself on in, a
+loud, terrified wail ring through the church, and tempestuous
+sobbing follow it up.  Then uprose the black-hooded figure, the
+child tightly clasped, and her mantle drawn round it, while the
+other hand motioned the official aside, and down the aisle, even to
+the door, she swept with the lofty carriage, high-drawn neck, and
+swelling bosom of an offended princess.
+
+Maitre Gardon heard little more of the discourse, indeed he would
+have followed at once had he not feared to increase the sensation
+and the scandal.  He came home to find Rayonette's tears long ago
+dried, but her mother furious.  She would leave Montauban that
+minute, she would never set foot in a heretic conventicle again, to
+have her fatherless child, daughter of all the Ribaumonts, struck
+by base _canaille_.  Even her uncle could not have done worse; he
+at least would have respected her blood.
+
+Maitre Gardon did not know that his charge could be in such a
+passion, as, her eyes flashing through tears, she insisted on being
+taken away at once.  No, she would hear nothing.  She seemed to
+fell resentment due to the honour of all the Ribaumonts, and he was
+obliged peremptorily to refuse to quit Montauban till his business
+at the Synod should be completed, and then to leave her in a flood
+of angry tears and reproaches for exposing her child to such usage,
+and approving it.
+
+Poor little thing, he found her meek and penitent for her unjust
+anger towards himself.  Whatever he desired she would do, she would
+stay or go with him anywhere except to a sermon at the Moustier,
+and she did not think that in her heart her good father desired
+little infants to be beaten--least of all Berenger's little one.
+And with Rayonette already on his knee, stealing his spectacles,
+peace was made.
+
+Peace with him, but not with the congregation!  Were people to
+stalk out of church in a rage, and make no reparation?  Was Maitre
+Isaac to talk of orphans, only children, and maternal love, as if
+weak human affection did not need chastisement?  Was this saucy
+Parisienne to play the offended, and say that if the child were not
+suffered at church she must stay at home with it?  The ladies
+agitated to have the obnoxious young widow reprimanded in open
+Synod, but, to their still greater disgust, not a pastor would
+consent to perform the office. Some said that Maitre Gardon ought
+to rule his own household, others that they respected him too much
+to interfere, and there were others abandoned enough to assert that
+if any one needed a reprimand it was the serjeant.
+
+Of these was the young candidate, Samuel Mace, who had been
+educated at the expense of the Dowager Duchess de Quinet, and hoped
+that her influence would obtain his election to the pastorate of a
+certain peaceful little village deep in the Cevennes.  She had
+intimated that what he wanted was a wife to teach and improve the
+wives of the peasant farmers, and where could a more eligible one
+be found than Esperance Gardon?  Her cookery he tasted, her
+industry he saw, her tenderness to her child, her attention to her
+father, were his daily admiration; and her soft velvet eyes and
+sweet smile went so deep in his heart that he would have bought her
+ells upon ells of pink ribbon, when once out of sight of the old
+ladies; would have given a father's love to her little daughter,
+and a son's duty and veneration to Isaac Gardon.
+
+His patroness did not deny her approval.  The gossip had indeed
+reached her, but she had a high esteem for Isaac Gardon, believed
+in Samuel Mace's good sense, and heeded Montauban scandal very
+little.  Her _protege_ would be much better married to a spirited
+woman who had seen the world, than to a mere farmer's daughter who
+had never looked beyond her cheese.  Old Gardon would be an
+admirable adviser, and if he were taken into the _menage_ she would
+add to the endowment another arable field, and grass for two more
+cows. If she liked the young woman on inspection, the marriage
+should take place in her own august presence.
+
+What! had Maitre Gardon refused?  Forbidden that the subject should
+be mentioned to his daughter?  Impossible!  Either Mace had managed
+matters foolishly, or the old man had some doubt of him which she
+could remove, or else it was foolish reluctance to part with his
+daughter-in-law.  Or the gossips were right after all, and he knew
+her to be too light-minded, if not worse, to be the wife of any
+pious young minister.  Or there was some mystery.  Any way, Madame
+la Duchesse would see him, and bring him to his senses, make him
+give the girl a good husband if she were worthy, or devote her to
+condign punishment if she were unworthy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.  MADAME LA DUCHESSE
+
+
+
+He found an ancient dame in dim brocade.---TENNYSON
+
+
+Madame la Duchesse de Quinet had been a great heiress and a
+personal friend and favourite of Queen Jeanne d'Albret.  She had
+been left a widow after five years' marriage, and for forty
+subsequent years had reigned despotically in her own name and that
+of _mon fils_.  Busied with the support of the Huguenot cause,
+sometimes by arms, but more usually by politics, and constantly
+occupied by the hereditary government of one of the lesser counties
+of France, the Duke was all the better son for relinquishing to her
+the home administration, as well as the education of his two
+motherless boys; and their confidence and affection were perfect,
+though he was almost as seldom at home as she was abroad.  At
+times, indeed, she had visited Queen Jeanne at Nerac; but since the
+good Queen's death, she only left the great chateau of Quinet to
+make a royal progress of inspection through the family towns,
+castles, and estates, sometimes to winter in her beautiful
+hereditary _hotel_ at Montauban, and as at present to attend any
+great assembly of the Reformed.
+
+Very seldom was her will not law.  Strong sense and judgment,
+backed by the learning that Queen Marguerite of Navarre had
+introduced among the companions of her daughter, had rendered her
+superior to most of those with whom she came in contact: and the
+Huguenot ministers, who were much more dependent on their laity
+than the Catholic priesthood, for the most part treated her as not
+only a devout and honourable woman, an elect lady, but as a sort of
+State authority.  That she had the right-mindedness to respect and
+esteem such men as Theodore Beza, Merlin, &c., who treated her with
+great regard, but never cringed, had not become known to the rest.
+Let her have once pronounced against poor little Esperance Gardon,
+and public disgrace would be a matter of certainty.
+
+There she sat in her wainscoted walnut cabinet, a small woman by
+her inches, but stately enough to seem of majestic stature, and
+with gray eyes, of inexpressible keenness, which she fixed upon the
+halting, broken form of Isaac Gardon, and his grave, venerable
+face, as she half rose and made a slight acknowledgment of his low
+bow.
+
+'Sit, Maitre Gardon, you are lame,' she said, with a wave of her
+hand.  'I gave you the incommodity of coming to see me not openly
+discuss _en pleine sale_.'
+
+'Madame is considerate,' said Isaac, civilly, but with an open-eyed
+look and air that at once showed her that she had not to deal with
+one of the ministers who never forgot their low birth in
+intercourse with her.
+
+'I understand,' said she, coming to the point at once, 'that you
+decline the proposals of Samuel Mace for your daughter-in-law.  Now
+I wish you to know that Mace is a very good youth, whom I have
+known from his birth'--and she went on in his praise, Isaac bowing
+at each pause, until she had exhausted both Mace's history and her
+own beneficent intentions for him.  Then he said, 'Madame is very
+good, and the young man appeared to me excellent.  Nevertheless,
+this thing may not be.  My daughter-in-law has resolved not to
+marry again.'
+
+'Nay, but this is mere folly,' said the Duchess.  'We hold not
+Catholic tenets on merit in abstaining, but rather go by St. Paul's
+advice that the younger widows should marry, rather than wax
+wanton.  And, to tell you the truth, Maitre Gardon, this daughter
+of yours does seem to have set tongues in motion.'
+
+'Not by her own fault, Madame.'
+
+'Stay, my good friend; I never found a man--minister or lay--who
+was a fair judge in these matters.  You old men are no better than
+the young--rather worse--because you do not distrust yourselves.
+Now, I say no harm of the young woman, and I know an angel would be
+abused at Montauban for not wearing sad-coloured wings; but she
+needs a man's care--you are frail, you cannot live for ever--and
+how is it to be with her and her child?'
+
+'I hope to bestow them among her kindred ere I die, Madame,' said
+Isaac.
+
+'No kindred can serve a woman like a sensible husband!  Besides, I
+thought all perished at Paris.  Listen, Isaac Gardon: I tell you
+plainly that scandal is afloat.  You are blamed for culpable
+indifference to alleged levities--I say not that it is true--but I
+see this, that unless you can bestow your daughter-in-law on a
+good, honest man, able to silence the whispers of malice, there
+will be measures taken that will do shame both to your own gray
+hairs and to the memory of your dead son, as well as expose the
+poor young woman herself.  You are one who has a true tongue, Isaac
+Gardon; and if you can assure me that she is a faithful, good
+woman, as poor Mace thinks her, and will give her to him in
+testimony thereof, then shall not a mouth open against her.  If
+not, in spite of all my esteem for you, the discipline of the
+Reformed must take its course.'
+
+'And for what?' said Isaac, with a grave tone, almost of reproof.
+'What discipline can punish a woman for letting her infant wear a
+coloured ribbon, and shielding it from a blow?'
+
+'That is not all, Master Isaac,' said the Duchess, seriously.  'In
+spite of your much-respected name, evil and censorious tongues will
+have it that matters ought to be investigated; that there is some
+mystery; that the young woman does not give a satisfactory account
+of herself, and that the child does not resemble either her or your
+son--in short, that you may be deceived by an impostor, perhaps a
+Catholic spy.  Mind, I say not that I credit all this, only I would
+show you what reports you must guard against.'
+
+'_La pauvre petite_!' said Isaac, under his breath, as if appalled;
+then collecting himself, he said, 'Madame, these are well-nigh
+threats.  I had come hither nearly resolved to confined in you
+without them.'
+
+'Then there is a mystery?'
+
+'Yes, Madame, but the deception is solely in the name.  She is, in
+very truth, a widow of a martyr of the St. Barthelemy, but that
+martyr was not my son, whose wife was happy in dying with him.'
+
+'And who, then, is she?'
+
+'Madame la Duchesse had heard of the family of Ribaumont.'
+
+'Ha! M. de Ribaumont!  A gay comrade of King Henry II., but who had
+his eyes opened to the truth by M. l'Amiral, though he lacked
+courage for an open profession.  Yes, the very last pageant I
+beheld at court, was the wedding of his little son to the Count de
+Ribaumont's daughter.  It was said that the youth was one of our
+victims at Paris.'
+
+'Even so, Madame; and this poor child is the little one whom you
+saw wedded to him.'  And then, in answer to the Duchess's
+astonished inquiry, he proceeded to relate how Eustacie had been
+forced to fly from her kindred, and how he had first encountered
+her at his own lurking-placed, and had accepted her as a charge
+imposed on him by Providence; then explained how, at La Sablerie,
+she had been recognized by a young gentleman whom she had known at
+Paris, but who professed to be fleeing to England, there to study
+the Protestant controversy; and how she had confided to him a
+letter to her husband's mother, who was married in England, begging
+her to send for her and her daughter, the latter being heiress to
+certain English estates, as well as French.
+
+'Madame,' added Gardon, 'Heaven forgive me, if I do the Youth
+injustice by suspecting him, but no answer ever arrived to that
+letter; and while we still expected one, a good and kindly citizen,
+who I trust has long been received into glory, sent me notice that
+a detachment of Monsieur's army was on its way from La Rochelle,
+under command of M. de Nid de Merle, to search out this poor lady
+in La Sablerie.  He, good man, deemed that, were we gone, he could
+make terms for the place, and we therefore quitted it.  Alas!
+Madame knows how it fared with the pious friend we left.  Little
+deeming how they would be dealt with, we took our way along the
+Sables d'Olonne, where alone we could be safe, since, as Madame
+knows, they are for miles impracticable for troops.  But we had
+another enemy there--the tide; and there was a time when we truly
+deemed that the mercy granted us had been that we had fallen into
+the hand of the Lord instead of the hand of cruel man.  Yes,
+Madame, and even for that did she give thanks, as she stood, never
+even trembling, on the low sandbank, with her babe in her bosom,
+and the sea creeping up on all sides.  She only turned to me with a
+smile, saying, 'She is asleep, she will not feel it, or know
+anything till she wakes up in Paradise, and sees her father.'
+Never saw I a woman, either through nature or grace, so devoid of
+fear.  We were rescued at last, by the mercy of Heaven, which sent
+a fisherman, who bore us to his boat when benumbed with cold, and
+scarce able to move.  He took us to a good priest's, Colombeau of
+Nissard, a man who, as Madame may know, is one of those veritable
+saints who still are sustained by the truth within their Church,
+and is full of charity and mercy.  He asked me no questions, but
+fed, warmed, sheltered us, and sped us on our way.  Perhaps,
+however, I was over-confident in myself, as the guardian of the
+poor child, for it was Heaven's will that the cold and wet of our
+night on the sands--though those tender young frames did not suffer
+therefrom--should bring on an illness which has made an old man of
+me.  I struggled on as long as I could, hoping to attain to a safe
+resting-place for her, but the winter cold completed the work; and
+then, Madame--oh that I could tell you the blessing she was to me!-
+-her patience, her watchfulness, her tenderness, through all the
+long weeks that I lay helpless alike in mind and body at Charente.
+Ah!  Madame, had my own daughter lived, she could not have been
+more to me than that noble lady; and her cheerful love did even
+more for me than her tender care.'
+
+'I must see her,' ejaculated the Duchesse; then added, 'But was it
+this illness that hindered you from placing her in safety in
+England?'
+
+'In part, Madame; nay, I may say, wholly.  We learnt that the
+assembly was to take place here, and I had my poor testimony to
+deliver, and to give notice of my intention to my brethren before
+going to a foreign land, whence perhaps I may never return.'
+
+'She ought to be in England,' said Madame de Quinet; 'she will
+never be safe from these kinsmen in this country.'
+
+'M. de Nid de Merle has been all the spring in Poland with the
+King,' said the minister, 'and the poor lady is thought to have
+perished at La Sablerie.  Thus the danger has been less pressing,
+but I would have taken her to England at once, if I could have made
+sure of her reception, and besides---' be faltered.
+
+'The means?' demanded the Duchess, guessing at the meaning.
+
+'Madame is right.  She had brought away some money and jewels with
+her, but alas, Madame, during my illness, without my knowledge, the
+dear child absolutely sold them to procure comforts for me.  Nay'--
+his eyes filled with tears--'she whom they blame for vanities sold
+the very hair from her head to purchase unguents to ease the old
+man's pains; nor did I know it for many a day after.  From day to
+day we can live, for our own people willingly support a pastor and
+his family; and in every house my daughter has been loved,--
+everywhere but in this harsh-judging town.  But for the expense of
+a voyage, even were we at Bordeaux or La Rochelle, we have nothing,
+save by parting with the only jewels that remain to her, and those-
+-those, she says, are heirlooms; and, poor child, she guards them
+almost as jealously as her infant, around whom she has fastened
+them beneath her clothes.  She will not even as yet hear of leaving
+them in pledge, to be redeemed by the family.  She says they would
+hardly know her without them.  And truly, Madame, I scarce venture
+to take her to England, ere I know what reception would await her.
+Should her husband's family disown or cast her off, I could take
+better care of her here than in a strange land.'
+
+'You are right, Maitre Gardon,' said the Duchess; 'the risk might
+be great.  I would see this lady.  She must be a rare creature.
+Bear her my greetings, my friend, and pray her to do me the honour
+of a visit this afternoon.  Tell her I would come myself to her,
+but that I understand she does not wish to attract notice.'
+
+'Madame,' said Isaac, rising, and with a strange manner, between a
+smile and a tear of earnestness, 'allow me to bespeak your goodness
+for my daughter.  The poor little thing is scarcely more than a
+child.  She is but eighteen even now, and it is not always easy to
+tell whether she will be an angel of noble goodness, or, pardon me,
+a half-petulant child.'
+
+'I understand:' Madame de Quinet laughed, and she probably did
+understand more than reluctant, anxious Isaac Gardon thought she
+did, of his winning, gracious, yet haughty, head-strong little
+charge, so humbly helpful one moment, so self-asserting and
+childish the next, so dear to him, yet so unlike anything in his
+experience.
+
+'Child,' he said, as he found her in the sunny window engaged in
+plaiting the deep folds of his starched ruffs, 'you have something
+to forgive me.'
+
+'Fathers do not ask their children's pardon,' said Eustacie,
+brightly, but then, with sudden dismay, 'Ah! you have not said I
+should go to the Moustier again.'
+
+'No, daughter; but Madame de Quinet entreats--these are her words--
+that you will do her the honour of calling on her.  She would come
+to you, but that she fears to attract notice to us.'
+
+'You have told her!' exclaimed Eustacie.
+
+'I was compelled, but I had already thought of asking your consent,
+and she is a true and generous lady, with whom your secret will be
+safe, and who can hush the idle tongues here.  So, daughter,' he
+added restlessly, 'don your hood; that ruff will serve for another
+day.'
+
+'Another day, when the morrow is Sunday, and my father's ruff is to
+put to shame all the other pastors',' said Eustacie, her quick
+fingers still moving.  'No, he shall not go ill-starched for any
+Duchess in France.  Now am I in any haste to be lectured by Madame
+de Quinet, as they say she lectured the Dame de Soubrera the other
+day.'
+
+'My child, you will go; much depends on it.'
+
+'Oh yes, I am going; only if Madame de Quinet knows who I am, she
+will not expect me to hurry at her beck and call the first moment.
+Here, Rayonette, my bird, my beauty, thou must have a clean cap;
+ay, and these flaxen curls combed.'
+
+'Would you take the child?'
+
+'Would I go without Mademoiselle de Rambouillet?  She is all her
+mother is, and more.  There, now she is a true rose-bud, ready to
+perch on my arm.  No, no _bon pere_.  So great a girl is too much
+for you to carry.  Don't be afraid, my darling, we are not going to
+a sermon, no one will beat her; oh no, and if the insolent
+retainers and pert lacqueys laugh at her mother, no one will hurt
+her.'
+
+'Nay, child,' said Maitre Gardon; 'this is a well-ordered
+household, where contempt and scorn are not suffered.  Only, dear,
+dear daughter, let me pray you to be your true self with the
+Duchess.'
+
+Eustacie shrugged her shoulders, and had mischief enough in her to
+enjoy keeping her good father in some doubt and dread as he went
+halting wearily by her side along the much-decorated streets that
+marked the grand Gasche of Tarn and Tarascon.  The Hotel de Quinet
+stretched out its broad stone steps, covered with vaultings,
+absolutely across the street, affording a welcome shade, and no
+obstruction where wheeled carriages never came.
+
+All was, as Maitre Isaac had said, decorum itself. A couple of
+armed retainers, rigid as sentinels, waited on the steps; a grave
+porter, maimed in the wars opened the great door; half a dozen -
+_laquais_ in sober though rich liveries sat on a bench in the hall,
+and had somewhat the air of having been set to con a lesson.  Two
+of them coming respectfully forward, ushered Maitre Gardon and his
+companion to an ante-room, where various gentlemen, or pastors, or
+candidates--among them Samuel Mace--were awaiting a summons to the
+Duchess, or merely using it as a place of assembly.  A page of high
+birth, but well schooled in steadiness of demeanour, went at once
+to announce the arrival; and Gardon and his companion had not been
+many moments in conversation with their acquaintance among the
+ministers, before the grave gentleman returned, apparently from his
+audience and the page, coming to Eustacie, intimated that she was
+to follow him to Madame le Duchesse's presence.
+
+He conducted her across a great tapestry-hung saloon, where twelve
+or fourteen ladies of all ages--from seventy to fifteen--sat at
+work: some at tapestry, some spinning, some making coarse garments
+for the poor.  A great throne-like chair, with a canopy over it, a
+footstool, a desk and a small table before it, was vacant, and the
+work--a poor child's knitted cap--laid down; but an elderly
+minister, seated at a carved desk, had not discontinued reading
+from a great black book, and did not even cease while the strangers
+crossed the room, merely making a slight inclination with his head,
+while the ladies half rose, rustled a slight reverence with their
+black, gray or russet skirts, but hardly lifted their eyes.
+Eustacie thought the Louvre had never been half so formidable or
+impressive.
+
+The page lifted a heavy green curtain behind the canopy, knocked at
+a door, and, as it opened, Eustacie was conscious of a dignified
+presence, that, in spite of her previous petulance, caused her
+instinctively to bend in such a reverence as had formerly been
+natural to her; but, at the same moment, a low and magnificent
+curtsey was made to her, a hand was held out, a stately kiss was on
+her brow, and a voice of dignified courtesy said, 'Pardon me,
+Madame la Baronne, for giving you this trouble.  I feared that
+otherwise we could not safely meet.'
+
+'Madame is very good.  My Rayonette, make thy reverence; kiss thy
+hand to the lady, my lamb.'  And the little one obeyed, gazing with
+her blue eyes full opened, and clinging to her mother.
+
+'Ah!  Madame la Baronne makes herself obeyed,' said Madame de
+Quinet, well pleased.  'Is it then a girl?'
+
+'Yes, Madame, I could scarcely forgive her at first; but she has
+made herself all the dearer to me.'
+
+'It is a pity,' said Madame de Quinet, 'for yours is an ancient
+stem.'
+
+'Did Madame know my parents?' asked Eustacie, drawn from her spirit
+of defiance by the equality of the manner with which she was
+treated.
+
+'Scarcely,' replied the Duchess; but, with a smile, 'I had the
+honour to see you married.'
+
+'Ah, then,'--Eustacie glowed, almost smiled, though a tear was in
+her eyes--'you can see how like my little one is to her father,--a
+true White Ribaumont.'
+
+The Duchess had not the most distinct recollection of the
+complexion of the little bridegroom; but Rayonette's fairness was
+incontestable, and the old lady complimented it so as to draw on
+the young mother into confidence on the pet moonbeam appellation
+which she used in dread of exciting suspicion by using the true
+name of Berangere, with all the why and wherefore.
+
+It was what the Duchess wanted. Imperious as some thought her, she
+would on no account have appeared to cross-examine any one whose
+essential nobleness of nature struck her as did little Eustacie's
+at the first moment she saw her; and yet she had decided, before
+the young woman arrived, that her own good opinion and assistance
+should depend on the correspondence of Madame de Ribaumont's
+history of herself with Maitre Gardon's.
+
+Eustacie had, for a year and a half, lived with peasants; and,
+indeed, since the trials of her life had really begun, she had
+never been with a woman of her own station to whom she could give
+confidence, or from whom she could look for sympathy.  And thus a
+very few inquiries and tokens of interest from the old lady drew
+out the whole story, and more than once filled Madame de Quinet's
+eyes with tears.
+
+There was only one discrepancy; Eustacie could not believe that the
+Abbe de Mericour had been a faithless messenger.  Oh, no!  either
+those savage-looking sailors had played him false, or else her
+_bele-mere_ would not send for her.  'My mother-in-law never loved
+me,' said Eustacie; 'I know she never did.  And now she has
+children by her second marriage, and no doubt would not see my
+little one preferred to them.  I will not be HER suppliant.'
+
+'And what then would you do?' said Madame de Quinet, with a more
+severe tone.
+
+'Never leave my dear father,' said Eustacie, with a flash of
+eagerness; 'Maitre Isaac I mean.  He has been more to me than any--
+any one I ever knew--save----'
+
+'You have much cause for gratitude to him,' said Madame de Quinet.
+'I honour your filial love to him.  Yet, you have duties to this
+little one.  You have no right to keep her from her position.  You
+ought to write to England again.  I am sure Maitre Isaac tells you
+so.'
+
+Eustacie would have pouted, but the grave, kind authority of the
+manner prevented her from being childish, and she said, 'If I
+wrote, it should be to my husband's grandfather, who brought him
+up, designated him as his heir, and whom he loved with all his
+heart.  But, oh, Madame, he has one of those English names!  So
+dreadful!  It sounds like Vol-au-vent, but it is not that
+precisely.'
+
+Madame de Quinet smiled, but she was a woman of resources.  'See,
+my friend,' she said, 'the pursuivant of the consuls here has the
+rolls of the herald's visitations throughout the kingdom.   The
+arms and name of the Baron de Ribaumont's wife will there be
+entered; and from my house at Quinet you shall write, and I, too,
+will write; my son shall take care that the letters be forwarded
+safely, and you shall await their arrival under my protection.
+That will be more fitting than running the country with an old
+pastor, _hein_?'
+
+'Madame, nothing shall induce me to quit him!' exclaimed Eustacie,
+vehemently.
+
+'Hear me out, child,' said the Duchess.  'He goes with us to assist
+my chaplain; he is not much fitter for wandering than you, or less
+so.  And you, Madame, must, I fear me, still remain his daughter-
+in-law in my household; or if you bore your own name and rank, this
+uncle and cousin of yours might learn that you were still living;
+and did they claim you---'
+
+'Oh, Madame, rather let me be your meanest kitchen-girl!'
+
+'To be--what do they call you?--Esperance Gardon will be quite
+enough.  I have various women here--widows, wives, daughters or
+sufferers for the truth's sake, who either are glad of rest, or are
+trained up to lead a godly life in the discipline of my household.
+Among them you can live without suspicion, provided,' the old lady
+added, smiling, 'you can abstain from turning the heads of our poor
+young candidates.'
+
+'Madame,' said Eustacie, gravely, 'I shall never turn any one's
+head.  There was only one who was obliged to love me, and happily I
+am nor fair enough to win any one else.'
+
+'_Tenez_, child.  Is this true simplicity?  Did Gardon, truly,
+never tell you of poor Samuel Mace?'
+
+Eustacie's face expressed such genuine amazement and consternation,
+that the Duchess could not help touching her on the cheek, and
+saying, 'Ah! simple as a _pensionnaire_, as we used to say when no
+one else was innocent.  But it is true, my dear, that to poor
+Samuel we owe our meeting.  I will send him off, the poor fellow,
+at once to Bourge-le-Roy to preach his three sermons; and when they
+had driven you a little out of his head, he shall have Mariette
+there--a good girl, who will make him an excellent wife.  She is
+ugly enough, but it will be all the same to him just then!  I will
+see him, and let him know that I have reasons. He lodges in your
+house, does he?  Then you had better come to see me at once.  So
+will evil tongues best be silenced.
+
+'But hold,' the Duchess said, smiling.  'You will think me a
+foolish old woman, but is it true that you have saved the Pearls of
+Ribaumont, of which good Canon Froissart tells?'
+
+Eustacie lifted her child on her knee, untied the little gray
+frock, and showed them fastened beneath, well out of sight.  'I
+thought my treasures should guard one another,' she said.  'One I
+sent as a token to my mother-in-law. For the rest, they are not
+mine, but hers; her father lent them to me, not gave: so she wears
+them thus; and anything but HER life should go rather than THEY
+should.'
+
+'_Hein_, a fine guardian for them!' was all the Duchess said in
+answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.  THE ITALIAN PEDLAR
+
+
+
+This caitiff monk for gold did swear,
+That by his drugs my rival fair
+     A saint in heaven should be.--SCOTT
+
+
+A grand cavalcade bore the house of Quinet from Montauban--coaches,
+wagons, outriders, gendarmes--it was a perfect court progress, and
+so low and cumbrous that it was a whole week in reaching a grand
+old castle standing on a hill-side among chestnut woods, with an
+avenue a mile long leading up to it; and battlemented towers fit to
+stand a siege.
+
+Eustacie was ranked among the Duchess's gentlewomen.  She was so
+far acknowledged as a lady of birth, that she was usually called
+Madame Esperance; and though no one was supposed to doubt her being
+Theodore Gardon's widow, she was regarded as being a person of rank
+who had made a misalliance by marrying him.  This Madame de Quinet
+had allowed the household to infer, thinking that the whole bearing
+of her guest was too unlike that of a Paris _bourgeoise_ not to
+excite suspicion, but she deemed it wiser to refrain from treating
+her with either intimacy or distinction that might excite jealousy
+or suspicion.  Even as it was, the consciousness of a secret, or
+the remnants of Montauban gossip, prevented any familiarity between
+Eustacie and the good ladies who surrounded her; they were very
+civil to each other, but their only connecting link was the delight
+that every one took in petting pretty little Rayonette, and the
+wonder that was made of her signs of intelligence and attempts at
+talking.  Even when she toddled fearlessly up to the stately
+Duchess on her canopied throne, and held out her entreating hands,
+and lisped the word '_nontre_,' Madame would pause in her
+avocations, take her on her knee, and display that wonderful gold
+and enamel creature which cried tic-tic, and still remained an
+unapproachable mystery to M. le Marquis and M. le Vicomte, her
+grandsons.
+
+Pale, formal stiff boys they looked, twelve and ten years old, and
+under the dominion of a very learned tutor, who taught them Latin,
+Greek and Hebrew, alternately with an equally precise, stiff old
+esquire, who trained them in martial exercises, which seemed to be
+as much matters of rote with them as their tasks, and to be quite
+as uninteresting.  It did not seem as if they ever played, or
+thought of playing; and if they were ever to be gay, witty
+Frenchmen, a wonderful change must come over them.
+
+The elder was already betrothed to a Bearnese damsel, of an
+unimpeachably ancient and Calvinistic family; and the whole
+establishment had for the last three years been employed on
+tapestry hangings for a whole suite of rooms, that were to be
+fitted up and hung with the histories of Ruth, of Abigail, of the
+Shunammite, and of Esther, which their diligent needles might hope
+to complete by the time the marriage should take place, three years
+later!  The Duchess, who really was not unlike 'that great woman'
+the Shunammite, in her dignified content with 'dwelling among her
+own people,' and her desire to 'receive a prophet in the name of a
+prophet,' generally sat presiding over the work while some one,
+chaplain, grandson, or young maiden, read aloud from carefully
+assorted books; religious treatises at certain hours, and at
+others, history. Often, however, Madame was called away into her
+cabinet, where she gave audience to intendants, notaries from her
+estates, pastors from the villages, captains of little garrisons,
+soldiers offering service, farmers, women, shepherds, foresters,
+peasants, who came either on her business or with their own needs--
+for all of which she was ready with the beneficence and decision of
+an autocrat.
+
+The chapel had been 'purified,' and made bare of all altar or
+image.  It was filled with benches and a desk, whence Isaac Gardon,
+the chaplain, any pastor on a visit, or sometimes a candidate for
+his promotion, would expound, and offer prayers, shortly in the
+week, more at length on Sunday; and there, too, classes were held
+for the instruction of the peasants.
+
+There was a great garden full of medicinal plants, and decoctions
+and distilleries were the chief variety enjoyed by the gentlewomen.
+The Duchess had studied much in quaint Latin and French medical
+books, and, having great experience and good sense, was probably as
+good a doctor as any one in the kingdom except Ambroise Pare and
+his pupils; and she required her ladies to practise under her upon
+the numerous ailments that the peasants were continually bringing
+for her treatment.  'No one could tell,' she said, 'how soon they
+might be dealing with gun-shot wounds, and all ought to know how to
+sew up a gash, or cure an argue.'
+
+This department suited Eustacie much better than the stitching, and
+best of all she liked to be sent with Maitre Isaac to some cottage
+where solace for soul and body were needed, and the inmate was too
+ill to be brought to Madame la Duchess.  She was learning much and
+improving too in the orderly household, but her wanderings had made
+her something of a little gipsy.  She now and then was intolerably
+weary, and felt as if she had been entirely spoilt for her natural
+post.  'What would become of her,' she said to Maitre Isaac, 'if
+she were too grand to dress Rayonette?'
+
+She was not greatly distressed that the Montauban pursuivant turned
+out to have only the records of the Provencal nobility, and was
+forced to communicate with his brethren at Bordeaux before he could
+bring down the Ribaumont genealogy to the actual generation; and so
+slow was communication, so tardy the mode of doing everything, that
+the chestnut leaves were falling and autumn becoming winter before
+the blazoned letter showed Ribaumont, de Picardie--'Gules, fretty
+or, a canton of the last, a leopard, sable.  Eustacie Berangere, m.
+Annora, daughter and heiress of Villiam, Baron of Valvem, in the
+county of Dorisette, England, who beareth, azure, a siren regardant
+in a mirror proper.'  The siren was drawn in all her propriety
+impaled with the leopard, and she was so much more comprehensible
+than the names, to both Madame de Quinet and Eustacie, that it was
+a pity they could not direct their letters to her rather than to
+'Le Baron de Valvem,' whose cruel W's perplexed them so much.
+However, the address was the least of Eustacie's troubles; she
+should be only too glad when she got to that, and she was sitting
+in Maitre Isaac's room, trying to make him dictate her sentences
+and asking him how to spell every third word, when the dinner-bell
+rang, and the whole household dropped down from _salon_, library,
+study, or chamber to the huge hall, with its pavement of black and
+white marble, and its long tables, for Madame de Quinet was no
+woman to discard wholesome old practices.
+
+Then, as Eustacie, with Rayonette trotting at her side, and Maitre
+Isaac leaning on her arm, slowly made her way to that high table
+where dined Madame la Duchess, her grandsons, the ministers, the
+gentlemen in waiting, and some three or four women besides herself,
+she saw that the lower end of the great hall was full of silks,
+cloths, and ribbons heaped together; and, passing by the lengthy
+rank of retainers, she received a bow and look of recognition from
+a dark, acute-looking visage which she remembered to belong to the
+pedlar she had met at Charente.
+
+The Duchess, at the head of her table, was not in the best of
+humours.  Her son had sent home letters by a courier whom he had
+picked up for himself and she never liked nor trusted, and he
+required an immediate reply when she particularly resented being
+hurried.  It was a _galimafre_, literally a hash, she said; for
+indeed most matters where she was not consulted did become a
+_galimafre_ with her.  Moreover, under favour of the courier, her
+porters had admitted this pedlar, and the Duchess greatly disliked
+pedlars.  All her household stores were bought at shops of good
+repute in Montauban, and no one ought to be so improvident as to
+require dealings with these mountebank vagabonds, who dangled
+vanities before the eyes of silly girls, and filled their heads
+with Paris fashion, if they did not do still worse, and excite them
+to the purchase of cosmetics and love-charms.
+
+Yet the excitement caused by the approach of a pedlar was
+invincible, even by Madame la Duchess. It was inevitable that the
+crying need of glove, kerchief, needle, or the like, should be
+discovered as soon as he came within ken, and, once in the hall,
+there was no being rid of him except by a flagrant act of
+inhospitality.  This time it was worst of all, for M. le Marquis
+himself must needs be the first to spy him, bring him in, and be in
+want of a silver chain for his hawk; and his brother the Vicomte
+must follow him up with all manner of wants inspired by the mere
+sight of the pack.
+
+Every one with the smallest sum of money must buy, every one
+without inspect and assist in bargaining; and all dinner-time,
+eyes, thoughts, and words were wandering to the gay pile in the
+corner, or reckoning up needs and means.  The pedlar, too, knew
+what a Calvinist household was, and had been extremely discreet,
+producing nothing that could reasonably be objected to; and the
+Duchess, seeing that the stream was too strong for her, wisely
+tried to steer her bark through it safely instead of directly
+opposing it.
+
+As soon as grace was over, she called her maitre d'hotel, and bade
+him look after that _galimafre_, and see that none of these fools
+were unreasonably cheated, and that there was no attempt at gulling
+the young ones with charms or fortune-telling, as well as to
+conclude the matter so as to give no excuse for the Italian fellow
+lingering to sup and sleep.  She then retired to her cabinet to
+prepare her dispatches, which were to include a letter to Lord
+Walwyn.  Though a nominal friendship subsisted between Elisabeth
+and the French court, the Huguenot chiefs always maintained a
+correspondence with England, and there was little danger but that
+the Duke de Quinet would be able to get a letter, sooner or later,
+conveyed to any man of mark.  In the course of her letter, Madame
+de Quinet found it necessary to refer to Eustacie.  She rang her
+little silver handbell for the hall.  There, of course, Master Page
+had been engulfed in the _galimafre_, and not only forming one of
+the swarm around the pedlar, but was actually aping courtly
+grimaces as he tried a delicate lace ruffle on the hand of a silly
+little smirking maiden, no older than himself!  But this little
+episode was, like many others, overlooked by Madame de Quinet, as
+her eye fell upon the little figure of Rayonette standing on the
+table, with her mother and two or three ladies besides coaxing her
+to open her mouth, and show the swollen gums that had of late been
+troubling her, while the pedlar was evidently expending his
+blandishments upon her.
+
+The maitre d'hotel was the first to perceive his mistress, and, as
+he approached, received a sharp rebuke from her for allowing the
+fellow to produce his quack medicines; and, at the same time, she
+desired him to request Madame Esperance to come to her immediately
+on business.  Eustacie, who always had a certain self-willed sense
+of opposition when the Duchess showed herself peremptory towards
+her, at first began to make answer that she would come as soon as
+her business was concluded; but the steward made a gesture towards
+the great lady sailing up and down as she paced the _dais_ in
+stately impatience.  'Good fellow,' she said, 'I will return
+quickly, and see you again, though I am now interrupted.  Stay
+there, little one, with good Mademoiselle Perrot; mother will soon
+be back.'
+
+Rayonette, in her tooth-fretfulnes, was far from enduring to be
+forsaken so near a strange man, and her cry made it necessary for
+Eustacie to take her in arms, and carry her to the _dais_ where the
+Duchess was waiting.
+
+'So!' said the lady, 'I suspected that the fellow was a quack as
+well as a cheat.'
+
+'Madame,'said Eustacie, with spirit, 'he sold me unguents that
+greatly relieved my father last spring.'
+
+'And because rubbing relieved an old man's rheumatics, you would
+let a vagabond cheat drug and sicken this poor child for what is
+not ailment at all--and the teeth will relieve in a few days.  Or,
+if she were feverish, have not we decoctions brewed from Heaven's
+own pure herbs in the garden, with no unknown ingredient?'
+
+'Madame,' said Eustacie, ruffling into fierceness, 'you are very
+good to me; but I must keep the management of my daughter to
+myself.'
+
+The Duchess looked at her from head to foot.  Perhaps it was with
+an impulse to treat her impertinence as she would have done that of
+a dependant; but the old lady never forgot herself: she only
+shrugged her shoulders and said, with studied politeness, 'When I
+unfortunately interrupted your consultation with this eminent
+physician, it was to ask you a question regarding this English
+family.  Will you do me the honour to enter my cabinet?'
+
+And whereas no one was looking, the old lady showed her displeasure
+by ushering Madame de Ribaumont into her cabinet like a true noble
+stranger guest; so that Eustacie felt disconcerted.
+
+The Duchess then began to read aloud her own letter to Lord Walwyn,
+pausing at every clause, so that Eustacie felt the delay and
+discussion growing interminable, and the Duchess then requested to
+have Madame de Ribaumont's own letter at once, as she wished to
+inclose it, make up her packet, and send it without delay.  Opening
+a secret door in her cabinet, she showed Eustacie stair by which
+she might reach Maitre Gardon's room without crossing the hall.
+Eustacie hoped to find him there and tell him how intolerable was
+the Duchess; but, though she found him, it was in company with the
+tutor, who was spending an afternoon on Plato with him.  She could
+only take up her letter and retreat to Madame's cabinet, where she
+had left her child.  She finished it as best she might, addressed
+it after the herald's spelling of the title, bound it with some of
+the Duchess's black floss silk--wondering meanwhile, but little
+guessing that the pedlar knew, where was the tress that had bound
+her last attempt at correspondence, guessing least of all that that
+tress lay on a heart still living and throbbing for her.  All this
+had made her a little forget her haste to assert her liberty of
+action by returning to the pedlar; but, behold, when she came back
+to the hall, it had resumed its pristine soberness, and merely a
+few lingering figures were to be seen, packing up their purchases.
+
+While she was still looking round in dismay, Mademoiselle Perrot
+came up to her and said, 'Ah!  Madame, you may well wonder!  I
+never saw Maitre Benoit there so cross; the poor man did but offer
+to sell little Fanchon the elizir that secures a good husband, and
+old Benoit descended on him like a griffin enraged, would scarce
+give him time to compute his charges or pack his wares, but hustled
+him forth like a mere thief!  And I missed my bargain for that
+muffler that had so taken my fancy.  But, Madame, he spoke to me
+apart, and said you were an old customer of his, and that rather
+than the little angel should suffer with her teeth, which surely
+threaten convulsions, he would leave with you this sovereign remedy
+of sweet syrup--a spoonful to be given each night.'
+
+Eustacie took the little flask.  She was much inclined to give the
+syrup by way of precaution, as well as to assure herself that she
+was not under the Duchess's dominion; but some strong instinct of
+the truth of the lady's words that the child was safer and
+healthier undoctored, made her resolve at least to defer it until
+the little one showed any perilous symptom.  And as happily
+Rayonette only showed two little white teeth, and much greater
+good-humour, the syrup was nearly forgotten, when, a fortnight
+after, the Duchess received a dispatch from her son which filled
+her with the utmost indignation.  The courier had indeed arrived,
+but the packet had proved to be filled with hay and waste-paper.
+And upon close examination, under the lash, the courier had been
+forced to confess to having allowed himself to be overtaken by the
+pedlar, and treated by him to a supper at a _cabaret_.  No doubt,
+while he was afterwards asleep, the contents of his packet had been
+abstracted.  There had been important documents for the Duke
+besides Eustacie's letters, and the affair greatly annoyed the
+Duchess, though she had the compensation of having been proved
+perfectly right in her prejudice against pedlars, and her dislike
+of her son's courier.  She sent for Eustacie to tell her privately
+of the loss, and of course the young mother at once turned pale and
+exclaimed, 'The wicked one!  Ah! what a blessing that I gave my
+little darling none of his dose!'
+
+'_Hein_?  You had some from him then!' demanded the Duchess with
+displeasure.
+
+'No, Madame, thanks, thanks to you.   Oh! I never will be self-
+willed and naughty again.  Forgive me, Madame.'  And down she
+dropped on her knee, with clasped hands and glistening eyes.
+
+'Forgive you, silly child, for what?' said Madame de Quinet, nearly
+laughing.
+
+'Ah! for the angry, passionate thoughts I had! Ah! Madame, I was
+all but giving the stuff to my little angel in very spite--and
+then---'  Eutacie's voice was drowned in passion of tears, and she
+devoured the old lady's hand with her kisses.
+
+'Come, come,' said the Duchess, 'let us be reasonable. A man may be
+a thief, but it does not follow that he is a poisoner.'
+
+'Nay, that will we see,' cried Eutacie.  'He was resolved that the
+little lamb should not escape, and he left a flask for her with
+Mademoiselle Perrot.  I will fetch it, if Madame will give me
+leave.  Oh, the great mercy of Heaven that made her so well that I
+gave her none!'
+
+Madame de Quinet's analytic powers did not go very far; and would
+probably have decided against the syrup if it had been nothing but
+virgin honey.  She was one who fully believed that her dear Queen
+Jeanne had been poisoned with a pair of gloves, and she had
+unlimited faith in the powers of evil possessed by Rene of Milan.
+Of course, she detected the presence of a slow poison, whose
+effects would have been attributed to the ailment it was meant to
+cure; and though her evidence was insufficient, she probably did
+Ercole no injustice.  She declined testing the compound on any
+unfortunate dog or cat, but sealed it up in the presence of Gardon,
+Eutacie, and Mademoiselle Perrot, to be produced against the pedlar
+if ever he should be caught.
+
+Then she asked Eutacie if there was any reason to suspect that he
+recognized her.  Eutacie related the former dealings with him, when
+she had sold him her jewels and her hair, but she had no notion of
+his being the same person whom she had seen when at Montpipeau.
+Indeed, he had altered his appearance so much that he had been only
+discovered at Nid-de-Merle by eyes sharpened by distrust of his
+pretensions to magic arts.
+
+Madame de Quinet, however, concluded that Eutacie had been known,
+or else that her jewels had betrayed her, and that the man must
+have been employed by her enemies.  If it had not been the depth of
+winter, she would have provided for the persecuted lady's immediate
+transmission to England; but he storms of the Bay of Biscay would
+have made this impossible in the state of French navigation, even
+if Isaac Gardon had been in a condition to move; for the first
+return of cold had brought back severe rheumatic pains, and with
+them came a shortness of breath which even the Duchess did not know
+to be the token of heart complaint.  He was confined to his room,
+and it was kneeling by his bedside that Eutacie poured out her
+thankfulness for her child's preservation, and her own repentance
+for the passing fit of self-will and petulance.  The thought of
+Rayonette's safety seemed absolutely to extinguish the fresh
+anxiety that had arisen since it had become evident that her
+enemies no longer supposed her dead, but were probably upon her
+traces.  Somehow, danger had become almost a natural element to
+her, and having once expressed her firm resolution that nothing
+should separate her from her adopted father, to whom indeed her
+care became constantly more necessary, she seemed to occupy herself
+very little with the matter; she nursed him as merrily as ever, and
+left to him and Madame de Quinet the grave consultations as to what
+was to be done for her security.  There was a sort of natural
+buoyancy about her that never realized a danger till it came, and
+then her spirit was roused to meet it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.  SPELL AND POTION
+
+
+
+Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
+All the power this charm doth owe
+              MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
+
+
+Her rival lived!  The tidings could not but be communicated to
+Diane de Selinville, when her father set out _en grande tenue_ to
+demand his niece from the Duke de Quinet.  This, however, was not
+till spring was advancing; for the pedlar had not been able to take
+a direct route back to Nid-de-Merle, since his first measure had
+necessarily been to escape into a province where the abstraction of
+a Huguenot nobleman's despatches would be considered as a
+meritorious action.  Winter weather, and the practice of his
+profession likewise, delayed Ercole so much that it was nearly
+Easter before he brought his certain intelligence to the Chevalier,
+and to the lady an elixir of love, clear and coloured as crystal,
+and infallible as an inspirer of affection.
+
+Should she administer it, now that she knew her cousin not to be
+the lawful object of affection she had so long esteemed him, but,
+as he persisted in considering himself, a married man?  Diane had
+more scruples than she would have had a year before, for she had
+not so long watched and loved one so true and conscientious as
+Berenger de Ribaumont without having her perceptions elevated; but
+at the same time the passion of love had become intensified, both
+by long continuance and by resistance.  She had attached herself,
+believing him free, and her affections could not be disentangled by
+learning that he was bound--rather the contrary.
+
+Besides, there was plenty of sophistry.  Her father had always
+assured her of the invalidity of the marriage, without thinking it
+necessary to dwell on his own arrangements for making it invalid,
+so that was no reasonable ground of objection; and a lady of
+Diane's period, living in the world where she had lived, would have
+had no notion of objecting to her lover for a previous amour, and
+as such was she bidden to rank Berenger's relations with Eutacie.
+And there was the less scruple on Eutacie's account, because the
+Chevalier, knowing that the Duchess had a son and two grandsons,
+had conceived a great terror that she meant to give his niece to
+one of them; and this would be infinitely worse, both for the
+interests of the family and of their party, than even her reunion
+with the young Baron.  Even Narcisse, who on his return had written
+to Paris a grudging consent to the experiment of his father and
+sister, had allowed that the preservation of Berenger's life was
+needful till Eutacie should be in their power so as to prevent such
+a marriage as that!  To Diane, the very suggestion became
+certainty: she already saw Eutacie's shallow little heart consoled
+and her vanity excited by these magnificent prospects, and she
+looked forward to the triumph of her own constancy, when Berenger
+should find the image so long enshrined in his heart crumble in its
+sacred niche.
+
+Yet a little while then would she be patient, even though nearly a
+year had passed and still she saw no effect upon her prisoners,
+unless, indeed, Philip had drunk of one of her potions by mistake
+and his clumsy admiration was the consequence.  The two youths went
+on exactly in the same manner, without a complaint, without a
+request, occupying themselves as best they might--Berenger
+courteously attentive recovered his health, and the athletic powers
+displayed by the two brothers when wrestling, fencing, or snow-
+balling in the courtyard, were the amazement and envy of their
+guard. Twice in the course of the winter there had been an alarm of
+wolves, and in their eagerness and excitement about this new sport,
+they had accepted the Chevalier's offer of taking their parole for
+the hunt.  They had then gone forth with a huge posse of villagers,
+who beat the woods with their dogs till the beast was aroused from
+its lair and driven into the alleys, where waited gentlemen,
+gendarmes, and game keepers with their guns.  These two chases were
+chiefly memorable to Berenger, because in the universal
+intermingling of shouting peasants he was able in the first to have
+some conversation with Eutacie's faithful protector Martin, who
+told him the incidents of her wanderings, with tears in his eyes,
+and blessed him for his faith that she was not dead; and in the
+second, he actually found himself in the ravine of the Grange du
+Temple.  No need to ask, every voice was shouting the name, and
+though the gendarmes were round him and he durst not speak to
+Rotrou, still he could reply with significative earnestness to the
+low bow with which the farmer bent to evident certainty that here
+was the imprisoned Protestant husband of the poor lady.  Berenger
+wore his black vizard mask as had been required of him, but the
+man's eyes followed him, as though learning by heart the outline of
+his tall figure.  The object of the Chevalier's journey was, of
+course, a secret from the prisoners, who merely felt its effects by
+having their meals served to them in their own tower; and when he
+returned after about a month's absence though him looking harassed,
+aged, and so much out of humour that he could scarcely preserve his
+usual politeness.  In effect he was greatly chagrined.
+
+'That she is in their hands is certain, the hypocrites!' he said to
+his daughter and sister; 'and no less so that they have designs on
+her; but I let them know that these could be easily traversed.'
+
+'But where is she, the unhappy apostate child?' said the Abbess.
+'They durst not refuse her to you.'
+
+'I tell you they denied all present knowledge of her.  The Duke
+himself had the face to make as though he never heard of her.  He
+had no concern with his mother's household and guests forsooth!  I
+do not believe he has; the poor fellow stands in awe of that
+terrible old heretic dragon, and keeps aloof from her as much as he
+can.  But he is, after all, a _beau jeune home_; nor should I be
+surprised if he were the girl's gay bridegroom by this time, though
+I gave him a hint that there was an entanglement about the child's
+first marriage which, by French law, would invalidate any other
+without a dispensation from the Pope.'
+
+'A hard nut that for a heretic,' laughed the Abbess.
+
+'He acted the ignorant--knew nothing about the young lady; but had
+the civility to give me a guide and an escort to go to Quinet.  _Ma
+foi_! I believe they were given to hinder me--take me by indirect
+roads, make me lose time at chateaux.  When I arrived at the grim
+old chateau--a true dungeon, precise as a convent--there was the
+dame, playing the Queen Jeanne as well as she could, and having the
+insolence to tell me that it was true that Madame la Baronne de
+Ribaumont, as she was pleased to call her, had honoured her
+residence for some months, but that she had now quitted it, and she
+flatly refused to answer any question whither she was gone!  The
+hag! she might at least have had the decorum to deny all knowledge
+of her, but nothing is more impertinent that the hypocritical
+sincerity of the heretics.'
+
+'But her people,' exclaimed the Abbess; 'surely some of them knew,
+and could be brought to speak.'
+
+'All the servants I came in contact with played the incorruptible;
+but still I have done something.  There were some fellows in the
+village who are not at their ease under that rule.  I caused my
+people to inquire them out.  They knew nothing more than that the
+old heretic Gardon with his family had gone away in Madame la
+Duchesse's litter, but whither they could not tell. But the
+_cabaretier_ there is furious secretly with the Quinets for having
+spoilt his trade by destroying the shrine at the holy well, and I
+have made him understand that it will be for his profit to send me
+off intelligence so soon as there is any communication between them
+and the lady.  I made the same arrangement with a couple of
+gendarmes of the escort the Duke gave me.  So at least we are safe
+for intelligence such as would hinder a marriage.'
+
+'But they will be off to England!' said the Abbess.
+
+'I wager they will again write to make sure of a reception.
+Moreover, I have set that fellow Ercole and others of his trade to
+keep a strict watch on all the roads leading to the ports, and give
+me due notice of their passing thither.  We have law on our side,
+and, did I once claim her, no one could resist my right.  Or should
+the war break out, as is probable, then could my son sweep their
+whole province with his troops.  This time she cannot escape us.
+
+The scene that her father's words and her own imagination conjured
+up, of Eustacie attracting the handsome widower-duke, removed all
+remaining scruples from Madame de Selinville.  For his own sake,
+the Baron must be made to fulfil the prophecy of the ink-pool, and
+allow his prison doors to be opened by love.  Many and many a
+tender art did Diane rehearse; numerous were her sighs; wakeful,
+languishing, and restless her nights and days; and yet, whatever
+her determination to practise upon her cousin the witcheries that
+she had learnt in the _Escadron de la Reine-mere_, and seen played
+off effectually where there was not one grain of love to inspire
+them, her powers and her courage always failed her in the presence
+of him whom she sought to attract.  His quiet reserve and
+simplicity always disconcerted her, and any attempt at blandishment
+that he could not mistake was always treated by him as necessarily
+an accidental error, as if any other supposition would render her
+despicable; and yet there was now and then a something that made
+her detect an effort in his restraint, as if it were less distaste
+than self-command.  Her brother had contemptuously acquiesced in
+the experiment made by herself and her father, and allowed that so
+long as there was any danger of the Quinet marriage, the Baron's
+existence was needful. He would not come to Nid-de-Merle, nor did
+they want him there, knowing that he could hardly have kept his
+hands off his rival.  But when the war broke out again in the
+summer of 1575 he joined that detachment of Guise's army which
+hovered about the Loire, and kept watch on the Huguenot cities and
+provinces of Western France.  The Chevalier made several
+expeditions to confer with his son, and to keep up his relations
+with the network of spies whom he had spread over the Quinet
+provinces.  The prisoners were so much separated from all
+intercourse with the dependants that they were entirely ignorant of
+the object of his absence from home.  On these occasions they never
+left their tower and its court, and had no enlivenment save an
+occasional gift of dainties or message of inquiry from the ladies
+at Bellaise.  These were brought by a handsome but slight, pale lad
+called Aime de Selinville, a relative of the late Count, as he told
+them, who had come to act as a gentleman attendant upon the widowed
+countess.  The brothers rather wondered how he was disposed of at
+the convent, but all there was so contrary to their preconceived
+notions that they acquiesced.  The first time he arrived it was on
+a long, hot summer day, and he then brought them a cool iced
+sherbet in two separate flasks, that for Philip being mixed with
+wine, which was omitted for Berenger; and the youth stood lingering
+and watching, anxious, he said, to be able to tell his lady how the
+drinks were approved.  Both were excellent, and to that effect the
+prisoners replied; but no sooner was the messenger gone than
+Berenger said smilingly, 'That was a love potion, Phil.'
+
+'And you drank it!' cried Philip, in horror.
+
+'I did not think of it till I saw how the boy's eyes were gazing
+curiously at me as I swallowed it.  You look at me as curiously,
+Phil.  Are you expecting it to work?  Shall I be at the fair lady's
+feet next time we meet?'
+
+'How can you defy it, Berry?'
+
+'Nay, Phil; holy wedded love is not to be dispelled by a
+mountebank's decoction.'
+
+'But suppose it were poisonous, Berry, what can be done?' cried
+Philip, starting up in dismay.
+
+'Then you would go home, Phil, and this would be over.  But'--
+seeing his brother's terror--'there is no fear of that.  She is not
+like to wish to poison me.'
+
+And the potion proved equally ineffective on mind and body, as
+indeed did all the manipulations exercised upon a little waxen
+image that was supposed to represent M. le Baron.  Another figure
+was offered to Diane, in feminine form, with black beads for eyes
+and a black plaster for hair, which, when stuck full of pins and
+roasted before the fire, was to cause Eustacie to peak and pine
+correspondingly.  But from this measure Diane shrank.  If aught was
+done against her rival it must be by her father and brother, not by
+herself; and she would not feel herself directly injuring her
+little cousin, nor sinking herself below him whom she loved.  Once
+his wife, she would be good for ever, held up by his strength.
+
+Meantime Berenger had received a greater shock than she or her
+father understood in the looking over of some of the family
+parchments kept in store at the castle.  The Chevalier, in showing
+them to him, had chiefly desired to glorify the family by
+demonstrating how its honours had been won, but Berenger was
+startled at finding that Nid-de-Merle had been, as it appeared to
+him, arbitrarily and unjustly declared to be forfeited by the Sieur
+de Bellaise, who had been thrown into prison by Louis XI. for some
+demonstration in favour of the poor Duke de Berri, and granted to
+the favourite Ribaumont.  The original grant was there, and to his
+surprise he found it was to male heirs--the male heirs alone of the
+direct line of the Ribaumont--to whom the grant was made.  How,
+then, came it to Eustacie?  The disposal had, with almost equal
+injustice, been changed by King Henry II. and the late Count de
+Ribaumont in favour of the little daughter whose union with the
+heir of the elder line was to conclude all family feuds.  Only now
+did Berenger understand what his father had said on his death-bed
+of flagrant injustice committed in his days of darkness.  He felt
+that he was reaping the reward of the injuries committed against
+the Chevalier and his son on behalf of the two unconscious
+children.  He would willingly at once have given up all claim to
+the Nid-de-Merle estate--and he was now of age; two birthdays had
+passed in his captivity and brought him to years of discretion--but
+he had no more power than before to dispose of what was the
+property of Eustacie and her child; and the whole question of the
+validity of his marriage would be given up by his yielding even the
+posthumous claim that might have devolved on him in case of
+Eustacie's death.  This would be giving up her honour, a thing
+impossible.
+
+'Alas!' he sighed, 'my poor father might well say he had bound a
+heavy burthen round my neck.'
+
+And from that time his hopes sank lower as the sense of the justice
+of his cause left him.  He could neither deny his religion nor his
+marriage, and therefore could do nothing for his own deliverance;
+and he knew himself to be suffering in the cause of a great
+injustice; indeed, to be bringing suffering on the still more
+innocent Philip.
+
+The once proudly indifferent youth was flagging now; was losing
+appetite, flesh, and colour; was unwilling to talk or to take
+exercise; and had a wan and drooping air that was most painful to
+watch.  It seemed as if the return of summer brought a sense of the
+length and weariness of the captivity, and that the sunshine and
+gaiety of the landscape had become such a contrast to the captives'
+deadness of spirit that they could hardly bear to behold them, and
+felt the dull prison walls more congenial to their feelings than
+the gaiety of the summer hay and harvest-fields.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.  BEATING AGAINST THE BARS
+
+
+
+My horse is weary of the stall,
+And I am sick of captive thrall.--LADY OF THE LAKE
+
+
+Letters!  They were hailed like drops of water in a thirsty land.
+No doubt they had been long on the way, ere they had reached the
+hands of the Chevalier de Ribaumont, and it was quite possible that
+they had been read and selected; but, as Berenger said, he defied
+any Frenchman to imitate either Lord Walwyn's style or Sir
+Marmaduke's, and when late in the autumn the packet was delivered
+to him, the two captives gloated over the very outsides before they
+opened them.
+
+The first intelligence that greeted them made them give a cry of
+amusement and surprise.  Lady Thistlewood, whose regrets that each
+of her girls was not a boy had passed into a proverb, had at
+length, in Dolly's seventh year, given birth to a son on Midsummer
+Day.
+
+'Well,' said Philip, sighing, 'we must drink his health tonight!
+It is well, if we are to rot here, that some one should make it up
+to them!'
+
+'And join Walwyn and Hurst!' said Berenger; and then both faces
+grew much graver, as by these letters, dated three months since,
+they understood how many they must have missed, and likewise that
+nothing had been heard of themselves since they had left Paris
+sixteen months ago.  Their letters, both to their relations and to
+Sir Francis Walsingham, had evidently been suppressed; and Lord
+North, who had succeeded Walsingham as ambassador, had probably
+been misled by design, either by Narcisse de Nid-de-Merle himself,
+or by some of his agents, for Lord Walwyn had heard from him that
+the young men were loitering among the castles and garrisons of
+Anjou, leading a gay and dissipated life, and that it was
+universally believed that the Baron de Ribaumont had embraced the
+Catholic faith, and would shortly be presented to Henry III. to
+receive the grant of the Selinville honours, upon his marriage with
+his cousin, the widow of the last of the line.  With much
+earnestness and sorrow did good old Lord Walwyn write to his
+grandson, conjuring him to bethink himself of his some, his pure
+faith, his loving friends, and the hopes of his youth: and, at
+least, if he himself had been led away by the allurements of the
+other party, to remember that Philip had been intrusted to him in
+full confidence, and to return him to his home.  'It was grief and
+shame to him,' said the good old man, 'to look at Sir Marmaduke,
+who had risked his son in the charge of one hitherto deemed
+trustworthy; and even if Berenger had indeed forgotten and cast
+away those whom he had once seemed to regard with love and duty, he
+commanded him to send home Philip, who owed an obedience to his
+father that could not be gainsaid.' Lord Walwyn further bade his
+grandson remember that the arrangements respecting his inheritance
+had been made in confidence that his heir was English in heart and
+faith, and that neither the Queen nor his own conscience would
+allow him to let his inheritance pass into French of Papist hands.
+There was scarcely a direct reproach, but the shaken, altered
+handwriting showed how stricken the aged man must be; and after his
+signature was added one still more trembling line, 'An ye return
+not speedily, ye will never see the old grandsire more.'
+
+Berenger scarcely finished the letter through his burning tears of
+agony, and then, casting it from him, began to pace the room in
+fierce agitation, bursting out into incoherent exclamations,
+grasping at his hair, even launching himself against the massive
+window with such frenzied gestures and wild words that Philip, who
+had read through all with his usual silent obtuseness, became
+dismayed, and, laying hold of him, said, 'Prithee, brother, do not
+thus!  What serves such passion?'
+
+Berenger burst into a strange loud laugh at the matter-of-fact
+tone.  'What serves it! what serves anything!' he cried, 'but to
+make me feel what a miserable wretch I am?  But he will die,
+Philip--he will die--not having believed me!  How shall we keep
+ourselves from the smooth-tongued villain's throat?  That I should
+be thus judged a traitor by my grandfather----'
+
+And with a cry as of bodily anguish, he hid his face on the table,
+and groaned as he felt the utter helplessness of his strong youth
+in bonds.
+
+'It can't be helped,' was the next of the unconsolatory platitudes
+uttered by Philip, who always grew sullen and dogged when his
+brother's French temperament broke forth under any sudden stroke.
+'If they will believe such things, let them!  You have not heard
+what my father says to it.'
+
+'It will be all the same,' groaned Berenger.
+
+'Nay! now that's a foul slander, and you should be ashamed of doing
+my father such wrong,' said Philip,  'Listen;' and he read:  'I
+will believe no ill of the lad no more than of thee, Phil.  It is
+but a wild-goose chase, and the poor young woman is scarce like to
+be above ground; but, as I daily tell them, 'tis hard a man should
+forfeit his land for seeking his wife.  My Lord North sends rumours
+that he is under Papist guiding, and sworn brother with the Black
+Ribaumonts; and my Lady, his grandmother, is like to break her
+heart, and my Lord credits them more than he ought, and never a
+line as a token comes from you.  Then there's Dame Annora, as proud
+of the babe as though neither she nor woman born ever had a son
+before, and plains over him, that both his brothers should be
+endowed, and he but a younger son.  What will be the end on't I
+cannot tell.  I will stand up for the right as best man may do, and
+never forget that Berry is her first-born, and that his child may
+be living; but the matter is none of mine, and my Lord is very
+aged, nor can a man meddle between his wife and her father.  So
+this I tell you that you may make your brother lay it to heart.
+The sooner he is here the better, if he be still, as I verily
+believe and maintain him to be, an honest English heart that snaps
+his fingers at French papistry.'  'There,' conclude Philip
+triumphantly, 'he knows an honest man!  He's friend and good father
+to you as much as ever.  Heed none of the rest.  He'll never let
+this little rogue stand in your light.'
+
+'as if I cared for that!' said Berenger, beginning his caged-tiger
+walk again, and, though he tried to repress his anguish, breaking
+out at times into fierce revilings of the cruel toils that beset
+him, and despairing lamentations over those beloved ones at home,
+with sobs, groans, and tears, such as Philip could not brook to
+witness. Both because they were so violent and mourn-full, and
+because he thought them womanish, though in effect no woman's grief
+could have had half that despairing force.  The _fierte_ of the
+French noble, however, came to his aid.  At the first sound of the
+great supper-bell he dashed away his tears, composed his features,
+washed his face, and demanded haughtily of Philip, whether there
+were any traces in his looks that the cruel hypocrite, their
+jailer, could gloat over.
+
+And with proud step and indifferent air he marched into the hall,
+answered the Chevalier's polite inquiry whether the letter had
+brought good tidings by coolly thanking him and saying that all at
+home were well; and when he met the old man's inquiring glance out
+of the little keen black bead in the puckered, withered eyelid, he
+put a perfectly stony unmeaningness into his own gaze, till his
+eyes looked like the blue porcelain from China so much prized by
+the Abbess.  He even played at chess all the evening with such
+concentrated attention as to be uniformly victorious.
+
+Yet half the night Philip heard suppressed moans and sobs--then
+knew that he was on his knees--then, after long and comparatively
+silent weeping, he lay down again, and from the hour when he awoke
+in the morning, he returned no more to the letters; and though for
+some little time more sad and dispirited, he seemed to have come to
+regard the misjudgment at home as a part of the burthen he was
+already bearing.
+
+That burthen was, however, pressing more heavily.  The temperaments
+of the two brothers so differed that while the French one was
+prostrated by the agony of a stroke, and then rallied patiently to
+endure the effects, the English character opposed a passive
+resistance to the blow, gave no sign of grief or pain, and from
+that very determination suffered a sort of exhaustion that made the
+effects of the evil more and more left.  Thus, from the time
+Philip's somewhat tardy imagination had been made to realize his
+home, his father, and his sisters, the home-sickness, and weariness
+of his captivity, which had already begun to undermine his health
+and spirits, took increasing effect.
+
+He made no complaint--he never expressed a wish--but, in the words
+of the prophet, he seemed 'pining away on his feet.'  He did not
+sleep, and though, to avoid remark, he never failed to appear at
+meals, he scarcely tasted food.  He never willingly stirred from
+cowering over the fire, and was so surly and ill-tempered that only
+Berenger's unfailing good-humour could have endured it.  Even a
+wolf-hunt did not stir him.  He only said he hated outlandish
+beasts, and that it was not like chasing the hare in Dorset.  His
+calf-love for Madame de Selinville had entirely faded away in his
+yearnings after home.  She was only one of the tediously recurring
+sights of his captivity, and was loathed like all the rest.  The
+regulation rides with the Chevalier were more detestable than ever,
+and by and by they caused such fatigue that Berenger perceived that
+his strength must be warning, and became so seriously alarmed that
+one evening, when Philip had barely dragged himself to the hall,
+tasted nothing but a few drops of wine, and then dropped into an
+uneasy slumber in his chair, he could not but turn to the Chevalier
+an appealing, indignant countenance, as he said, in a low but
+quivering voice, 'You see, sir, how he is altered!'
+
+'Alas! fair nephew, it is but too plain.  He is just of the age
+when such restraint tells severely upon the health.'
+
+Then Berenger spoke out upon the foul iniquity of the boy's
+detention.  For himself, he observed, he had nothing to say; he
+knew the term of his release, and had not accepted them; but
+Philip, innocent of all damage to the Ribaumont interests, the heir
+of an honourable family, what had he done to incur the cruel
+imprisonment that was eating away his life?
+
+'I tell you, sir,' said Berenger, with eyes filled with tears,'
+that his liberty is more precious to me than my own. Were he but
+restored to our home, full half the weight would be gone from my
+spirit.'
+
+'Fair nephew,' said the Chevalier, 'you speak as though I had any
+power in the matter, and were not merely standing between you and
+the King.'
+
+'Then if so,' said Berenger, 'let the King do as he will with me,
+but let Philip's case be known to our Ambassador.'
+
+'My poor cousin,' said the Chevalier, 'you know not what you ask.
+Did I grant your desire, you would only learn how implacable King
+Henri is to those who have personally offended him--above all, to
+heretics.  Nor could the Ambassador do anything for one who
+resisted by force of arms the King's justice.  Leave it to me; put
+yourself in my hands, and deliverance shall come for him first,
+then for you.'
+
+'How, sir?'
+
+'One token of concession--one attendance at mass--one pledge that
+the alliance shall take place when the formalities have been
+complied with--then can I report you our own; give you almost
+freedom at once; despatch our young friend to England without loss
+of time; so will brotherly affection conquer those chivalrous
+scruples, most honourable in you, but which, carried too far,
+become cruel obstinacy.'
+
+Berenger looked at Philip; saw how faded and wan was the ruddy sun-
+burnt complexion, how lank and bony the sturdy form, how listless
+and wasted the hands.  Then arose, bursting within him, the devoted
+generosity of the French nature, which would even accept sin and
+ruin for self, that so the friend may be saved; and after all, had
+he not gone to mass out of mere curiosity?--did he not believe that
+there was salvation in the Gallican Church?  Was it not possible
+that, with Philip free to tell his story at home, his own
+deliverance might come before he should be irrevocably committed to
+Madame de Selinville?  If Eustacie were living, her claims must
+overthrow that which her rival was forcing upon him at her own
+peril.  Nay, how else could he obtain tidings of her?  And for
+those at home, did they deserve that he should sacrifice all,
+Philip included, for their sake?  The thoughts, long floating round
+his brain, now surged upon him in one flood, and seemed to
+overwhelm in those moments of confusion all his powers of calling
+up the other side of the argument; he only had an instinct
+remaining that it would be a lie to God and man alike.  'God help
+me!' he sighed to himself; and there was sufficient consideration
+and perplexity expressed in his countenance to cause the Chevalier
+to feel his cause almost gained; and rising eagerly, with tears in
+his eyes, he exclaimed, 'Embrace me, my dear, dear son!  The thing
+is done!  Oh! what peace, what joy!'
+
+The instinct of recoil came stronger now.  He stepped back with
+folded arms, saying again, 'God help me!  God forbid that I should
+be a traitor!'
+
+'My son, hear me; these are but easily removed points of honour,'
+began the Chevalier; but at that moment Philip suddenly started
+from, or in his slumber, leapt on his feet, and called out,
+'Avaunt, Satan!' then opened his eyes, and looked, as if barely
+recalling where he was.
+
+'Philip!' exclaimed Berenger, 'did you hear?'
+
+'I--I don't know,' he said, half-bewildered.  'Was I dreaming that
+the fiend was parleying with us in the voice of M. le Chevalier
+there to sell our souls for one hour of home?'
+
+He spoke English, but Berenger replied in French.
+
+'You were not wrong, Philip.  Sir, he dreamt that the devil was
+tempting me in your voice while you were promising me his liberty
+on my fulfilling your first condition.'
+
+'What?' said Philip, now fully awake, and gathering the state of
+things, as he remembered the words that had doubtless been the
+cause of his dream.  'And if you did, Berenger, I give you warning
+they should never see me at home.  What! could I show my face there
+with such tidings?  No!  I should go straight to La Noue, or to the
+Low Countries, and kill every Papist I could for having debauched
+you!'
+
+'Hush! hush!  Philip,' said Berenger; 'I could not break my faith
+to Heaven or my wife even for your sake, and my cousin sees how
+little beholden you would be to me for so doing.  With your leave,
+Monsieur, we will retire.'
+
+The Chevalier detained Berenger for a moment to whisper, 'What I
+see is so noble a heart that I know you cannot sacrifice him to
+your punctilio.'
+
+Philip was so angry with Berenger, so excited, and so determined to
+show that nothing ailed him, that for a short time he was roused,
+and seemed to be recovering; but in a few days he flagged again,
+only, if possible with more gruffness, moodiness, and pertinacity
+in not allowing that anything was amiss.  It was the bitterest drop
+of all in Berenger's cup, when in the end of January he looked back
+at what Philip had been only a month before, and saw how he had
+wasted away and lost strength; the impulse rather to ruin himself
+that destroy his brother came with such force that he could
+scarcely escape it by his ever-recurring cry for help to withstand
+it.  And then Diane, in her splendid beauty and withchery, would
+rise before him, so that he knew how a relaxation of the lengthened
+weary effort would make his whole self break its bonds and go out
+to her.  Dreams of felicity and liberty, and not with Eustacie,
+would even come over him, and he would awaken to disappointment
+before he came to a sense of relief and thankfulness that he was
+still his own.  The dislike, distaste, and dread that came so
+easily in his time of pain and weakness were less easy to maintain
+in his full health and forced inactivity.  Occupation of mind and
+hope seemed the only chance of enabling either of the two to
+weather this most dreary desert period; and Berenger, setting his
+thoughts resolutely to consider what would be the best means of
+rousing Philip, decided at length that any endeavour to escape,
+however arduous and desperate, would be better than his present
+apathetic languor, even if it led to nothing.  After the first
+examination of their prison, Berenger had had no thought of escape;
+he was then still weak and unenterprising.  He had for many months
+lived in hopes of interference from home; and, besides, the
+likelihood that so English a party as his own would be quickly
+pursued and recaptured, where they did not know their road and had
+no passports, had deterred him lest should fall into still straiter
+imprisonment.  But he had since gained, in the course of his rides,
+and by observation from the top of the tower, a much fuller
+knowledge of the country.  He knew the way to the grange du Temple,
+and to the chief towns in the neighbourhood.  Philip and Humfrey
+had both lost something of their intensely national look and
+speech, and, moreover, was having broken out again, there was hope
+of falling in with Huguenot partisans even nearer that at La
+Rochelle.  But whether successful or not, some enterprise was
+absolutely needed to save Philip from his despondent apathy; and
+Berenger, who in these eighteen months had grown into the strength
+and vigour of manhood, felt as if he had force and power for almost
+any effort save this hopeless waiting.
+
+He held council with Humfrey, who suggested that it might be well
+to examine the vaults below the keep.  He had a few days before,
+while going after some of the firewood stored below the ground-
+floor chamber, observed a door, locked, but with such rusty iron
+hinges that they might possibly yield to vigorous efforts with a
+stone; and who could tell where the underground passages might come
+out?
+
+Berenger eagerly seized the idea.  Philip's mood of contradiction
+prompted him to pronounce it useless folly, and he vouchsafed no
+interest in the arrangements for securing light, by selecting all
+the bits of firewood fittest for torches, and saving all the oil
+possible from the two lamps they were allowed.  The chief
+difficulty was that Guibert was not trusted, so that all had to be
+done out of his sight; and on the first day Berenger was obliged to
+make the exploration alone, since Humfrey was forced to engross
+Guibert in some occupation out of sight, and Philip had refused to
+have anything to do with it, or be like a rat routing in the
+corners of his trap.
+
+However, Berenger had only just ascertained that the ironwork was
+so entirely rusted away as to offer no impediment, when Philip came
+languidly roaming into the cellar, saying, 'Here!  I'll hold the
+torch!  You'll be losing yourself in this wolf's mouth of a place
+if you go alone.'
+
+The investigation justified Philip's predictions of its
+uselessness.  Nothing was detected but rats, and vaults, and
+cobwebs; it was cold, earthy, and damp; and when they thought they
+must have penetrated far beyond the precincts of the keep, they
+heard Humfrey's voice close to them, warning them that it was
+nearly dinner-time.
+
+The next day brought them a more promising discovery, namely of a
+long straight passage, with a gleam of light at the end of it; and
+this for the first time excited Philip's interest or curiosity.  He
+would have hastened along it at once, but for the warning summons
+from Humfrey; and in the excitement of even this grain of interest,
+he ate more heartily at supper than he had done for weeks, and was
+afterwards more eager to prove to Berenger that night was the best
+time to pursue their researches.
+
+And Berenger, when convinced that Guibert was sound asleep, thought
+so too, and accompanied by Humfrey, they descended into the
+passage.  The light, of course, was no longer visible, but the form
+of the crypt, through which they now passed, was less antique than
+that under the keep, and it was plain they were beneath a later
+portion of the Castle.  The gallery concluded in a wall, with a
+small barred, unglazed window, perfectly dark, so that Berenger,
+who alone could reach to the bottom of it, could not uses where it
+looked out.
+
+'We must return by daylight; then, maybe, we may judge,' sighed
+Philip.
+
+'Hark!' exclaimed Berenger.
+
+'Rats,' said Philip.
+
+'No--listen--a voice!  Take care!' he added, in a lower tone, 'we
+may be close on some of the servants.'
+
+But, much nearer than he expected, a voice on his right hand
+demanded, 'Does any good Christian hear me?'
+
+'Who is there?' exclaimed Philip.
+
+'Ah! good sir, do I hear the voice of a companion in misery?  Or,
+if you be free, would you but send tidings to my poor father?'
+
+'It is a Norman accent!' cried Berenger.  'Ah! ah! can it be poor
+Landry Osbert?'
+
+'I am--I am that wretch.  Oh, would that M. le Baron could know!'
+
+'My dear, faithful foster-brother!  They deceived me,' cried
+Berenger, in great agitation, as an absolute howl came from the
+other side of the wall:  'M. le Baron come to this!  Woe worth the
+day!' and Berenger with difficulty mitigated his affectionate
+servant's lamentations enough to learn from him how he had been
+seized almost at the gates of Bellaise, closely interrogated,
+deprived of the letter to Madame la Baronne, and thrown into this
+dungeon.  The Chevalier. Not an unmerciful man, according to the
+time, had probably meant to release him as soon as the marriage
+between his son and niece should have rendered it superfluous to
+detain this witness to Berenger's existence.  There, then, the poor
+fellow had lain for three years, and his work during this weary
+time had been the scraping with a potsherd at the stone of his
+wall, and his pertinacious perseverance had succeeded in forming a
+hole just large enough to enable him to see the light of the torch
+carried by the gentlemen.  On his side, he said, there was nothing
+but a strong iron door, and a heavily-barred window, looking, like
+that in the passage, into the fosse within the walled garden; but,
+on the other hand, if he could enlarge his hole sufficiently to
+creep through it, he could escape with them in case of their
+finding a subterranean outlet.  The opening within his cell was, of
+course, much larger than the very small space he had made by
+loosening a stone towards the passage, but he was obliged always to
+build up each side of his burrow at the hours of his jailer's
+visit, lest his work should be detected, and to stamp the rubbish
+into his floor.  But while they talked, Humfrey and Philip, with
+their knives, scraped so diligently that two more stones could be
+displaced; and, looking down the widening hole through the
+prodigious mass of wall, they could see a ghastly, ragged, long-
+bearded scarecrow, with an almost piteous expression of joy on his
+face, at once again seeing familiar faces.  And when, at his
+earnest entreaty, Berenger stood so as to allow his countenance to
+be as visible as the torch could make it through the 'wall's-hole,'
+the vault echoed with the poor fellow's delighted cry.  'I am
+happy! M. le Baron is himself again.  The assassin's cruel work is
+gone!  Ah! thanks to the saints!  Blessed be St. Lucie, it was not
+in vain that I entreated her!'
+
+The torches were, however, waxing so low that the sight could not
+long be afforded poor Osbert; and, with a promise to return to him
+next day, the party returned to the upper air, where they warmed
+themselves over the fire, and held council over measures for the
+present relief of the captive.  Berenger grieved that he had given
+him up so entirely for lost as to have made no exertions on his
+behalf, and declared his resolution of entreating that he might be
+allowed to enjoy comparative comfort with them in the keep.  It was
+a risk, but the Chevalier might fairly suppose that the knowledge
+of Osbert's situation had oozed out through the servants, and
+gratitude and humanity alike impelled Berenger to run some risk for
+his foster-brother's sake.  He was greatly touched at the poor
+fellow's devotion, and somewhat amused, though with an almost
+tearful smile at the joy with which he had proclaimed--what
+Berenger was quite unaware of, since the keep furnished no mirrors-
+-the disappearance of his scars.  ''Tis even so,' said Philip,
+'though I never heeded it.  You are as white from crown to beard as
+one of the statues at Paris; but the great red gash is a mere seam,
+save when yon old Satan angers you, and then it blushes for all the
+rest of your face.'
+
+'And the cheek-wound is hidden, I suppose,' said Berenger, feeling
+under the long fair moustache and the beard, which was developing
+into respectable proportions.
+
+'Hidden? ay, entirely.  No one would think your bald crown had only
+twenty-one years over it; but you are a personable fellow still,
+quite enough to please Daphne,' said Philip.
+
+'Pshaw!' replied Berenger, pleased nevertheless to hear the shadow
+of a jest again from Philip.
+
+It was quite true.  These months of quiescence--enforced though
+they were--had given his health and constitution time to rally
+after the terrible shock they had sustained.  The severe bleedings
+had, indeed, rendered his complexion perfectly colourless; but
+there was something in this, as well as in the height which the
+loss of hair gave his brow, which, added to the depth and loftiness
+of countenance that this long period of patience and resolution had
+impressed on his naturally fine features, without taking away that
+open candour that had first attracted Diane when he was a rosy lad.
+His frame had strengthened at the same time, and assumed the
+proportions of manhood; so that, instead of being the overgrown
+maypole that Narcisse used to sneer at, he was now broad-shouldered
+and robust, exceedingly powerful, and so well made that his height,
+upwards of six feet, was scarcely observed, except by comparison
+with the rest of the world.
+
+And his character had not stood still.  He had first come to Paris
+a good, honest, docile, though high-spirited boy: and though manly
+affections, cares, and sorrows had been thrust on him, he had met
+them like the boy that he was, hardly conscious how deep they went.
+Then had come the long dream of physical suffering, with only one
+thought pertinaciously held throughout--that of constancy to his
+lost wife; and from this he had only thoroughly wakened in his
+captivity, the resolution still holding fast, but with more of
+reflection and principle, less of mere instinct, than when his
+powers were lost or distracted in the effort of constant endurance
+of pain and weakness.  The charge of Philip, the endeavour both of
+educating him and keeping up his spirits, as well as the
+controversy with Pere Bonami, had been no insignificant parts of
+the discipline of these months; and, little as the Chevalier had
+intended it, he had trained his young kinsman into a far more
+substantial and perilous adversary, both in body and mind, than
+when he had caged him in his castle of the Blackbird's Nest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.  THE ENEMY IN PRESENCE
+
+
+
+Then came and looked him in the face,
+  An angel beautiful and bright,
+And then he knew it was a fiend,
+  That miserable knight.--COLERIDGE
+
+
+'Father, dear father, what is it?  What makes you look so ill, so
+haggard?' cried Diane de Selinville, when summoned the next morning
+to meet her father in the parlour of the convent.
+
+'Ah, child! see here.  Your brother will have us make an end of it.
+He has found her.'
+
+'Eustacie!  Ah, and where?'
+
+'That he will not say, but see here.  This is all billet tells me:
+"The hare who has doubled so long is traced to her form.  My dogs
+are on her, and in a week's time she will be ours.  I request you,
+sir, to send me a good purse of crowns to reward my huntsmen; and
+in the meantime--one way or the other--that pet of my sister's must
+be disposed of.  Kept too long, these beasts always become savage.
+Either let him be presented to the royal menagerie, or there is a
+still surer way."'
+
+'And that is all he says!' exclaimed Diane.
+
+'All!  He was always cautions.  He mentions no names.  And now,
+child, what is to be done?  To give him up to the King is, at the
+best, life-long imprisonment, yet, if he were still here when my
+son returns-- Alas! alas! child, I have been ruined body and soul
+between you!  How could you make me send after and imprison him?
+It was a mere assassination!' and the old man beat his head with
+grief and perplexity.
+
+'Father!' cried Diane, tearfully, 'I cannot see you thus.  We meant
+it for the best.  We shall yet save him.'
+
+'Save him!  Ah, daughter, I tossed all night long thinking how to
+save him, so strong, so noble, so firm, so patient, so good even to
+the old man who has destroyed his hope--his life!  Ah!  I have
+thought till my brain whirls.'
+
+'Poor father!  I knew you would love him,' said Diane, tenderly.
+'Ah!  we will save him yet.  He shall be the best of sons to you.
+Look, it is only to tell him that she whom he calls his wife is
+already in my brother's hands, wedded to him.'
+
+'Daughter,'--and he pushed back his gray hair with a weary
+distressed gesture,--'I am tired of wiles; I am old; I can carry
+them out no longer.'
+
+'But this is very simple; it may already be true--at least it will
+soon be true.  Only tell him that she is my brother's wife.  Then
+will his generosity awaken, then will he see that to persist in the
+validity of his marriage would be misery, dishonour to her, then---
+-'
+
+'Child, you know not how hard he is in his sense of right.  Even
+for his brother's sake he would not give way an inch, and the boy
+was as obstinate as he!'
+
+'Ah! but this comes nearer.  He will be stung; his generosity will
+be piqued.  He will see that the kindest thing he can do will be to
+nullify his claim, and the child----'
+
+The Chevalier groaned, struck his brow with his fist, and muttered,
+'That will concern no one--that has been provided for.  Ah! ah!
+children, if I lose my own soul for you, you----'
+
+'Father, my sweet father, say not these cruel things.  Did not the
+Queen's confessor tell us that all means were lawful that brought a
+soul to the Church? and here are two.'
+
+'Two!  Why, the youth's heresy is part of his point of honour.
+Child, child, the two will be murdered in my very house, and the
+guilt will be on my soul.'
+
+'No, father!  We will--we will save him.  See, only tell him this.'
+
+'This--what?  My brain is confused.  I have thought long--long.'
+
+'Only this, father, dear father.  You shall not be tormented any
+more, if only you will tell him that my brother has made Eustacie
+his wife, then will I do all the rest.'
+
+Diane coaxed, soothed, and encouraged her father by her caresses,
+till he mounted his mule to return to the castle at dinner-time,
+and she promised to come early in the afternoon to follow up the
+stroke he was to give.  She had never seen him falter before,--he
+had followed out his policy with a clear head and unsparing hand,--
+but now that Berenger's character was better known to him, and the
+crisis long delayed had come so suddenly before his eyes, his whole
+powers seemed to reel under the alternative.
+
+The dinner-bell clanged as he arrived at the castle, and the
+prisoners were marched into the hall, both intent upon making their
+request on Osbert's behalf, and therefore as impatient for the
+conclusion of the meal, and the absence of the servants, as was
+their host.  His hands trembled so much that Berenger was obliged
+to carve for him; he made the merest feint of eating; and now and
+then raised his hand to his head as if to bring back scattered
+ideas.
+
+The last servant quitted the room, when Berenger perceived that the
+old man was hardly in a state to attend to his request, and yet the
+miserable frost-bitten state of poor Landry seemed to compel him to
+speak.
+
+'Sir,' he began, 'you could do me a great kindness.'
+
+The Chevalier looked up at him with glassy eyes.
+
+'My son,' he said, with an effort, 'I also had something to say.
+Ah! let me think.  I have had enough.  Call my daughter,' he added,
+feeling helplessly with his hands, so that Berenger started up in
+alarm, and received him in his arms just in time to prevent his
+sinking to the floor senseless.
+
+'It is a stroke,' exclaimed Berenger.  'Call, Phil!  Send the
+gendarmes.'
+
+The gendarmes might be used to the sight of death of their own
+causing, but they had a horror of that which came by Nature's hand.
+The purple face and loud gasps of the stricken man terrified them
+out of their senses.  _'C'est un coup,'_ was the cry, and they went
+clattering off to the servants.  These, all men but one old crone,
+came in a mass to the door, looked in, beheld their master rigid
+and prostrate on the floor, supported by the prisoner, and with
+fresh shrieks about 'Mesdames! a priest! a doctor!' away they
+rushed.  The two brothers were not in much less consternation, only
+they retained their senses.  Berenger loosened the ruff and
+doublet, and bade Philip practice that art of letting blood which
+he had learnt for his benefit.  When Madame de Selinville and her
+aunt, with their escort, having been met half-way from Bellaise,
+arrived sooner than could have been expected, they found every door
+open from hall to entrance gateway, not a person keeping watch, and
+the old man lying deathlike upon cushions in the hall, Philip
+bandaging his arm, and Berenger rubbing his temples with wine and
+the hottest spices on the table.  'He is better--he is alive,' said
+Berenger, as they entered; and as both ladies would have fallen on
+him with shrieks and sobs, he bade them listen, assured them that
+the only chance of life was in immediate care, and entreated that
+bedding might be brought down, and strong essences fetched to apply
+to the nose and temples.  They obeyed, and the sister infirmarer
+had arrived from the convent, he had opened his eyes, and, as he
+saw Berenger, tried to murmur something that sounded like _'Mon
+fils.'_
+
+'He lives!--he speaks!--he can receive the sacraments!' was the
+immediate exclamation; and as preparations began to be made, the
+brothers saw that their presence was no longer needed, and returned
+to their own tower.
+
+'So, sir,' said the gendarme sergeant, as they walked down the
+passage, 'you did not seize the moment for escape.'
+
+'I never thought of it,' said Berenger.
+
+'I hope, sir, you will not be the worse for it,' said the sergeant.
+'An honourable gentleman you have ever proved yourself to me, and I
+will bear testimony that you did the poor old gentleman no hurt;
+but nobles will have it their own way, and pay little heed to a
+poor soldier.'
+
+'What do you mean, friend?'
+
+'Why, you see, sir, it is unlucky that you two happened to be alone
+with M. le Chevalier.  No one can tell what may be said when they
+seek an occasion against a person.'
+
+To the brothers, however, this suggestion sounded so horrible and
+unnatural, that they threw it from them.  They applied themselves
+at every moment possible to enlarging Osbert' hole, and seeking an
+outlet from the dungeon; but this they had not been able to
+discover, and it was necessary to be constantly on their guard in
+visiting the vaults, lest their absence from their apartment should
+be detected.  They believed that if Narcisse arrived at the castle,
+they should find in him a far less gentle jailer than the poor old
+man, for whose state their kindly young hearts could not but
+grieve.
+
+They heard that he had recovered consciousness enough to have made
+a sort of confession; and Pere Bonami brought them his formal
+request, as a dying man, for their pardon for all the injuries he
+had done them; but his speech was too much affected for any
+specification of what these were.  The first thing they heard in
+early morning was that, in the course of the night, he had breathed
+his last; and all day the bells of all the churches round were
+answering one another with the slow, swinging, melancholy notes of
+the knell.
+
+In the early twilight, Pere Bonami brought a message that Madame de
+Selinville requested M. le Baron to come and speak with her, and he
+was accordingly conducted, with the gendarme behind him, to a small
+chamber opening into the hall--the same where the incantations of
+the Italian pedlar had been played off before Philip and Diane.
+The gendarme remained outside the door by which they entered the
+little dark room, only lighted by one little lamp.
+
+'Here, daughter,' said the priest, 'is your cousin.  He can answer
+the question you have so much at heart;' and with these words Pere
+Bonami passed beneath the black curtain that covered the entrance
+into the hall, admitting as he raised it for a moment a floor of
+pure light from the wax tapers, and allowing the cadence of the
+chanting of the priests to fall on the ear.  At first Berenger was
+scarcely able to discern the pale face that looked as if tears were
+all dried up, and even before his eyes had clearly perceived her in
+the gloom, she was standing before him with clasped hands,
+demanding, in a hoarse, breathless whisper, 'Had he said anything
+to you?'
+
+'Anything?  No, cousin,' said Berenger, in a kind tone.  'He had
+seemed suffering and oppressed all dinner-time, and when the
+servants left us, he murmured a few confused words, then sank.'
+
+'Ah, ah, he spoke it not!  Thank Heaven!  Ah! it is a load gone.
+Then neither will I speak it,' sighed Diane, half aloud.  'Ah!
+cousin, he loved you.'
+
+'He often was kind to us,' said Berenger, impelled to speak as
+tenderly as he could of the enemy, who had certainly tortured him,
+but as if he loved him.
+
+'He bade us save you,' said Diane, her eyes shining with strange
+wild light in the gloom.  'He laid it on my aunt and me to save
+you; you must let us. It must be done before my brother comes,' she
+added, in hurried accents. 'The messengers are gone; he may be here
+any moment.  He must find you in the chapel--as--as my betrothed!'
+
+'And you sent for me here to tempt me--close to such a chamber as
+that?' demanded Berenger, his gentleness becoming sternness, as
+much with his own worse self as with her.
+
+'Listen.  Ah! it is the only way.  Listen, cousin. Do you know what
+killed my father?  It was my brother's letter saying things must be
+brought to an end: either you must be given up to the King, or
+worse--worse.  And now, without him to stand between you and my
+brother, you are lost.  Oh! take pity on his poor soul that has
+left his body, and bring not you blood on his head.'
+
+'Nay,' said Berenger, 'if he repented, the after consequences to me
+will have no effect on him now.'
+
+'Have pity then on yourself--on your brother.'
+
+'I have,' said Berenger.  'He had rather die with me than see me a
+traitor.'
+
+'And least of all,' she exclaimed, with choking grief, 'have you
+compassion on me!--on me who have lost the only one who felt for
+me--on me who have loved you with every fibre of my heart--on me
+who have lived on the music of your hardest, coldest word--on me
+who would lay my life, my honour, in the dust for one grateful
+glance from you--and whom you condemn to the anguish of--your
+death!  Aye, and for what?  For the mere shadow of a little girl,
+who had no force to love you, or whom you know nothing--nothing!
+Oh! are you a crystal rock or are you a man?  See, I kneel to you
+to save yourself and me.'
+
+There were hot tears dropping from Berenger's eyes as he caught
+Diane's hand, and held it forcibly to prevent her thus abasing
+herself.  Her wild words and gestures thrilled him in every pulse
+and wrung his heart, and it was with a stifled, agitated voice that
+he said--
+
+'God help you and me both, Diane!  To do what you ask would--would
+be no saving of either.  Nay, if you will kneel,' as she struggled
+with him, 'let it be to Him who alone can bring us through;' and
+releasing her hand, he dropped on his knees by her side, and
+covered his face with his hands, in an earnest supplication that
+the spirit of resistance which he almost felt slipping from him
+might be renewed.  The action hushed and silenced her, and as he
+rose he spoke no other word, but silently drew back so much of the
+curtain that he could see into the hall, where the dead man still
+lay uncoffined upon the bed where his own hands had laid him, and
+the low, sweet requiem of kneeling priests floated round him.
+Rest, rest, and calm they breathed into one sorely tried living
+soul, and the perturbed heart was quelled by the sense how short
+the passage was to the world where captivity and longing would be
+ended.  He beckoned to Pere Bonami to return to Diane, and then,
+protected by his presence from any further demonstrations, kissed
+her hand and left her.
+
+He told Philip as little as possible of this interview, but his
+brother remarked how much time he spent over the Psalms that
+evening.
+
+The next day the brothers saw from their upper winder the arrival
+of Narcisse, or, as he had called himself for the last three years,
+the Marquis de Nid-de-Merle, with many attendant gentlemen, and a
+band of fifty or sixty gendarmes. The court was filled with their
+horses, and rang with their calls for refreshment.  And the
+captives judged it wise to remain in their upper room incase they
+should be called for.
+
+They were proved to have been wise in so doing; for about an hour
+after their arrival there was a great clanging of steel boots, and
+Narcisse de Ribaumont, followed by a portly, heavily-armed
+gentleman, wearing a scarf of office, by two of the servants, and
+by two gendarmes, entered the room.  It was the first time the
+cousins had met since _le baiser d'Eutacie_ had been hissed into
+Berenger's ear.  Narcisse looked older, sallower, and more worn
+than at that time; and Philip, seeing his enemy for the first time,
+contrasted him with the stately presence of Berenger, and felt as
+if a rat were strangling a noble steed.
+
+Each young man punctiliously removed his hat, and Nid-de-Merle,
+without deigning further salutation, addressed his companion.
+'Sir, you are here on the part of the King, and to you I deliver up
+these prisoners, who, having been detained here on a charge of
+carrying on a treasonable correspondence, and protected by my
+father out of consideration for the family, have requited his
+goodness by an attempt to strangle him, which has caused his
+death.'
+
+Philip actually made a leap of indignation; Berenger, better
+prepared, said to the officer, 'Sir, I am happy to be placed in
+charged of a King's servant, who will no doubt see justice done,
+and shelter us from the private malice that could alone devise so
+monstrous an accusation.  We are ready to clear ourselves upon oath
+over the corpse, and all the household and our own guards can bear
+witness.'
+
+'The witnesses are here,' said Narcisse, pointing to the servants,
+ill-looking men, who immediately began to depose to having found
+their master purple-faced and struggling in the hands of the two
+young men, who had been left alone with him after dinner.
+
+Berenger felt that there was little use in self-defence.  It was a
+fabrication the more easily to secure his cousin's purpose of
+destroying him, and his best hope lay in passing into the hands of
+persons who were less directly interested in his ruin.  He drew
+himself up to his full height, saying, 'If there be justice in
+France, our innocence will be proved.  I demand, sir, that you
+examine the abbess, the priest, the steward, the sergeant of
+gendarmes: they are impartial witnesses, and will serve the King's
+justice, if justice be his purpose.  Or, if this be but M. de Nid-
+de-Merle's way of completing the work he left unfinished four years
+ago, I am ready.  Only let my brother go free.  He is heir to
+nothing here.'
+
+'Enough, sir.  Words against the King's justice will be reckoned
+against you,' said the officer.  'I shall do myself the honour of
+attending the funeral the day after to-morrow, and then I shall
+convey you to Tours, to answer for this deed at your leisure.
+Monsieur le Marquis, are the prisoners secure here, or would you
+have them _garde a vue_.'
+
+'No need for that,' said Narcisse, lightly; 'had there been any
+exit they would have found it long ago.  Your good fellows outside
+the door keep them safe enough.  M. le Baron de Ribaumont, I have
+the honour to wish you a good morning.'
+
+Berenger returned his bow with one full of defiance, and the door
+was again locked upon the prisoners; while Philip exclaimed, 'The
+cowardly villain, Berry; is it a hanging matter?'
+
+'Not for noble blood,' said Berenger.  'We are more likely to be
+brought to no trial, but to lie prisoners for life;' then, as
+Philip grew white and shivered with a sick horror, he added
+bravely, 'But they shall not have us, Philip.  We know the vaults
+well enough to play at hide and seek with them there, and even if
+we find no egress we may hold out till they think us fled and leave
+open the doors!'
+
+Philip's face lighted up again, and they did their best by way of
+preparation, collecting wood for torches, and putting aside food at
+their meals.  It was a very forlorn hope, but the occupation it
+caused was effectual in keeping up Philip's spirits, and saving him
+from despondency.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.  THE PEDLAR'S PREDICTION
+
+
+
+But if ne'er so close you wall him,
+   Do the best that you may;
+Blind Love, if so you call him,
+   Will find out his way.--OLD SONG
+
+
+'Too late,' muttered Berenger to himself, as he stood by the fire
+in his prison-chamber.  Humfrey and Philip were busy in the vaults,
+and he was taking his turn in waiting in the sitting-room to disarm
+suspicion. 'It is too late now, and I thank God that so it is.'
+
+'Do you indeed, M. le Baron?' said a low voice close beside him;
+and, as he turned in haste, he beheld, at the foot of the turret-
+stair, the youth Aime de Selinville, holding a dark lantern in his
+hand, and veiling its light.
+
+'Ha!' and he started to his feet.  'Whence come you?'
+
+'From my Lady,' was the youth's answer.  'She has sent me to ask
+whether you persist in what you replied to her the other day.  For
+if not, she bids me say that it is not too late.'
+
+'And if I do persevere?'
+
+'Then--ah! what do I know?  Who can tell how far malice can go?
+And there are towers and bastilles where hope never enters.
+Moreover, your researches underground are known.'
+
+'Sir,' said Berenger, the heart-sinking quelled by the effort of
+resistance, 'Madame de Selinville has my answer--I must take the
+consequences.  Tell her, if she truly wishes me well, the
+honourable way of saving us would be to let our English friends
+know what has befallen us.'
+
+'You forget, M. le Baron, even if she could proclaim the dishonour
+of her family, interference from a foreign power might only lead to
+a surer mode of removing you,' said Aime, lowering his voice and
+shuddering.
+
+'Even so, I should thank her.  Then would the bitterest pang be
+taken away.  Those at our home would not deem us faithless
+recreants.'
+
+'Thank her!' murmured the lad in an inward voice.  'Very well, sir,
+I will carry her your decision.  It is your final one.  Disgrace,
+prison, death--rather than freedom, love, wealth!'
+
+'The semblance of dishonour rather than the reality!' said
+Berenger, firmly.
+
+The light-footed page disappeared, and in a few moments a very
+different tread came up from below, and Philip appeared.
+
+'What is it, Berry?  Methought I heard a voice.'
+
+'Forgive me, brother,' said Berenger, holding out his hand; 'I have
+thrown away another offer.'
+
+'Tush, the thing to pardon would be having accepted one.  I only
+wish they would leave us in peace!  What was it this time?'
+
+'A messenger through young Selinville.  Strange, to trust her
+secrets to that lad.  But hush, here he is again, much sooner than
+I thought.  What, sir, have you been with your lady again?'
+
+'Yes, sir,' the young said, with a tembling voice, and Berenger saw
+that his eyes were red with weeping; 'she bids me tell you that she
+yields.  She will save you eve while you have and despite her!
+There is only one thing---'
+
+'And what is that?'
+
+'You must encumber yourself with the poor Aime.  You must let me
+serve you instead of her.  Listen, sir, it cannot be otherwise.'
+Then with a brisher, more eager voice, he continued: 'Monsieur
+knows that the family burial-place is Bellaise?  Well, to-morrow,
+at ten o'clock, all the household, all the neighbourhood, will come
+and sprinkle holy water on the bier.  The first requiem will be
+sung, and then will all repair to the convent.   There will be the
+funeral mass, the banquet, the dole.  Every creature in the castle
+--nay, in all the neighbourhood for twenty miles round--will be at
+the convent, for the Abbess has given out that the alms are to be
+double, and the bread of wheat.  Not a soul will remain here, save
+the two gendarmes on guard at that door, and the poor Aime, whom no
+one will miss, even if any person could be distinguished in their
+black cloaks.  Madame la Comtesse has given him this key, which
+opens a door on the upper floor of the keep, unknown to the guards,
+who, for that matter, shall have a good tankard of spiced wine to
+console and occupy them.  Then is the way clear to the castle
+court, which is not over looked by their window, the horses are in
+the stables, and we are off,--that is if M. le Baron will save a
+poor youth from the wrath of M. de Nid-de-Merle.'
+
+'You are and honest fellow!' cried Philip, shaking him vehemently
+by the hand.  'You shall go with us to England, and we will make a
+brave man of you.'
+
+'We shall owe you our lives,' said Berenger, warmly, 'and be ever
+bound to you.  Tell your lady that THIS is magnanimity; that now I
+truly thank her as our preserver, and shall bless her all the days
+of the life she gives us.  But my servants?'
+
+'Guibert is a traitor,' said Aime; 'he has been so ever since you
+were at Paris. Breathe no word to him; but he, as a Catholic, shall
+be invited to the funeral.  Your stout Englishman should by all
+means be with us.'
+
+'My Norman also,' added Berenger,--'my dear foster-brother, who has
+languished in the dungeon for three years;' and when the
+explanation had been made, Aime assented, though half-unwillingly,
+to the necessity, and presently quitted them to bear back their
+answer to his lady.  Philip shook his hand violently again, patted
+him on the back, so as almost to take away his breath, and bade him
+never fear, they would be sworn brothers to him for ever; and then
+threw up his hat into the air, and was so near astonishing the
+donjon walls with a British hurrah, that Berenger had to put his
+hand over his mouth and strangle the shout in his very throat.
+
+The chief of that night was spent in enlarging the hole in Osbert's
+wall, so as to admit of his creeping through it; and they also
+prepared their small baggage for departure.  Their stock of money,
+though some had been spent on renewing their clothes, and some in
+needful gratuities to the servants and gendarmes, was sufficient
+for present needs, and they intended to wear their ordinary dress.
+They were unlikely to meet any of the peasants in the
+neighbourhood; and, indeed, Berenger had so constantly ridden out
+in his black mask, that its absence, now that his scars were gone,
+was as complete a change as could be effected in one whose height
+was of unusual.
+
+'There begins the kneel,' said Philip, standing at the window.
+'It's our joy-bell, Berry!  Every clang seems to me to say, "Home!
+home! home!"
+
+'For you, Phil,' said Berenger; 'but I must be satisfied of
+Eutacie's fate first.  I shall go first to Nissard--whither we were
+bound when we were seized--then to La Rochelle, whence you may---'
+
+'No more of that,' burst out Philip.  'What! would you have me
+leave you now, after all we have gone through together?  Not that
+you will find her.  I don't want to vex you, brother, on such a day
+as this, but you conjurer's words are coming true in the other
+matter.'
+
+'How?  What mean you, Phil?'
+
+'What's the meaning of Aime?' asked Philip.  'Even I am French
+scholar enough for that.  And who sends him?'
+
+Meantime the court was already filling with swarms of persons of
+every rank and degree, but several anxious hours had passed before
+the procession was marshaled; and friars and monks, black, white,
+and gray,--priests in rich robes and tall caps,--black-cloaked
+gentlemen and men-at-arms,--all bearing huge wax tapers,--and
+peasants and beggars of every conceivable aspect,--filed out of the
+court, bearing with them the richly-emblazoned bier of the noble
+and puissant knight, the Beausire Charles Eutache de Ribaumont Nid-
+de-Merle, his son walking behind in a long black mantle, and all
+who counted kindred of friendship following two and two; then all
+the servants, every one who properly belonged to the castle, were
+counted out by the brothers from their windows, and Guibert among
+them.
+
+'Messieurs,' a low, anxious voice sounded in the room.
+
+'We will only fetch Osbert.'
+
+It was a terrible only, as precious moments slipped away before
+there appeared in the lower chamber Berenger and Humfrey, dragging
+between them a squalid wretch, with a skin like stained parchment
+over a skeleton, tangled hair and beard, staring bewildered eyes,
+and fragments of garments, all dust, dirt, and rags.
+
+'Leave me, leave me, dear master,' said the object, stretching his
+whole person towards the fire as they let him sink down before it.
+'You would but ruin yourself.'
+
+'It is madness to take him,' said Aime, impatiently.
+
+'I go not without him,' said Berenger.  'Give me the soup, Philip.'
+
+Some soup and wine had been placed by the fire, and likewise a
+shirt and a suit of Humfrey's clothes were spread before it.  Aime
+burst out into the yard, absolutely weeping with impatience, when,
+unheeding all his remonstrances, his three companions applied
+themselves to feeding, rubbing, and warming Osbert, and assuring
+him that the pains in his limbs would pass away with warmth and
+exercise.  He had been valiant of heart in his dungeon; but his
+sudden plunge into upper air was like rising from the grave, and
+brought on all the effects of his dreary captivity, of which he had
+hardly been sensible when he had first listened to the voice of
+hope.
+
+Dazzled, crippled, helpless, it seemed almost impossible that he
+should share the flight, but Berenger remained resolute; and when
+Aime returned from his fourth frantic promenade, he was told that
+all was ready.
+
+But for the strength of Berenger and Humfrey the poor fellow could
+never have been carried up and up, nearly to the top of the keep,
+then along a narrow gallery, then down again even to the castle
+hall, now empty, though with the candle-sticks still around where
+the bier had been.  Aime knelt for a moment where the head had
+been, hiding his face; Osbert rested in a chair; and Philip looked
+wistfully up at his own sword hung over the chimney.
+
+'Resume your swords, Messieurs,' said Aime, observing him; 'Madame
+desires it; and take pistols also.'
+
+They gladly obeyed; and when, after this short delay, they
+proceeded, Osbert moved somewhat less painfully, but when they
+arrived at the stable only four horses stood there.
+
+'Ah! this miserable!' cried Aime, passionately, 'he ruins all my
+arrangements.'
+
+'Leave me,' again entreated Landry.  'Once outside, I can act the
+beggar and cripple, and get back to Normandy.'
+
+'Better leave me,' said Humfrey; 'they cannot keep me when you are
+out of their clutches.'
+
+'Help me, Humfrey,' said Berenger, beginning to lift his
+foster-brother to the saddle, but there the poor man wavered, cried
+out that his head swam, and he could not keep his seat, entreating
+almost in agony to be taken down.
+
+'Lean on me,' said Berenger, putting his arms round him.  'There!
+you will be able to get to the Grange du Temple, where you will be
+in safe shelter.'
+
+'Sir, sir,' cried Aime, ready to tear his hair, 'this is ruin!  My
+lady meant you to make all speed to La Rochelle and there embark,
+and this is the contrary way!'
+
+'That cannot be helped,' said Berenger; 'it is the only safe place
+for my foster-brother.'
+
+Aime, with childish petulance, muttered something about ingratitude
+in crossing his lady's plans; but, as no one attended to him, he
+proceeded to unfasten his horse, and then exclaimed, half crying,
+'Will no one help me?'
+
+'Not able to saddle a horse! a pretty fellow for a cavalier!'
+exclaimed Philip, assisting, however, and in a few minutes they
+were all issuing from a low side gate, and looking back with
+bounding hearts at the drooping banner on the keep of Nid-de-Merle.
+
+Only young Aime went with bowed head and drooping look, as though
+pouting, and Berenger, putting Osbert's bridle into Humfrey's hand,
+stepped up to him, saying, 'Hark you, M. de Selinville, I am sorry
+if we seemed to neglect you.  We owe you and your lady all
+gratitude, but I must be the judge of my own duty, and you can only
+be with me if you conform.'
+
+The young seemed to be devouring his tears, but only said, 'I was
+vexed to see my lady's plan marred, and your chance thrown away.'
+
+'Of that I must judge,' said Berenger.
+
+They were in a by-lane, perfectly solitary.  The whole country was
+at the funeral.  Through the frosty air there came an occasional
+hum or murmur from Berenger, or the tinkle of a cow-bell in the
+fields, but no human being was visible.  It was certain, however,
+that the Rotrous, being Huguenots, and no vassals of Nid-de-Merle,
+would not be at the obsequies; and Berenger, walking with swift
+strides, supporting Osbert on his horse, continued to cheer him
+with promises of rest and relief there, and listened to no
+entreaties from Philip or Humfrey to take one of their horses.  Had
+not Osbert borne him on his shoulders through the butchery at
+Paris, and endured three years of dungeon for his sake?
+
+As for Philip, the slow pace of their ride was all insufficient for
+his glee.  He made his horse caracole at every level space, till
+Berenger reminded him that they might have far to ride that night,
+and even then he was constantly breaking into attempts at shouting
+and whistling as often repressed, and springing up in his stirrups
+to look over the high hedges.
+
+The Grange was so well concealed in its wooded ravine, that only
+when close upon the gate the party became aware that this farm-
+yard, usually so solitary, formed an exception to the general
+desertion of the country.  There was a jingle and a stamp of horses
+in the court, which could hardly be daylight echoes of the
+Templars.  Berenger feared that the Guisards might have descended
+Rotrou, and was stepping forward to reconnoiter, while young De
+Selinville, trembling, besought him not to run into danger, but to
+turn and hasten to La Rochelle.  By this time, however, the party
+had been espied by two soldiers stationed at the gate, but not
+before Berenger had had time to remark that they did not wear
+either the gold _fleur-de-lys_ like his late guards, or the white
+cross of Lorraine; nor had they the strange air of gay ferocity
+usual with the King's mercenaries.  And almost by instincts, at a
+venture, he made the old Huguenot sign he had learnt form his
+father, and answered, 'For God and the Religion.'
+
+The countersign was returned.  'Bearn and Bourbon is the word to-
+day, comrade,' replied the sentinel.  '_Eh quoi_! have you had an
+encounter, that you bring a wounded man?'
+
+'Not wounded, but nearly dead in a Guisard prison,' said Berenger,
+with an unspeakable sense of relief and security, as the sentries
+admitted them into the large walled court, where horses were eating
+hay, being watered and rubbed down; soldiers snatching a hasty meal
+in corners; gentlemen in clanking breastplates coming in and out of
+the house, evidently taking orders from a young man in a gray and
+silver suit, whose brown eagle face, thin cheeks, arched nose, and
+black eyes of keenest fire, struck Berenger at once with a sense of
+recognition as well as of being under a glance that seemed to
+search out everybody and everything at once.
+
+'More friends!' and the tone again recalled a flood of
+recollections.  'I thank and welcome you.  What!  You have met the
+enemy--where is he?'
+
+'My servant is not wounded.  Sire,' said Berenger, removing his hat
+and bending low.  'This is the effect of long captivity.  We have
+but just escaped.'
+
+'Then we are the same case!  Pardon me, sir, I have seen you
+before, but for once I am at fault.'
+
+'When I call myself De Ribaumont, your Grace will not wonder.'
+
+'The dead alive!  If I mistake not, it was in the Inferno itself
+that we last met!  But we have broken through the gates at last!
+I remember poor King Charles was delighted to hear that you lived!
+But where have you been a captive?'
+
+'At Nid-de-Merle, Sire; my kinsmen accused me of treason in order
+to hinder my search for my wife.  We escaped even now during the
+funeral of the Chevalier.'
+
+'By favour of which we are making our way to Parthenay unsuspected,
+though, by my faith, we gather so like a snowball, that we could be
+a match for a few hundreds of Guisards.  Who is with you, M. de
+Ribaumont?'
+
+'Let me present to your Majesty my English brother, Philip
+Thistlewood,' said Berenger, drawing the lad forward, making due
+obeisance, though entirely ignorant who was the plainly-dressed,
+travel-soiled stranger, so evidently a born lord of men.
+
+'An Englishman is ever welcome,' was his gracious reception.
+
+'And,' added Berenger, 'let me also present the young De
+Selinville, to whom I owe my escape.  Where is he, Philip?'
+
+He seemed to be busy with the horses, and Berenger could not catch
+his eye.
+
+'Selinville!  I thought that good Huguenot house was extinct.'
+
+'This is a relation of the late Count de Selinville, my cousin's
+husband, Sire.   He arranged my evasion, and would be in danger at
+Nid-de-Merle.  Call him, Philip.'
+
+Before this was done, however, the King's attention was otherwise
+claimed, and turning to one of his gentlemen he said, 'Here,
+d'Augigne, I present to you an acquaintance made in Tartarus.  See
+to his entertainment ere we start for Parthenay.'
+
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, still young, but grave and serious-looking
+greeted M. de Ribaumont as men meet in hours when common interests
+make rapid friendships; and from him Berenger learnt, in a few
+words, that the King of Navarre's eyes had been opened at last to
+the treachery of the court, and his own dishonourable bondage.
+During a feverish attack, one night when D'Aubigne and D'Armagnac
+were sitting up with him, his resolution was taken; and on the
+first hunting day after his recovery, he, with these two, the Baron
+de Rosny and about thirty more of his suite, had galloped away, and
+had joined the Monsieur and the Prince of Conde at Alencon.  He had
+abjured the Catholic faith, declared that nothing except ropes
+should bring him back to Paris, and that he left there the mass and
+his wife--the first he could dispense with, the last he meant to
+have; and he was now on his way to Parthenay to meet his sister,
+whom he had sent Rosny to demand.  By the time Berenger had heard
+this, he had succeeded in finding honest Rotrou, who was in a state
+of great triumph, and readily undertook to give Osbert shelter, and
+as soon as he should have recovered to send him to head-quarters
+with some young men who he knew would take the field as soon as
+they learnt that the King of Navarre had set up his standard.  Even
+the inroads made into the good farmer's stores did not abate his
+satisfaction in entertaining the prime hope of the Huguenot cause;
+but Berenger advanced as large a sum as he durst out of his purse,
+under pretext of the maintenance of Osbert during his stay at the
+Grange.  He examined Rotrou upon his subsequent knowledge of Isaac
+Gardon and Eutacie, but nothing had been heard of them since their
+departure, now nearly three years back, except a dim rumour that
+they had been seen at the Synod of Montauban.
+
+'Well, my friend,' said Philip, when about to remount, 'this will
+do rather better than a headlong gallop to Rochelle with Nid-de-
+Merle at our heels.'
+
+'If M. le Baron is safe, it is well,' said Aime shortly.
+
+'Is Selinville there?' said Berenger, coming up.  'Here, let me
+take you to the King of Navarre: he knew your family in Lauguedoc.'
+
+'No, no,' petulantly returned the boy.  'What am I that he should
+notice me?  It is M. de Ribaumont whom I follow, not him or his
+cause.'
+
+'Boy,' said Berenger, dismayed, 'remember, I have answered for
+you.'
+
+'I am no traitor,' proudly answered the strange boy, and Berenger
+was forced to be thus satisfied, though intending to watch him
+closely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.  THE SANDS OF OLONNE
+
+
+
+    Is it the dew of night
+    That on her glowing cheek
+Shines in the moonbeam?--Oh, she weeps, she weeps,
+    And the good angel that abandoned her
+    At her hell baptism, by her tears drawn down
+    Resumes his charge...and the hope
+         Of pardon and salvation rose
+         As now she understood
+         Thy lying prophecy of truth.--SOUTHEY
+
+
+'M. de Ribaumont,' said Henry of Navarre, as he stood before the
+fire after supper at Parthenay, 'I have been thinking what
+commission I could give you proportioned to your rank and
+influence.'
+
+'Thanks to your Grace, that inquiry is soon answered.  I am a
+beggar here.  Even my paternal estate in Normandy is in the hands
+of my cousin.'
+
+'You have wrongs,' said Henry, 'and wrongs are sometimes better
+than possessions in a party like ours.'
+
+Berenger seized the opening to explain his position, and mention
+that his only present desire was for permission, in the first
+place, to send a letter to England by the messenger whom the King
+was dispatching to Elisabeth, in tolerable security of her secret
+countenance; and, secondly, to ride to Nissard to examine into the
+story he had previously heeded so little, of the old man and his
+daughter rescued from the waves the day before La Sablerie was
+taken.
+
+'If Pluto relented, my dear Orpheus, surely Navarre may,' said
+Henry good-humouredly; 'only may the priest not be more adamantine
+than Minos.  Where lies Nissard?  On the Sable d'Olonne?  Then you
+may go thither with safety while we lie here, and I shall wait for
+my sister, or for news of her.'
+
+So Berenger arranged for an early start on the morrow; and young
+Selinville listened with a frown, and strange look in his dark
+eyes.  'You go not to England?' he said.
+
+'Not yet?' said Berenger
+
+'This was not what my Lady expected,' he muttered; but though
+Berenger silenced him by a stern look, he took the first
+opportunity of asking Philip if it would not be far wiser for his
+brother to place himself in safety in England.
+
+'Wiser, but less honest,' said Philip.
+
+'He who has lost all here, who has incurred his grandfather's
+anger,' pursued Aime, 'were he not wiser to make his peace with his
+friends in England?'
+
+'His friends in England would not like him the better for deserting
+his poor wife's cause,' said Philip.  'I advise you to hold your
+tongue, and not meddle or make.'
+
+Aime subsided, and Philip detected something like tears.  He had
+still much of rude English boyhood about him, and he laughed
+roughly.  'A fine fellow, to weep at a word!  Hie thee back to feed
+my Lady's lap-dog, 'tis all thou art fit for.'
+
+'There spoke English gratitude,' said Aime, with a toss of the head
+and flash of the eye.
+
+Philip despised him the more for casting up his obligations, but
+had no retort to make.  He had an idea of making a man of young
+Selinville, and his notion of the process had something of the
+bullying tendency of English young towards the poor-spirited or
+cowardly.  He ordered the boy roughly, teased him for his ignorance
+of manly exercises, tried to cure his helplessness by increasing
+his difficulties, and viewed his fatigue as affectation or
+effeminacy.  Berenger interfered now and then to guard the poor boy
+from a horse-jest or practical joke, but he too felt that Aime was
+a great incumbrance, hopelessly cowardly, fanciful, and petulant;
+and he was sometimes driven to speak to him with severity, verging
+on contempt, in hopes of rousing a sense of shame.
+
+The timidity, so unusual and inexplicable in a youth of eighteen or
+twenty, sowed itself irrepressibly at the Sands of Olonne.  These
+were not misty, as on Berenger's former journey.  Nissard steeple
+was soon in sight, and the guide who joined them on a rough pony
+had no doubt that there would be ample time to cross before high
+water.  There was, however, some delay, for the winter rains had
+brought down a good many streams of fresh water, and the sands were
+heavy and wet, so that their horses proceeded slowly, and the rush
+and dash of the waves proclaimed that the low of the tide had
+begun.  To the two brothers the break and sweep was a home-sound,
+speaking of freshness and freedom, and the salt breeze and spray
+carried with them life and ecstasy.  Philip kept as near the
+incoming waves as his inland-bred horse would endure, and sang,
+shouted, and hallooed to them as welcome as English waves; but Aime
+de Selinville had never even beheld the sea before: and even when
+the tide was still in the distance, was filled with nervous terror
+as each rushing fall sounded nearer; and, when the line of white
+foamy crests became more plainly visible, he was impelled to hurry
+on towards the steeple so fast that the guide shouted to him that
+he would only bury himself in a quicksand.
+
+'But,' said he, white with alarm, and his teeth chattering, 'how
+can we creep with those dreadful waves advancing upon us to drown
+us?'
+
+Berenger silence Philip's rude laugh and was beginning to explain
+that the speed of the waves could always be calculated by an
+experienced inhabitant; and his voice had seemed to pacify Aime a
+little, when the spreading water in front of a broken wave flowing
+up to his horse's feet, again rendered him nearly frantic.  'Let us
+go back!' he wildly entreated, turning his horse; but Berenger
+caught his bridle, saying, 'That would be truly death.  Boy, unless
+you would be scorned, restrain your folly.  Nothing else imperils
+us.'
+
+Here, however, the guide interposed, saying that it had become too
+late to pursue their course along the curve of the shore, but they
+must at once cut straight across, which he had intended to avoid,
+because of the greater depth of a small river that they would have
+to cross, which divided further out into small channels, more
+easily forded.  They thus went along the chord of the arc formed by
+the shore, and Aime was somewhat reassured, as the sea was at first
+farther off; but before long they reached the stream, which lost
+itself in many little channels in the sands, so that when the tide
+was out there was a perfect network of little streams dividing low
+shingly or grassy isles, but at nearly high tide, as at present,
+many of these islets were submerged, and the strife between river
+and sea caused sudden deepenings of the water in the channels.
+
+The guide eagerly explained that the safest place for crossing was
+not by the large sandbank furthest inland and looking firm and
+promising--it was a recent shifting performance of the water's
+heaping up, and would certainly sink away and bury horse the
+channels on either side had shingly bottoms, and were safe.
+
+'This way,' called Berenger, himself setting the example, and
+finding no difficulty; the water did not rise above his boots, and
+the current was not strong.  He had reached the shingly isle when
+he looked round for his companions; Humfrey and Philip were close
+behind him; but, in spite of the loud '_gare_!' of the guide, Aime,
+or his horse,--for each was equally senseless with alarm,--were
+making inwards; the horse was trying to tread on the sandbank,
+which gave way like the water itself, under its frantic struggles--
+there was a loud cry--a shrill, unmistakable woman's shriek--the
+horse was sinking--a white face and helpless form were being
+carried out on the waves, but not before Berenger had flung himself
+from his horse, thrown off his cloak and sword, and dashed into the
+water; and in the lapse of a few moments he struggled back to the
+island, where were Philip and Humfrey, leg-deep in water: the one
+received his burthen, the other helped him to land.
+
+'On, gentlemen, not a moment to lose,' cried the guide; and
+Berenger, still panting, flung himself on his horse, held out his
+arms, gathered the small, almost inanimate figure upon the horse's
+neck before him, and in a few minutes more they had crossed the
+perilous passage, and were on a higher bank where they could safely
+halt; and Philip, as he came to help his brother, exclaimed, 'What
+a fool the boy is!'
+
+'Hush!' said Berenger, gravely, as they laid the figure on the
+ground.
+
+'What!  he can't have been drowned in that moment.  We'll bring him
+to.'
+
+'Hands off!' said Berenger, kneeling over the gasping form, and
+adding in a lower voice, 'Don't you see?'  He would his hand in the
+long drenched hair, and held it up, with cheeks burning like fire,
+and his scar purple.
+
+'A woman!--what?--who?'  Then suddenly divining, he exclaimed, 'The
+jade!' and started with wide eyes.
+
+'Stand back,' said Berenger; 'she is coming to herself.'
+
+Perhaps she had been more herself than he knew, for, as he
+supported her head, her hand stole over his and held it fast.  Full
+of consternation, perplexity, and anger as he was, he could not but
+feel a softening pity towards a creature so devoted, so entirely at
+his mercy.  At the moment when she lay helpless against him, gasps
+heaving her breast under her manly doublet, her damp hair spread on
+his knees, her dark eyes in their languor raised imploring his
+face, her cold hand grasping his, he felt as if this great love
+were a reality, and as if he were hunting a shadow; and, as if fate
+would have it so, he must save and gratify one whose affection must
+conquer his, who was so tender, so beautiful--even native
+generosity seemed on her side.  But in the midst, as in his
+perplexity he looked up over the gray sea, he seemed to see the
+picture so often present to his mind of the pale, resolute girl,
+clasping her babe to her breast, fearless of the advancing sea,
+because true and faithful. And at that thought faith and prayer
+rallied once again round his heart, shame at the instant's wavering
+again dyed his cheek; he recalled himself, and speaking the more
+coldly and gravely because his heart was beating over hotly, he
+said,  'Cousin, you are better.  It is but a little way to
+Nissard.'
+
+'Why have you saved me, if you will not pity me?' she murmured.
+
+'I will not pity, because I respect my kinswoman who has save our
+lives,' he said steadying his voice with difficulty.  'The priests
+of Nissard will aid me in sparing your name and fame.'
+
+'Ah!' she cried, sitting up with a start of joy, 'but he would make
+too many inquiries!  Take me to England first.'
+
+Berenger started as he saw how he had been misunderstood.
+
+'Neither here nor in England could my marriage be set aside,
+cousin. No; not priest shall take charge of you, and place you in
+safety and honour.'
+
+'He shall not!' she cried hotly.  'Why--why will you drive me from
+you--me who ask only to follow you as a menial servant?'
+
+'That has become impossible,' he answered; 'to say nothing of my
+brother, my servant and the guide have seen;' and, as she
+remembered her streaming hair, and tried, in dawning confusion, to
+gather it together, he continued: 'You shrank from the eye of the
+King of Navarre.  You cannot continue as you have done; you have
+not even strength.'
+
+'Ah! have you sailed for England,' she murmured.
+
+'It had only been greater shame,' he said.  'Cousin, I am head of
+your family, husband of your kinswoman, and bound to respect the
+reputation you have risked for me.  I shall, therefore, place you
+in charge of the priest till you can either return to your aunt or
+to some other convent.  You can ride now.  We will not wait longer
+in these wet garments.'
+
+He raised her from the ground, threw his own dry cloak round her
+shoulders and unmanageable hair, and lifted her on his horse; but,
+as she would have leant against him, he drew himself away, beckoned
+Philip, and put the bridle into his hands, saying, 'Take care of
+her.  I shall ride on and warm the priest.'
+
+'The rock of diamond,' she murmured, not aware that the diamond had
+been almost melting.  That youthful gravity and resolution, with
+the mixture of respect and protection, imposed as usual upon her
+passionate nature, and daunted her into meekly riding beside Philip
+without a word--only now and then he heard a low moan, and knew
+that she was weeping bitterly.
+
+At first the lad had been shocked beyond measure, and would have
+held aloof as from a kind of monster, but Madame de Selinville had
+been the first woman to touch his fancy, and when he heard how
+piteously she was weeping, and recollected where he should have
+been but for her, as well as all his own harshness to her as a
+cowardly boy, he felt himself brutally ungrateful, and spoke:
+'Don't weep so, Madame; I am sorry I was rude to you, but you see,
+how should I take you for a woman?'
+
+Perhaps she heard, but she heeded not.
+
+'My brother will take good care to shield you,' Philip added.  'He
+will take care you are safe in one of your nunneries;' and as she
+only wept the more, he added, with a sudden thought, 'You would not
+go there; you would embrace the Protestant faith?'
+
+'I would embrace whatever was his.'
+
+Philip muttered something about seeing what could be done.  They
+were already at the entrance of the village, and Berenger had come
+out to meet them, and, springing towards him, Philip exclaimed, in
+a low voice, 'Berry, she would abjure her Popish errors!  You can't
+give her up to a priest.'
+
+'Foolery, Philip,' answered Berenger, sternly.
+
+'If she would be a convert!'
+
+'Let her be a modest woman first;' and Berenger, taking her bridle,
+led her to the priest's house.
+
+He found that Pere Colombeau was preaching a Lent sermon, and that
+nobody was at home but the housekeeper, to whom he had explained
+briefly that the lady with him had been forced to escape in
+disguise, had been nearly drowned, and was in need of refreshment
+and female clothing.  Jacinthe did not like the sound, but drenched
+clothes were such a passport to her master's house, that she durst
+not refuse.  Berenger carried off his other companions to the
+cabaret, and when he had dried himself, went to wait for the priest
+at the church door, sitting in the porch where more than one echo
+of the exhortation to repentance and purity rang in his ears, and
+enforced his conviction that here he must be cruel if he would be
+merciful.
+
+It was long before Pere Colombeau came out, and then, if the scar
+had not blushed for all the rest of his face, the sickly, lanky lad
+of three years since would hardly have been recognized to the good
+cure.  But the priest's aspect was less benignant when Berenger
+tried to set before him his predicament; he coldly asked where the
+unhappy lady was; and when Berenger expressed his intention of
+coming the next morning to ask his counsel, he only bowed.  He did
+not ask the brothers to supper, nor show any civility; and
+Berenger, as he walked back to the cabaret, perceived that his
+story was but half believed, and that, if Diane's passion were
+still stronger than her truth or generosity, she would be able to
+make out a terrible case against him, and to willing ears,
+naturally disposed against a young cavalier and a heretic.
+
+He sat much dispirited by the fire of the little wine shop,
+thinking that his forbearance had been well-nigh thrown away, and
+that his character would never be cleared in Eustacie's eyes,
+attaching, indeed, more importance to the blot than would have been
+done by a youth less carefully reared.
+
+It was quite dark when a knock came to the door: the cure's white
+head appeared in the lamplight; he nodded kindly to all the guests,
+and entreated that M. de Ribaumont would do him a favour to come
+and speak with him.
+
+No sooner were they outside the house, than the cure held out his
+hand, saying 'Sir, forgive me for a grievous injustice towards
+you;' then pressing his hand, he added with a voice tremulous with
+emotion, 'Sir, it is no slight thing to have saved a wandering
+sheep by your uprightness and loyalty.'
+
+'Have you then opened her eyes, father?' said Berenger, relieved
+from a heavy load.
+
+'You have, my son,' said the old man.  'You have taught her what
+truth and virtue are.  For the rest, you shall heard for yourself.'
+
+Before Berenger knew where he was, a door was opened, and he found
+himself in the church.  The building was almost entirely dark;
+there were two tall lights at the altar in distance, and a few
+little slender tapers burning before certain niches and shrines,
+but without power to conquer with the gloom more than enough to
+spread a pale circle of yellow light beneath them, and to show
+mysteriously a bit of vaulting above.  A single lamp hung from an
+arch near the door, and beneath it, near a pillar, knelt, or rather
+crouched, on the floor, a female figure with a dark peasant cloak
+drawn over her head.
+
+'The first token of penitence is reparation to the injured,' said
+the priest.
+
+Berenger looked at him anxiously.
+
+'I will not leave you,' he added.  'See, I shall pray for you
+yonder, by the altar,' and he slowly moved up the aisle.
+
+'Rise, cousin, I entreat you,' said Berenger, much embarrassed, as
+he disappeared in the darkness.
+
+'I must speak thus,' she answered, in a hoarse, exhausted voice.
+'Ah! pardon, pardon!' she added, rising, however, so far as to
+raise clasped hands and an imploring face.  'Ah! can you pardon?
+It was through me that you bear those wounds; that she--Eustacie--
+was forced into the masque, to detain you for THAT night.  Ah!
+pardon.'
+
+'That is long past,' said Berenger.  'I have been too near death
+not to have pardoned that long ago.  Rise, cousin, I cannot see you
+thus.'
+
+'That is not all,' continued Diane.  'It was I--I who moved my
+father to imprison you.'  Then, as he bent his head, and would have
+again entreated her to rise, she held out her hand as if to silence
+him, and spoke faster, more wildly.  'Then--then I thought it would
+save your life.  I thought---' she looked at him strangely with her
+great dark eyes, all hollow and cavernous in her white face.
+
+'I know,' said Berenger, kindly, 'you often urged it on me.'
+
+There was a sort of movement on the part of the kneeling figure of
+the priest at the altar, and she interrupted, saying precipitately.
+'Then--then, I did think you free.'
+
+'Ah!' he gasped.  'Now---!'
+
+'Now I know that she lives!' and Diane once more sank at his feet a
+trembling, shrinking, annihilated heap of shame and misery.
+
+Berenger absolutely gave a cry that, though instantly repressed,
+had the ring of ecstasy in it.  'Cousin--cousin!' he cried, 'all is
+forgiven--all forgotten, if you will only tell me where!'
+
+'That I cannot,' said Diane, rousing herself again, but speaking in
+a dull, indifferent tone, as of one to whom the prime bitterness
+was past, 'save that she is under the care of the Duchess de
+Quinet;' and she then proceeded, as though repeating a lesson: 'You
+remember the Italian conjurer whom you would not consult?  Would
+that I had not!' she added, clasping her hands.  'His prediction
+lured me?  Well, he saw my father privately, told him he had seen
+her, and had bought her jewels, even her hair.  My father sent him
+in quest of her again, but told not me till the man returned with
+tidings that she was at Quinet, in favour with the Duchess.  You
+remember that he went from home.  It was to demand he; and, ah! you
+know how long I had loved you, and they told me that your marriage
+was void, and that all would be well upon the dispensation coming.
+And now the good father there tells me that I was deceived--cruelly
+deceived--that such a dispensation would not be granted save
+through gross misrepresentation.'  Then, as Berenger began to show
+tokens of eagerness to come at tidings of Eustacie, she continued,
+'Ah! it is vain to seek to excuse one you care not for.  My father
+could learn nothing from the Duchess; she avowed that she had been
+there, but would say no more.  However, he and my brother were sure
+she was under their protection; they took measures, and--and the
+morning my poor father was stricken, there had been a letter from
+my brother to say he was on her track, and matters must be ended
+with you, for he should have her in a week;' and then, as Berenger
+started forward with an inarticulate outburst, half of horror, half
+of interrogation, she added, 'Where, he said not, nor did I learn
+from him.  All our one interview was spend in sneers that answered
+to my wild entreaties; but this I know--that you would never have
+reached Tours a living man.'
+
+'And now, now he is on the way to her!' cried Berenger, 'and you
+kept it from me!'
+
+'There lay my hope,' said Diane, raising her head; and now, with
+glittering eyes and altered voice, 'How could I not but hate her
+who had bereaved me of you; her for whose sake I could not earn
+your love?'
+
+The change of her tone had, perhaps, warned the priest to draw
+nearer, and as she perceived him, she said, 'Yes, father, this is
+not the way to absolution, but my heart will burst if I say not
+all.'
+
+'Thou shalt not prevail, foul spirit,' said the priest, looking
+earnestly into the darkness, as though he beheld the fiend hovering
+over her, 'neither shall these holy walls be defiled with accents
+of unhallowed love.  You have made your reparation, daughter; it is
+enough.'
+
+'And can you tell me no more?' said Berenger, sadly.  'Can you give
+me no clue that I may save her from the wolf that may be already on
+her track?  Cousin, if you would do this, I would bless you for
+ever.'
+
+'Alas! I would if I could!  It is true, cousin, I have no heart to
+deceive you any longer.  But it is to Madame de Quinet that you
+must apply, and if my brother has though me worth pursuit, you may
+be in time!  One moment,'--as he would have sprung away as if in
+the impulse to fly to the rescue,--'cousin; had you gone to England
+as I hoped, I would have striven to deserve to win that love of
+yours, but you have conquered by your constancy.  Now, father, I
+have spoken my last save as penitent.'
+
+She covered her head and sank down again.
+
+Berenger, bewildered and impelled to be doing something, let the
+priest lead him out before he exclaimed, 'I said nothing to her of
+pardon!'
+
+'You do pardon?' said the priest.
+
+He paused a moment.  'Freely, if I find my wife.  I can only
+remember now that she set me on the way.  I would ease her soul,
+poor thing, and thinking would make me hard again.'
+
+'Do the English bring up their sons with such feelings?' asked the
+cure, pausing for a moment.
+
+'Of course,' said Berenger.  'May I say that one word, sir?'
+
+'Not now,' said the priest; 'she had better be left to think of her
+sin towards Heaven, rather than towards man.'
+
+'But do you leave her there, sir?'
+
+'I shall return.  I shall pray for her true penitence,' said the
+priest, and Berenger perceived from his tone that one without the
+pale might inquire no further.  He only asked how safe and
+honourable shelter could be found for her; and the cure replied
+that he had already spoken to her of the convent of Lucon, and
+should take her there so soon as it could safely be done, and that
+Abbess Monique, he trusted, would assist her crushed spirit in
+finding the path of penitence.  He thought her cousin had better
+not endeavour to see her again; and Berenger himself was ready to
+forget her very existence in his burning anxiety to outstrip
+Narcisse in the quest of Eustacie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.  OUR LADY OF HOPE
+
+
+
+         Welcome to danger's hour,
+Brief greeting serves the time of strife.--SCOTT
+
+
+As soon as it was possible to leave Nissard, Berenger was on his
+way back to head-quarters, where he hoped to meet the Duke de
+Quinet among the many Huguenot gentlemen who were flocking to the
+Bourbon standard; nor was he disappointed in the hope, for he was
+presented to a handsome middle-aged gentleman, who told him, with
+much politeness, that his mother had had the honour to receive and
+entertain Mme. de Ribaumont and that some months ago he had himself
+arranged for the conveyance of her letters to England, but, he
+said, with a smile, he made a point of knowing nothing of his
+mother's guests, lest his duties as a governor might clash with
+those of hospitality.  He offered to expedite M. de Ribaumont's
+journey to Quinet, observing that, if Nid de Merle were, indeed, on
+the point of seizing the lady, it must be by treachery; indeed he
+had, not ten days back, had the satisfaction of hanging an Italian
+mountebank who had last year stolen a whole packet of dispatches,
+among them letters from Mme. de Ribaumont, and the fellow was
+probably acting as a spy upon her, so that no time was to be lost
+in learning from his mother where she was.  On the next morning he
+was about to send forward twenty men to reinforce a little frontier
+garrison on the river Dronne, and as M. le Baron must pass through
+the place, it would be conferring a favour on him to take the
+command.  The men were all well mounted, and would not delay; and
+when once across the frontier of Guyenne, no escort would be
+needed.
+
+Berenger gladly accepted the proposal.  It did not occur to him
+that he was thus involved in the civil war, and bearing arms
+against the sovereign.  In spite of Queen Elisabeth's alliance with
+the French court, she connived at her youthful subjects seeking the
+bubble reputation in the mouths of Valois cannon; and so little did
+Henry III. seem to Berenger to be his king, that he never thought
+of the question of allegiance,--nay, if the royal officers were
+truly concerned in his arrest, he was already an outlaw.  This was
+no moment for decision between Catholic and Calvinist; all he
+wanted was to recover his wife and forestall her enemies.
+
+Henry of Navarre gave his full consent to the detachment being
+placed under charge of M. de Ribaumont.  He asked somewhat
+significantly what had become of the young gentleman who had
+attended M. de Ribaumont, and Philip blushed crimson to the ears,
+while Berenger replied, with greater coolness than he had given
+himself credit for, that the youth had been nearly drowned on the
+Sable d'Olonne, and had been left at Dom Colombeau's to recover.
+The sharp-witted King looked for a moment rather as Sir Hugh the
+Heron did when Marmion accounted for his page's absence, but was
+far too courteous and too INSOUCIANT to press the matter further,
+though Berenger saw quite enough of is expression to feel that he
+had been delivered from his companion only just in time.
+
+Berenger set forth as soon as his impatience could prevail to get
+the men into their saddles.  He would fain have ridden day and
+night, and grudged every halt for refreshment, so as almost to run
+the risk of making the men mutinous.  Evening was coming on, and
+his troop had dismounted at a cabaret, in front of which he paced
+up and down with Philip, trying to devise some pretext for
+hastening them on another stage before night, when a weary, travel-
+stained trooper rode up to the door and was at once hailed as a
+comrade by the other men, and asked, 'What cheer at Pont de
+Dronne?'
+
+'Bad enough,' he answered, 'unless you can make the more speed
+there!'  then making obeisance to Berenger he continued his report,
+saying that Captain Falconnet was sending him to M. le Duc with
+information that the Guisards were astir, and that five hundred
+_gens d'armes_, under the black Nid de Merle, as it was said, were
+on their way intending to surprise Pont de Dronne, and thus cut the
+King of Navarre off from Guyenne and his kingdom beyond it.  After
+this Berenger had no more difficulty with his men, who were most of
+them Quinet vassals, with homes south of the Dronne, and the
+messenger only halted for a hasty meal, hastening on to the Duke,
+that a more considerable succour might at once be dispatched.
+
+'Is she there whom they call the Lady of Hope?' asked one of the
+soldiers, a mercenary, less interested than most of his comrades,
+as he had only a fortnight since transferred his services from
+Guise to Quinet
+
+'Our Lady of Sadness just now,' replied the messenger; 'her old
+father is at the point of death.  However, she is there, and at our
+last siege twenty wine-skins would not so well have kept up men's
+hearts.'
+
+'And the little one, the white fairy, is she there too?  They say
+'tis a spirit, a changeling that could not brook the inside of a
+church, but flew out of the Moustier at Montauban like a white
+swan, in the middle of a sermon.'
+
+'I only know I've seen her sleep like a dormouse through prayers,
+sermon, and all at Pont de Dronne.  _Follette_ is she be, she
+belongs to the white elves of the moonlight.'
+
+'Well, they say bullets won't touch her, and no place can be taken
+where she is,' replied the trooper.  'Nay, that Italian pedlar
+rogue, the same that the Duke has since hung, has sold to long
+Gilles and snub-nosed  Pierre silver bullets, wherewith they have
+sworn to shoot the one or the other next time they had a chance.'
+
+These words were spoken at not great distance from Berenger, but
+passed by him as mere men-at-arms' gossip, in his eagerness to
+expedite the start of his party; and in less than an hour they were
+_en route_ for Pont de Dronne; but hasten as he would, it was not
+till near noon the next day that he came in sight of a valley,
+through which wound a river, crossed by a high-backed bridge, with
+a tall pointed arch in the middle, and a very small one on either
+side.  An old building of red stone, looking like what it was--a
+monastery converted into a fortress--stood on the nearer, or
+northern bank, and on the belfry tower waved a flag with the arms
+of Quinet.  Higher up the valley, there was an ominous hum, and
+clouds of smoke and dust; and the _gen d'armes_, who knew the
+country, rejoiced that they were come just in time, and exchanged
+anxious questions whether the enemy were not fording the river
+above them, so as to attack not only the fortress on this northern
+side, but the bridge tower on the southern bank of the river.
+
+Spurring down the hill, the party were admitted, at the well-
+guarded gateway, into a large thickly-walled yard, where the
+soldiers and horses remained, and Berenger and Philip, passing
+through a small arched doorway into the body of the old monastery,
+were conducted to a great wainscoted hall, where a pulpit
+projecting from the wall, and some defaced emblematic ornaments,
+showed that this had once been the refectory, though guard-room
+appliances now occupied it.  The man who had shown them in left
+them, saying he would acquaint Captain Falconnet with their
+arrival, and just then a sound of singing drew both brothers to the
+window.  It looked out on what had once been the quadrangle,
+bounded on three sides by the church, the refectory, and the monk's
+lodgings, the cloistered arcade running round all these.  The
+fourth side was skirted by the river, which was, however, concealed
+by an embankment, raised, no doubt, to supply the place of the
+wall, which had been unnecessary to the peaceful original
+inhabitants.  What attracted Berenger's eyes was, however, a group
+in the cloister, consisting of a few drooping figures, some of men
+in steel caps, others of veiled, shrouded women, and strange,
+mingled feelings swept over him as he caught the notes of the psalm
+sung over the open grave--
+
+              'Si qu'en paix et seurte bonne
+               Coucherai et reposerai--
+               Car, Seigneur, ta bonte tout ordonne
+               Et elle seule espoir donne
+               Que seur et sain regnant serai.'
+
+'Listen, Philip,' he said, with moistening eyes; then as they
+ended, 'It is the 4th Psalm: "I lay me down in peace and take my
+rest."  Eustacie and I used to sing it to my father.  It was well
+done in these mourners to sing it over him whom they are laying
+down to take his rest while the enemy are at the gates.  See, the
+poor wife still kneels while the rest disperse; how dejected and
+utterly desolate she looks.'
+
+He was so intently watching her as not to perceive the entrance of
+a tall, grizzled old man in a steel cap, evidently the commander of
+the garrison.  There was the brief welcome of danger's hour--the
+briefer, because Captain Falconnet was extremely deaf, and, taking
+it for granted that the new-comers were gentlemen of the Duke's,
+proceeded to appoint them their posts without further question.
+Berenger had intended to pursue his journey to Quinet without
+delay, but the intelligence that the enemy were on the southern as
+well as the northern side of the river rendered this impossible;
+and besides, in defending this key of Guyenne against Narcisse, he
+was also defending Eustacie.
+
+The state of affairs was soon made known to him.  The old
+monastery, covering with its walls an extensive space, formed a
+fortress quite strong enough to resist desultory attacks, and
+protect the long bridge, which was itself strongly walled on either
+side, and with a barbican at the further end.  In former assaults
+the attacks had always been on the north, the Catholic side, as it
+might be called; but now the enemy had crossed the river above the
+fort, and were investing the place on both sides.  Long foreseeing
+this, the old commandant had guarded the bank of the river with the
+earthwork, a long mound sloped irregularly on either hand, over
+which numerous little paths had since been worn by the women
+within, when on their way to the river with their washing; but he
+had been setting every one to work to destroy and fill up these, so
+that the rampart was smooth and slopping, perfectly easy indeed to
+cross, but high and broad enough to serve as an effectual
+protection against such artillery as the detached troops of the
+Guise party were likely to possess; and the river was far too wide,
+deep, and strong in its main current to be forded in the face of a
+hostile garrison.  The captain had about fifty _gen d'armes_ in his
+garrison, besides the twenty new-comers whom he persisted in
+regarding as Berenger's charge; and there were, besides, some
+seventy peasants and silk spinners, who had come into the place as
+a refuge from the enemy--and with these he hoped to hold put till
+succour should come from the Duke.  He himself took the command of
+the north gate, where the former assaults had been made, and he
+instructed to his new ally the tower protecting the bridge,
+advising him to put on armour; but Berenger, trying on a steel cap,
+found that his head could not bear the weight and heat, and was
+forced to return to his broad-brimmed Spanish hat, while Philip in
+high glee armed himself as best he could with what Captain
+Falconnet could lend him.  he was too much excited to eat of the
+scanty meal that was set before them: a real flight seemed like a
+fair-day to him, and he was greatly exalted by his brother's post
+of command--a post that Berenger felt a heavy responsibility only
+thrust upon him by the commandant's incapacity of hearing how
+utterly inexperienced he was.
+
+The formal summons to surrender to the King, and the refusal, had
+duly passed, and it became evident that the first attack was to be
+on the bridge-gate.  Captain Falconnet hurried to the place, and
+the fighting was hot and desperate.  Every assailant who tried to
+throw his fagot into the moat became a mark for arquebus or pistol,
+and the weapons that had so lately hung over the hearth at Nid de
+Merle were now aimed again and again at the heads and corslets of
+Guisards, with something of the same exulting excitement as, only
+higher, more engrossing, and fiercer than, that with which the lads
+had taken aim at a wolf, or ridden after a fox.  Scaling-ladders
+were planted and hurled down again; stones were cast from the
+battlements, crushing the enemy; and throughout Berenger's quick
+eye, alert movements, and great height and strength, made him a
+most valuable champion, often applauded by a low murmur of
+commendation from old Falconnet, or a loud shout of 'Ha, well done,
+the Duke's Englishman,' from the _gen d'armes_--for English they
+would have him to be--on the presumptions afforded by his
+companions, his complexion, and his slow speech.  Nor did Philip
+and Humfrey fail to render good service.  But just as the enemy had
+been foiled in a sharp assault and were dragging away their
+wounded, Philip touched his brother, and saying, 'I can hold out no
+longer,' showed blood trickling down his right side.
+
+Berenger threw an arm round him, and Captain Falconnet, seeing his
+case, said, 'You are hit, _petit Anglais_; you have done gallantly.
+There will be time for you to take him to his quarters, sir; these
+fellows have had enough for the present, and you can tarry with him
+till you hear the bugle.  Whither, did you ask?  Let me see.  You,
+Renaud, take him to the chapel: the old chancel behind the boarding
+will be more private; and desire Madame to look to him.  Farewell!
+I hope it may prove slight; you are a brave youth.'  And he shook
+hands with Philip, whose intense gratification sustained him for
+many steps afterwards
+
+He hardly remembered receiving the hurt, and was at first too busy
+to heed it, or to call off any one attention, until a dread of
+falling, and being trodden on, had seized him and made him speak;
+and indeed he was so dizzy that Berenger with difficulty kept him
+on his feet over the bridge, and in the court lifted him in his
+arms and carried him almost fainting into the cloister, where by
+the new-made grave still knelt the black-veiled mourner.  She
+started to her feet as the soldier spoke to her, and seemed at
+first not to gather the sense of his words; but then, as if with an
+effort, took them in, made one slight sound like a moan of
+remonstrance at the mention of the place, but again recollecting
+herself, led the way along a stone passage, into which a flight of
+stairs descended into the apsidal chancel, roughly boarded off from
+the rest of the church.  It was a ruinous, desolate place, and
+Berenger looked round in dismay for some place on which to lay down
+his almost unconscious burthen.  The lady bent her head and signed
+towards the stone sedilia in the wall; then, after two ineffectual
+essays to make her voice audible, choked as it was with long
+weeping, she said, low and huskily, 'We will make him more
+comfortable soon;' and added some orders to the soldier, who
+disappeared up the stairway, and Berenger understood that he was
+gone to fetch bedding.  Then taking from under her heavy mourning
+cloak a large pair of scissors, she signed to Berenger how to
+support his brother, while they relieved him of his corslet, sword-
+belt, and doublet.  The soldier had meantime returned with an old
+woman, both loaded with bedding, which she signed to them to
+arrange in one of the little bays or niches that served to form a
+crown of lesser chapels around the chancel.  She flung aside her
+muffling cloak, but her black hood still hung far over her face,
+and every now and then hand or handkerchief was lifted as if to
+clear her eyes from the tears that would not cease to gather and
+blind her; and she merely spoke when some direction to an
+assistant, some sympathetic word to the patient, was needed.  Even
+Philip in his dizzy trance guessed that he was succeeding to the
+bed whence one much dearer had gone to his quieter rest in the
+cloister.  Before he was laid there, however, the bugle sounded;
+there was a loud shout, and Philip exclaimed, 'Go, brother!'
+
+'Trust him to me, sir,' said the sunken, extinguished voice; 'we
+will do our best for him.'
+
+He was forced merely to lift Philip to the bed, and to hurry away,
+while the soldier followed him saying, consolingly, 'Fear not, sir,
+now our Lady of Hope has him.  Nothing goes ill to which she sets
+her hand.'
+
+Another growl of artillery was not heard, and it was time for the
+warriors to forget the wounded in the exigencies of the present.
+An attack was made on both gates at once, and the commandant being
+engaged at his own post, Berenger had to make the utmost of his
+brief experience, backed by the counsel of a tough old sergeant;
+and great was his sense of exhilaration, and absolute enjoyment in
+this full and worthy taxing of every power of mind or body.  The
+cry among the enemy, 'Aime at the black plume,' attested his
+prominence; but he black plum was still unscathed when spring
+twilight fell.  The din began to subside; recalls were sounded by
+the besiegers; and Berenger heard his own exploit bawled in the ear
+of the deaf commandant, who was advancing over the bridge. The old
+captain complimented him, told him that he should be well reported
+of to M. le Duc and Sieur la Noue, and invited him to supper and
+bed in his own quarters.  The supper Berenger accepted, so soon as
+he should know how it was with his brother; but as to bed, he
+intended to watch his brother, and visit his post form time to
+time.
+
+The captain entered by the main door of the chapel, where ten or
+twelve wounded were now lying, tended by peasant women.  Berenger
+merely passed through, seeing as he went the black hood busy over a
+freshly-brought-in-patient.  He found a door which admitted him
+through the rough screen of boards to the choir where he had been
+in the earlier part of the day.  The moonlight came through the
+shivered eastern windows, but a canvas curtain had been hung so as
+to shelter Philip's vaulted recess from the cold draught, and the
+bed itself, with a chair beside it, looked neat, clean, and
+comfortable. Philip himself was cheery; he said the bullet had made
+a mere flesh-wound, and had passed out on the other side, and the
+Lady of Hope, as they called he, was just such another as Aunt
+Cecily, and had made him very comfortable, with clean linen, good
+cool drinks, and the tenderest hand.  But he was very sleepy, so
+sleepy that he hardly cared to hear of the combat, only he roused
+himself for a moment to say, 'Brother, I have seen Dolly.'
+
+'Dolly!'
+
+'Our sister Dolly.'
+
+'Ah, Phil! many a strange visitor has come to me in the Walnut
+Chamber at home.'
+
+'I tell you I was in my perfect senses,' returned Philip; 'there
+she was, just as when we left her.  And, what was stranger still,
+she talked French.'
+
+'Sleep and see her again,' laughed Berenger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.  THE SILVER BULLET
+
+
+
+I am all wonder, O my son, my soul
+Is stunned within me; powers to speak to him
+Or to interrogate him have I none,
+Or even to look on him.--Cowper's  ODYSSEY
+
+
+In his waking senses Philip adhered to his story that his little
+sister Dolly had stood at the foot of his bed, called him '_le
+pauvre_' and had afterwards disappeared, led away by the nursing
+lady.  It seemed to Berenger a mere delusion of feverish weakness;
+for Philip had lost a great deal of blood, and the wound, though
+not dangerous, permitted no attempt at moving, and gave much pain.
+Of the perfections of the lady as nurse and surgeon Philip could
+not say enough, and, pale and overwept as he allowed her to be, he
+declared that he was sure that her beauty must equal Mme. De
+Selinville's.  Berenger laughed, and looking round this strange
+hospital, now lighted by the full rays of the morning sun, he was
+much struck by the scene.
+
+It was the chancel of the old abbey church.  The door by which they
+had entered was very small, and perhaps had led merely to the
+abbot's throne, as an irregularity for his own convenience, and
+only made manifest by the rending away of the rich wooden stall
+work, some fragments of which still clung to the walls.  The east
+end, like that of many French churches, formed a semicircle, the
+high altar having been in the centre, and five tall deep bays
+forming lesser chapels embracing it, their vaults all gathered up
+into one lofty crown above, and a slender pillar separating between
+each chapel, each of which further contained a tall narrow window.
+Of course, all had been utterly desolated, and Philip was actually
+lying in one of these chapels, where the sculptured figure of St.
+John and his Eagle still remained on the wall; and a sufficient
+remnant of his glowing sanguine robe of love was still in the
+window to serve as a shield from the _bise_.  The high altar of
+rich marbles was a mere heap of shattered rubbish; but what
+surprised Berenger more than all the ruined architectural beauty
+which his _cinque-cento_ trained taste could not understand, was,
+that the tiles of the pavement were perfectly clean, and diligently
+swept, the rubbish piled up in corners; and here and there the
+relics of a cross or carved figure lay together, as by a tender,
+reverential hand.  Even the morsels of painted glass had been
+placed side by side on the floor, so as to form a mosaic of dark
+red, blue, and green; and a child's toy lay beside this piece of
+patchwork.  In the midst of his observations, however, Captain
+Falconnet's servant came to summon him to breakfast; and the old
+woman appearing at the same time, he could not help asking whether
+the lady were coming.
+
+'Oh yes, she will come to dress his wound in good time,' answered
+the old woman.
+
+'And when?  I should like to hear what she thinks of it,' said
+Berenger.
+
+'How?' said the old woman with a certain satisfaction in his
+disappointment; 'is our Lady of Hope to be coming down among you
+gay gallants?'
+
+'But who is this Lady of Hope?' demanded he.
+
+'Who should she be but our good pastor's daughter?  Ah! and a
+brave, good daughter she was too, abiding the siege because his
+breath was so bad that he could not be moved.'
+
+'What was his name?' asked Berenger, attracted strangely by what he
+heard.
+
+'Ribault, Monsieur--Pasteur Ribault.  Ah! a good man, and sound
+preacher, when preach he could; but when he could not, his very
+presence kept the monks' REVENANTS from vexing us--as a cat keeps
+mice away; and, ah! The children have been changed creatures since
+Madame dealt with them.  What! Monsieur would know why they call
+her our Lady of Hope?  Esperance is her true name; and, moreover,
+in the former days this abbey had an image that they called Notre-
+Dame de l'Esperance, and the poor deceived folk thought it did
+great miracles.  And so, when she came hither, and wrought such
+cures, and brought blessing wherever she went, it became a saying
+among us that at length we had our true Lady of Hope.
+
+A more urgent summons here forced Berenger away, and his repetition
+of the same question received much the same answer from deaf old
+Captain Falconnet.  He was obliged to repair to his post with
+merely a piece of bread in his hand; abut, though vigilance was
+needful, the day bade fair to be far less actively occupied than
+its predecessor: the enemy were either disposed to turn the siege
+into a blockade, or were awaiting reinforcements and heavier
+artillery; and there were only a few desultory attacks in the early
+part of the morning.  About an hour before noon, however, the
+besiegers seemed to be drawing out in arms, as if to receive some
+person of rank, and at the same time sounds were heard on the hills
+to the eastward, as if troops were on the march.  Berenger having
+just been told by the old sergeant that probably all would be quiet
+for some time longer, and been almost laughed at by the veteran for
+consulting him whether it would be permissible for him to be absent
+a few minutes to visit his brother, was setting out across the
+bridge for the purpose, his eyes in the direction of the rampart,
+which followed the curve of the river.  The paths which--as has
+been said--the feet of the washerwomen and drawers of water had
+worn away in quieter times, had been smoothed and scarped away on
+the outer side, so as to come to an abrupt termination some feet
+above the gay marigolds, coltsfoot, and other spring flowers that
+smiled by the water-side.  Suddenly he beheld on the rampart a tiny
+gray and white figure, fearlessly trotting, or rather dancing,
+along the summit and the men around him exclaimed, 'The little
+moonbeam child!'  'A fairy--a changeling!'--'They cannot shoot at
+such a babe!'  'Nor could they harm her!'  'Hola! little one!
+_Gare_! Go back to your mother!'  'Do not disturb yourself, sir;
+she is safer than you,' were the ejaculations almost at the same
+moment, while he sprang forward, horrified at the peril of such an
+infant.  He had reached the angle between the bridge and rampart,
+when he perceived that neither humanity nor superstition were
+protecting the poor child; for, as she turned down the remnant of
+one of the treacherous little paths, a man in bright steel and deep
+black had spurred his horse to the river's brink, and was
+deliberately taking aim at her.  Furious at such brutality,
+Berenger fired the pistol he held in his hand, and the wretch
+dropped from his horse; but at the same moment his pistol exploded,
+and the child rolled down the bank, whence a piteous wail came up,
+impelling Berenger to leap down to her assistance, in the full face
+of the enemy.  Perhaps he was protected for the moment by the
+confusion ensuing on the fall of the officer; and when he reached
+the bottom of the bank, he saw the little creature on her feet, her
+round cap and gray woolen dress stripped half off in the fall, and
+her flaxen hair falling round her plump, white, exposed shoulder,
+but evidently unhurt, and gathering yellow marigolds as composedly
+as though she had been making May garlands.  He snatched her up,
+and she said, with the same infantine dignity, 'Yes, take me up;
+the naughty people spoilt the path.  But I must take my beads
+first.'  And she tried to struggle out of his arms, pointing
+therewith to a broken string among the marshy herb-age on which
+gleamed--the pearls of Ribaumont!
+
+In the few seconds in which he grasped them, and then bore the
+child up the embankment in desperate bounds, a hail of bullets
+poured round him, ringing on his breastplate, shearing the plume
+from his hat, but scarcely evenheard; and in another moment he had
+sprung down, on the inner side, grasping the child with all his
+might, but not daring even to look at her, in the wondrous flash of
+that first conviction.  She spoke first.  'Put me down, and let me
+have my beads,' she said in a grave, clear tone; and then first he
+beheld a pair of dark blue eyes, a sweet wild-rose face--Dolly's
+all over.  He pressed her so fast and so close, in so speechless
+and over powering an ecstasy, that again she repeated, and in
+alarm, 'Put me down, I want my mother!'
+
+'Yes, yes! your mother! your mother! your mother!' he cried, unable
+to let her out of his embrace; and then restraining himself as he
+saw her frightened eyes, in absolute fear of her spurning him, or
+struggling from him, 'My sweet! my child! Ah! do you not know me?'
+Then, remembering how wild this was, he struggled to speak calmly:
+'What are you called, my treasure?'
+
+'I am _la petite Rayonette_,' she said, with puzzled dignity and
+gravity; 'and my mother says I have a beautiful long name of my own
+besides.'
+
+'Berangere--my Berangere---'
+
+'That is what she says over me, as I go to sleep in her bosom at
+night,' said the child, in a wondering voice, soon exchanged for
+entreaty, 'Oh, hug me not so hard!  Oh, let me go--let me go to
+her!  Mother! mother!'
+
+'My child, mine own, I am take thee!--Oh, do not struggle with me!'
+he cried, himself imploring now.  'Child, one kiss for thy father;'
+and meantime, putting absolute force on his vehement affection, he
+was hurrying to the chancel.
+
+There Philip hailed them with a shout as of desperate anxiety
+relieved; but before a word could be uttered, down the stairs flew
+the Lady of Hope, crying wildly, 'Not there--she is not--' but
+perceiving the little one in the stranger's arms, she held out her
+own, crying, 'Ah! is she hurt, my angel?'
+
+'Unhurt, Eustacie!  Our child is unhurt!' Berenger said, with an
+agonized endeavour to be calm; but for the moment her instinct was
+so entirely absorbed in examining into the soundness of her child's
+limbs, that she neither saw nor hear anything else.
+
+'Eustacie,' he said, laying his hand on her arm, she started back,
+with bewildered eyes.  'Eustacie--wife? do you not know me?  Ah! I
+forgot that I am changed.'
+
+'You--you--' she gasped, utterly confounded, and gazing as if
+turned to stone, and though at that moment the vibration of a
+mighty discharge of cannon rocked the walls, and strewed Philip's
+bed with the crimson shivers of St. John's robe, yet neither of
+them would have been sensible of it had not Humfrey rushed in at
+the same moment, crying, 'They are coming on like friends, sir!'
+
+Berenger passed his hand over his face.  'You will know me WHEN--IF
+I return, my dearest,' he said.  'If not, then still, thank God!
+Philip, to you I trust them!'
+
+And with one kiss on that still, cold, almost petrified brow, he
+had dashed away.  There was a space of absolutely motionless
+silence, save that Eustacie let herself drop on the chancel step,
+and the child, presently breaking the spell, pulled her to attract
+her notice to the flowers.  'Mother, here are the _soucis_ for the
+poor gentleman's broth.  See, the naughty people had spoilt all the
+paths, and I rolled down and tore my frock, and down fell the
+beads, but be not angry, mother dear, for the good gentleman picked
+them up, and carried me up the bank.'
+
+'The bank!' cried Eustacie, with a scream, as the sense of the
+words reached her ears.  'Ah! no wonder! Well might thy danger
+bring thy father's spirit;' and she grasped the little one
+fervently in her arms, murmuring, 'Thank, thank God, indeed!  Oh!
+my precious one; and did He send that blessed spirit to rescue
+thee?'
+
+'And will you tie up my frock? and may I put the flowers into the
+broth?' chattered Rayonette.  'And why did he kiss me and hug me so
+tight? and how did he know what you say over me as we fall asleep?'
+
+Eustacie clasped her tighter, with a convulsive, shudder of
+thankfulness; and Philip, but half hearing, and barely gathering
+the meaning of her mood, ventured to speak, 'Madame---'
+
+As if touched by an electric shock, Eustacie started up, as
+recalled to instant needs, and coming towards him said, 'Do you
+want anything, sir?  Pardon one who has but newly seen a spirit
+from the other world--brought by his child's danger.'  And the
+dazed, trance-like look was returning.
+
+'Spirit!' cried Philip.  'Nay, Madame, it was himself.  Ah! and you
+are she whom we have sought so long; and this dear child--no wonder
+she has Dolly's face.'
+
+'Who--what?' said Eustacie, pressing her temples with her hands, as
+if to retain her senses.  'Speak; was yonder a living or dead man--
+and who?'
+
+'Living, thank God! and your own husband; that is, if you are
+really Eustacie.  Are you indeed?' he added, becoming doubtful.
+
+'Eustacie, that am I,' she murmured.  'But he is dead--they killed
+him; I swathe blood where he had waited for me.  His child's danger
+brought him from the grave.'
+
+'No, no.  Look at me, sister Eustacie.  Listen to me.  Osbert
+brought him home more dead than alive--but alive still.'
+
+'No!' she cried, half passionately.  'Never could he have lived and
+left me to mourn him so bitterly.'
+
+'If you knew--' cried Philip, growing indignant.  'for weeks he lay
+in deadly lethargy, and when, with his left hand, he wrote and sent
+Osbert to you, your kinsfolk threw the poor fellow into a dungeon,
+and put us off with lies that you were married to your cousin.  All
+believed, only he--sick, helpless, speechless, as he was--he
+trusted you still; and so soon as Mericour came, though he could
+scarcely brook the saddle, nothing would hold him from seeking you.
+We saw only ruin at La Sablerie, and well-nigh ever since have we
+been clapped up in prison by your uncle.  We were on the way to
+Quinet to seek you.  He has kept his faith whole through wounds and
+pain and prison and threats,--ay, and sore temptation,' cried
+Philip, waxing eloquent; 'and, oh, it cannot be that you do not
+care for him!'
+
+'Doubt not my faith, sir,' said Eustacie, proudly; 'I have been as
+true to him as if I had known he lived.  Nor do I know who you are
+to question me.'
+
+At this moment the child pressed forward, holding between her tow
+careful plump hands a red earthenware bowl, with the tisane
+steaming in it, and the yellow petals strewn over the surface.  She
+and Philip had taken a great fancy to each other, and while her
+mother was busy with the other patients, she had been left to her
+quiet play with her fragments of glass, which she carried one by
+one to display, held up to the light, to her new friends; who, in
+his weak state, and after his long captivity, found her the more
+charming playmate because she so strangely reminded him of his own
+little sisters.  She thought herself his little nurse, and missing
+from his broth the yellow petals that she had been wont to think
+the charm of tisane, the housewifely little being had trotted off,
+unseen and unmissed, across the quadrangle, over the embankment,
+where she had often gathered them, or attended on the '_lessive_'
+on the river's brink; and now she broke forth exultingly, 'Here,
+here is the tisane, with all the _soucis_. Let me feed you with
+them, sir.'
+
+'Ah!  thou sweet one,' gasped Philip, 'I could as soon eat them as
+David could drink the water!  For these--for these---!' and the
+tears rushed into his eyes.  'Oh! let me but kiss her, Madame; I
+loved her from the first moment.  She has the very face of my
+little sweeting, (what French word is good enough for her?) didst
+run into peril for me, not knowing how near I was to thee?  What,
+must I eat it?  Love me then.'
+
+But the boarded door was thrown back, and 'Madame, more wounded,'
+resounded.  The thrill of terror, the elastic reaction, at the
+ensuing words, 'from the north gate,' was what made Eustacie in an
+instant know herself to be not widow but wife.  She turned round at
+once, holding out her hand, and saying with a shaken, agitated
+voice, '_Mon frere_, pardon me, I know not what I say; and, after
+all, he will find me _bien mechante_ still.'  Then as Philip
+devoured her hand with kisses, and held it fast, 'I must go; these
+poor men need me.  When I can, I will return.'
+
+'Only let me have the little one,' entreated Philip; 'it is almost
+home already to look at her.'
+
+And when Eustacie next looked in on them, they were both fast
+asleep.
+
+She, poor thing, the only woman with brains among the many scared
+females in the garrison, might not rest or look the wonder in the
+face.  Fresh sufferers needed her care, and related gallant things
+of 'the Duke's Englishman,' things of desperate daring and prowess
+that sent the blood throbbing to her heart with exultation, but
+only to be followed by a pang of anguish at having let him go back
+to peril--nay, perhaps, to death--without a word of tenderness or
+even recognition. She imaged him as the sunny-faced youth who had
+claimed her in the royal castle, and her longing to be at his side
+and cling to him as his own became every moment more fervent and
+irresistible, until she gladly recollected the necessity of
+carrying food to the defenders; and snatching an interval from her
+hospital cares, she sped to the old circular kitchen of the
+monastery, where she found the lame baker vainly trying to organize
+a party of frightened women to carry provisions to the garrison of
+the bridge-tower.
+
+'Give some to me,' she said.  'My husband is there!  I am come to
+fetch his dinner.'
+
+The peasant women looked and whispered as if they thought that, to
+add to their misfortunes, their Lady of Hope had become distracted
+by grief; and one or two, who held the old faith, and were like the
+crane among the sparrows, even observed that it was a judgment for
+the profane name that had been given her, against which she had
+herself uniformly protested.
+
+'My husband is come,' said Eustacie, looking round with shining
+eyes.  'Let us be brave wives, and not let our men famish.'
+
+She lifted a loaf and a pitcher of broth, and with the latter
+poised on her erect and graceful head, and elastic though steady
+step, she led the way; the others following her with a sort of awe,
+as of one they fancied in a superhuman state.  In fact, there was
+no great danger in traversing the bridge with its lofty parapet on
+either side; and her mind was too much exalted and moved to be
+sensible of anything but a certain exulting awe of the battle
+sounds.  There was, however, a kind of lull in the assault which
+had raged so fiercely ever since the fall of the officer, and the
+arrival of the reinforcements.  Either the enemy had paused to take
+food, or were devising some fresh mode of attack; and as the line
+of women advanced, there started forth from under the arch a broad-
+shouldered, white-faced, golden-bearded personage, who cried
+joyously, 'My dearest, my bravest! this for me!' and lifted the
+pitcher from her head as he grasped her hand with a flesh and blood
+clasp indeed, but the bright-cheeked, wavy-haired lad of her dream
+withered away with a shock of disappointment, and she only looked
+up with wistful puzzled earnestness instead of uttering the dear
+name that she had so long been whispering to herself.  'Dearest,'
+he said, 'this is precious indeed to me, that you should let me
+feast my eyes once more on you.  But you may not tarry; the rogues
+may renew the attack at any moment.'
+
+She had thought of herself as insisting on standing beside him and
+sharing his peril.  Had he been himself she must have don so, but
+this was a stranger, whose claiming her made her shrink apart till
+she could feel the identity which, though she believed, she could
+not realize.  Her hand lay cold and tremulous within his warm
+pressure, but he was too much wrought up and too full of joy and
+haste to be sensible of anything but of the brave affection that
+had dared all to come to him; and he was perfectly happy, even as a
+trumpet-call among the foe warned him to press her fingers to his
+lips and say, as his bright blue eye kindled, 'God grant that we
+may meet and thank Him tonight!  Farewell, my lost and found!  I
+fight as one who has something to fight for.'
+
+He might not leave his post, but he watched her with eyes that
+could not be satiated, as she recrossed the bridge; and, verily,
+his superabundant ecstasy, and the energy that was born of it, were
+all needed to sustain the spirits of his garrison through that
+terrible afternoon.  The enemy seemed to be determined to carry the
+place before it could be relieved, and renewed the storm again and
+again with increasing violence; while the defenders, disheartened
+by their pertinacity, dismayed at the effects of the heavy
+artillery, now brought to bear on the tower, and direfully afraid
+of having the bridge destroyed, would have abandoned their barbican
+and shut themselves up within the body of the place, had not
+Berenger been here, there, and everywhere, directing, commanding,
+exhorting, cheering, encouraging, exciting enthusiasm by word and
+example, winning proud admiration by feats of valour and dexterity
+sprung of the ecstatic inspiration of new-found bliss, and
+watching, as the conscious defender of his own most beloved,
+without a moment's respite, till twilight stillness sank on the
+enemy, and old Falconnet came to relieve him, thanking him for his
+gallant defence, and auguring that, by noonday tomorrow at latest,
+M. le Duc would succour them, unless he were hampered by any folly
+of this young Navarre.
+
+Too blissful for the sense of fatigue, Berenger began to impart to
+the Commandant his delight, but the only answer he got was 'Hope,
+yes, every hope;' and he again recognized what he had already
+perceived, that the indistinctness of his utterance made him
+entirely unintelligible to the deaf Commandant, and that shouting
+did but proclaim to the whole garrison, perhaps even to the enemy's
+camp, what was still too new a joy not to be a secret treasure of
+delight.  So he only wrung the old Captain's hand, and strode away
+as soon as he was released.
+
+It was nearly dark, in spite of a rising moon, but beneath the
+cloister arch was torchlight, glancing on a steel head-piece, and
+on a white cap, both bending down over a prostrate figure; and he
+heard the voice he loved so well say, 'It is over!  I can do no
+more.  It were best to dig his grave at once here in silence--it
+will discourage the people less.  Renaud and Armand, here!'
+
+He paused for a few minutes unseen in the shadow while she closed
+the eyes and composed the limbs of the dead soldier; then,
+kneeling, said the Lord's Prayer in French over him.  Was this the
+being he had left as the petted plaything of the palace?  When she
+rose, she came to the arch and gazed wistfully across the moonlit
+quadrangle, beyond the dark shade cast by the buildings, saying to
+the soldier, 'You are sure he was safe?'
+
+'My Eustacie,' said Berenger, coming forward, 'we meet in grave
+times!'
+
+The relief of knowing him safe after the sickening yearnings and
+suspense of the day, and moreover the old ring of tenderness in his
+tone, made her spring to him with real warmth of gladness, and cry,
+'It is you!  All is well.
+
+'Blessedly well, _ma mie_, my sweetheart,' he said, throwing his
+arm round her, and she rested against him murmuring, 'Now I feel
+it!  Thou are thyself!'  They were in the dark cloister passage,
+and when he would have moved forward she clung closer to him, and
+murmured, 'Oh, wait, wait, yet an instant--thus I can feel that I
+have thee--the same--my own!'
+
+'My poor darling,' said Berenger, after a second, 'you must learn
+to bear with both my looks and speech, though I be but a sorry
+shattered fellow for you.'
+
+'No, no,' she cried, hanging on him with double fervour.  'No, I am
+loving you the more already,--doubly--trebly--a thousand times.
+Only those moments were so precious, they made all these long years
+as nothing.  But come to the little one, and to your brother.'
+
+The little one had already heard them, and was starting forward to
+meet them, though daunted for a moment by the sight of the strange
+father: she stood on the pavement, in the full flood of the
+moonlight from the east window, which whitened her fair face,
+flaxen hair, and gray dress, so that she did truly look like some
+spirit woven of the moonbeams.  Eustacie gave a cry of satisfac-
+tion:  'Ah! good, good; it was by moonlight that I saw her first!'
+
+Berenger took her in his arm, and held her to his breast with a
+sense of insatiable love, while Philip exclaimed, 'Ay, well may you
+make much of her, brother.  Well might you seek them far and wide.
+Such treasures are not to be found in the wide world.'
+
+Berenger without answering, carried the little one to the step of
+the ruined high altar, and there knelt, holding Eustacie by the
+hand, the child in one arm, and, with the moon glancing on his high
+white brow and earnest face, he spoke a few words of solemn thanks
+and prayer for a blessing on their reunion, and the babe so
+wonderfully preserved to them.
+
+Not till then did he carry her into the lamplight by Philip's bed,
+and scan therein every feature, to satisfy his eyes with the
+fulfilled hope that had borne him through those darkest days, when,
+despairing of the mother, the thought of the child had still
+sustained him to throw his will into the balance of the scale
+between life and death.  Little Berangere gazed up into his face
+silently, with wondering, grave, and somewhat sleepy eyes, and then
+he saw them fix themselves on his powder-grimed and blood-stained
+hands.  'Ah! little heart,' he said, 'I am truly in no state to
+handle so pure a piece of sugar as thou; I should have rid myself
+of the battle-stains ere touching thee, but how recollect anything
+at such a moment?'
+
+Eustacie was glad he had broken the spell of silence; for having
+recovered her husband, her first instinct was to wait upon him.
+She took the child from him, explaining that she was going to put
+her to bed in her own rooms up the stone stair, which for the
+present were filled with fugitive women and children who had come
+in from the country, so that the chancel must continue the lodging
+of Berenger and his brother; and for the time of her absence she
+brought him water to wash away the stains, and set before him the
+soup she had kept warm over her little charcoal brazier.  It was
+only when thus left that he could own, in answer to Philip's
+inquiries, that he could feel either hunger or weariness; nay, he
+would only acknowledge enough of the latter to give a perfect charm
+to rest under such auspices.  Eustacie had dispatched her motherly
+cares promptly enough to be with him again just as in taking off
+his corselet he had found that it had been pierced by a bullet, and
+pursuing the trace, through his doublet, he found it lodged in that
+purse which he had so long worn next his heart, where it had spent
+its force against the single pearl of Ribaumont.  And holding it up
+to the light, he saw that it was of silver.  Then there returned on
+him and Philip the words they had heard two days before, of silver
+bullets forged for the destruction of the white moonlight fairy,
+and he further remembered the moment's shock and blow that in the
+midst of his wild amaze on the river's bank had made him gather his
+breath and strength to bound desperately upwards, lest the next
+moment he should find himself wounded and powerless.
+
+For the innocent, then, had the shot been intended; and she running
+into danger out of her sweet, tender instincts of helpfulness, had
+been barely saved at the extreme peril of her unconscious father's
+life.  Philip, whose vehement affection for the little one had been
+growing all day, was in the act of telling Berenger to string the
+bullet in the place of the injured pearl, as the most precious
+heirloom of Ribaumont bravery, when Eustacie returned, and learning
+all, grew pale and shuddered as danger had never made her do
+before: but this strange day had almost made a coward of her.
+
+'And this is has spared,' said Berenger, taking out the string of
+little yellow shells.  'Dost know them, sweet heart?  They have
+been my chaplet all this time.'
+
+'Ah!' cried Eustacie, 'poor, good Mademoiselle Noemi! she threaded
+them for my child, when she was very little.  Ah! could she have
+given them to you--could it then not have been true--that horror?'
+
+'Alas! it was too true.  I found these shells in the empty cradle,
+in the burnt house, and deemed them all I should ever have of my
+babe.'
+
+'Poor Noemi! poor Noemi!  She always longed to be a martyr; but we
+fled from her, and the fate we had brought on her.  That was the
+thought that preyed on my dear father.  He grieved so to have left
+his sheep--and it was only for my sake.  Ah! I have brought evil on
+all who have been good to me, beginning with you.  You had better
+cast me off, or I shall bring yet worse!'
+
+'Let it be so, if we are only together.'
+
+He drew her to him and she laid her head on his shoulder,
+murmuring, 'Ah! father, father, were you but here to see it. So
+desolate yesterday, so ineffably blest today.  Oh! I cannot even
+grieve for him now, save that he could not just have seen us; yet I
+think he knew it would be so.'
+
+'Nay, it may be that he does see us,' said Berenger.  'Would that I
+had known who it was whom you were laying down "_en paix et seurte
+bonne_!"  As it was, the psalm brought precious thoughts of Chateau
+Leurre, and the little wife who was wont to sing it with me.'
+
+'Ah!' said Eustacie, 'it was when he sang those words as he was
+about to sleep in the ruin of the Temple that first I-- cowering
+there in terror--knew him for no Templar's ghost, but for a friend.
+That story ended my worst desolation.  That night he became my
+father; the next my child came to me!'
+
+'My precious treasure!  Ah! what you must have undergone, and I all
+unknowing, capable of nothing wiser than going out of my senses,
+and raging in a fever because I could convince no one that those
+were all lies about your being aught but my true and loving wife.
+But tell me, what brought thee hither to be the tutelary patron,
+where, but for the siege, I had over-passed thee on the way to
+Quinet?'
+
+Then Eustacie told him how the Italian pedlar had stolen her
+letters, and attempted to poison her child--the pedlar whom he soon
+identified with that wizard who had talked to him of 'Esperance,'
+until the cue had evidently been given by the Chevalier.  Soon
+after the Duke had dispatched a messenger to say that the Chevalier
+de Ribaumont was on the way to demand his niece; and as it was a
+period of peace, and the law was decidedly on his side, Madame de
+Quinet would be unable to offer any resistance.  She therefore had
+resolved to send Eustacie away--not to any of the seaports whither
+the uncle would be likely to trace her, but absolutely to a place
+which he would have passed through on his journey into Guyenne.
+The monastery of Notre-Dame de l'Esperance at Pont de Dronne had
+been placed there, as well as a colony of silk-spinners, attracted
+by the mulberry-trees of the old abbey garden.  These, however,
+having conceived some terror of the ghosts of the murdered monks,
+had entreated for a pastor to protect them; and Madame la Duchesse
+thought that in this capacity Isaac Gardon, known by one of the
+many aliases to which the Calvinist ministers constantly resorted,
+might avoid suspicion for the present.  She took the persecuted
+fugitives for some stages in an opposite direction, in her own
+coach, then returned to face and baffle the Chevalier, while her
+trusty steward, by a long _detour_, conducted them to Pont de
+Dronne, which they reached the very night after to Chevalier had
+returned through it to Nid de Merle.
+
+The pastor and his daughter were placed under the special
+protection of Captain Falconnet, and the steward had taken care
+that they should be well lodged in three rooms that had once been
+the abbot's apartments.  Their stay had been at first intended to
+be short, but the long journey had been so full of suffering to
+Isaac, and left such serious effects, that Eustacie could not bear
+to undertake it again, and Madame de Quinet soon perceived that she
+was safer there than at the chateau, since strangers were seldom
+admitted to the fortress, and her presence there attracted no
+attention.  But for Isaac Gardon's declining health, Eustacie would
+have been much happier here than at the chateau; the homely
+housewifely life, where all depended on her, suited her; and, using
+her lessons in domestic arts of nursing and medicine for the
+benefit of her father's flock, she had found, to her dismay, that
+the simple people, in their veneration, had made her into a sort of
+successor to the patroness of the convent.  Isaac had revived
+enough for a time to be able to conduct the worship in the church,
+and to instruct some his flock; but the teaching of the young had
+been more and more transferred to her, and, as he ingenuously said,
+had taught her more than she ever knew before.  He gradually became
+weaker through more suffering, and was absolutely incapable of
+removal, when an attack by the Guisards was threatened.  Eustacie
+might have been sent back to Quinet; but she would not hear of
+leaving him; and this first had been a mere slight attack, as if a
+mere experiment on the strength of the place.  She had, however,
+then had to take the lead in controlling the women, and teaching
+them to act as nurses, and to carry out provisions; and she must
+then have been seen by some one, who reported her presence there to
+Narcisse--perhaps by the Italian pedlar.  Indeed Humfrey, who came
+in for a moment to receive his master's orders, report his watch,
+and greet his lady, narrated, on the authority of the lately
+enlisted men-at-arms, that M. de Nid de Merle had promised twenty
+crowns to any one who might shoot down the heretics' little white
+_diablesse_.
+
+About six weeks had elapsed since the first attack on Pont de
+Dronne, and in that time Gardon had sunk rapidly.  He died as he
+lived, a gentle, patient man, not a characteristic Calvinist,
+though his lot had been thrown with that party in his perplexed
+life of truth-seeking and disappointment in the aspirations and
+hopes of early youth.  He had been, however, full of peace and
+trust that he should open his eyes where the light was clear, and
+no cloud on either side would mar his perception; and his
+thankfulness had been great for the blessing that his almost
+heaven-sent daughter had been to him in his loneliness,
+bereavement, and decay.  Much as he loved her, he did not show
+himself grieved or distressed on her account; but, as he told her,
+he took the summons to leave her as a sign that his task was done,
+and the term of her trials ended.  'I trust as fully,' he said,
+'that thou wilt soon be in safe and loving hands, as though I could
+commit thee to them.'
+
+And so he died in her arms, leaving her a far fuller measure of
+blessing and of love than ever she had derived from her own father;
+and as the enemy's trumpets were already sounding on the hills, she
+had feared insult to his remains, and had procured his almost
+immediate burial in the cloister, bidding the assistants sing, as
+his farewell, that evening psalm which had first brought soothing
+to her hunted spirit.
+
+There, while unable, after hours of weeping, to tear herself from
+the grave of her father and protector, had she in her utter
+desolation been startled by the summons, not only to attend to the
+wounded stranger, but to lodge him in the chancel.  'Only this was
+wanting,' was the first thought in her desolation, for this had
+been her own most cherished resort.  Either the _bise_, or fear of
+a haunted spot, or both, had led to the nailing up of boards over
+the dividing screen, so that the chancel was entirely concealed
+from the church; and no one ever thought of setting foot there till
+Eustacie, whose Catholic reverence was indestructible, even when
+she was only half sure that it was not worse than a foible, had
+stolen down thither, grieved at its utter desolation, and with fond
+and careful hands had cleansed it, and amended the ruin so far as
+she might.  She had no other place where she was sure of being
+uninterrupted; and here had been her oratory, where she daily
+prayed, and often came to hide her tears and rally her spirits
+through that long attendance on her fatherly friend.  It had been a
+stolen pleasure.  Her reverent work there, if once observed, would
+have been treated as rank idolatry; and it was with consternation
+as well as grief that she found, by the Captain's command, that
+this her sanctuary and refuge was to be invaded by strange
+soldiers!  Little did she think---!
+
+And thus they sat, telling each other all, on the step of the
+ruined chancel, among the lights and shadows of the apse.  How
+unlike to stately Louvre's halls of statuary and cabinets of
+porcelain, or the Arcadian groves of Montpipeau! And yet how little
+they recked that they were in a beleaguered fortress, in the midst
+of ruins, wounded sufferers all around, themselves in hourly
+jeopardy.  It was enough that they had one another.  They were so
+supremely happy that their minds unconsciously gathered up those
+pale lights and dark fantastic shades as adjuncts of their bliss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.  LE BAISER D'EUSTACIE
+
+
+
+No pitying voice, no eye, affords
+One tear to grace his obsequies.--GRAY
+
+
+Golden sunshine made rubies and sapphires of the fragments of glass
+in the windows of Notre-Dame de l'Esperance, and lighted up the
+brown face and earnest eyes of the little dark figure, who, with
+hands clasped round her knees, sat gazing as if she could never
+gaze her fill, upon the sleeping warrior beside whom she sat, his
+clear straight profile like a cameo, both in chiseling and in
+colour, as it lay on the brown cloak where he slept the profound
+sleep of content and of fatigue.
+
+Neither she nor Philip would have spoken or stirred to break that
+well-earned rest; but sounds from without were not long in opening
+his eyes, and as they met her intent gaze, he smiled and said,
+'Good morrow, sweet heart!  What, learning how ugly a fellow is
+come back to thee?'
+
+'No, indeed!  I was trying to trace thine old likeness, and then
+wondering how I ever liked thy boyish face better than the noble
+look thou bearest now!'
+
+'Ah! when I set out to come to thee, I was a walking rainbow; yet I
+was coxcomb enough to think thou wouldst overlook it.'
+
+'Show me those cruel strokes,' she said; 'I see one'--and her
+finger traced the seam as poor King Charles had done--'but where is
+the one my wicked cousin called by that frightful name?'
+
+'Nay, verily, that sweet name spared my life!  A little less spite
+at my peach cheek, and I had been sped, and had not lisped and
+stammered all my days in honour of _le baiser d'Eustacie_!' and as
+he pushed aside his long golden silk moustache to show the
+ineffaceable red and purple scar, he added, smiling, 'It has waited
+long for its right remedy.'
+
+At that moment the door in the rood-screen opened.  Captain
+Falconnet's one eye stared in amazement, and from beneath his gray
+moustache thundered forth the word 'Comment!' in accents fit to
+wake the dead.
+
+Was this Esperance, the most irreproachable of pastor's daughters
+and widows?  'What, Madame, so soon as your good father is under
+ground?  At least I thought ONE woman could be trusted; but it
+seems we must see to the wounded ourselves.'
+
+She blushed, but stood her ground; and Berenger shouted, 'She is my
+wife, sir!--my wife whom I have sought so long!'
+
+'That must be as Madame la Duchesse chooses,' said the Captain.
+'She is under her charge, and must be sent to her as soon as this
+_canaille_ is cleared off.  To your rooms, Madame!'
+
+'I am her husband!' again cried Berenger.  'We have been married
+sixteen years.'
+
+'You need not talk to me of dowry; Madame la Duchesse will settle
+that, if you are fool enough to mean anything by it.  No, no,
+Mademoiselle, I've no time for folly.  Come with me, sir, and see
+if that be true which they say of the rogues outside.'
+
+And putting his arm into Berenger's, he fairly carried him off,
+discoursing by the way on _feu_ M. l'Amiral's saying that 'over-
+strictness in camp was perilous, since a young saint, an old
+devil,' but warning him that this was prohibited gear, as he was
+responsible for the young woman to Madame la Duchesse.  Berenger,
+who had never made the Captain hear anything that he did not know
+before, looked about for some interpreter whose voice might be more
+effectual, but found himself being conducted to the spiral stair of
+the church steeple; and suddenly gathering that some new feature in
+the case had arisen, followed the old man eagerly up the winding
+steps to the little square of leaden roof where the Quinet banner
+was planted.  It commanded a wide and splendid view, to the Bay of
+Biscay on the one hand, and the inland mountains on the other; but
+the warder who already stood there pointed silently to the north,
+where, on the road by which Berenger had come, was to be seen a
+cloud of dust, gilded by the rays of the rising sun.
+
+Who raised it was a matter of no doubt; and Berenger's morning
+orisons were paid with folded hands, in silent thanks-giving, as he
+watched the sparkling of pikes and gleaming of helmets--and the
+white flag of Bourbon at length became visible.
+
+Already the enemy below were sending out scouts--they rode to the
+top of the hill--then a messenger swan his horse across the river.
+In the camp before the bridge-tower men buzzed out of their tents,
+like ants whose hill is disturbed; horses were fastened to the
+cannon, tents were struck, and it was plain that the siege was to
+be raised.
+
+Captain Falconnet did his ally the honour to consult him on the
+expedience of molesting the Guisards by a sally, and trying to take
+some of their guns; but Berenger merely bowed to whatever he said,
+while he debated aloud the PROS and CONS, and at last decided that
+the garrison had been too much reduced for this, and that M. le Duc
+would prefer finding them drawn up in good order to receive him, to
+their going chasing and plundering disreputable among the enemy--
+the Duke being here evidently a much greater personage than the
+King of Navarre, hereditary Governor of Guyenne though he were.
+Indeed, nothing was wanting to the confusion of Berenger's late
+assailants.  In the camp on the north side of the river, things
+were done with some order; but that on the other side was
+absolutely abandoned, and crowds were making in disorder for the
+ford, leaving everything behind them, that they might not have
+their retreat cut off.  Would there be a battle? Falconnet, taking
+in with his eye the numbers of the succouring party, thought the
+Duke would allow the besiegers to depart unmolested, but remembered
+with a sigh that young king had come to meddle in their affair!
+
+However, it was needful to go down and marshal the men for the
+reception of the new-comers, or to join in the fight, as the case
+might be.
+
+And it was a peaceful entrance that took place some hours later,
+and was watched from the windows of the prior's rooms by Eustacie,
+her child, and Philip, whom she had been able to install in her own
+apartments, which had been vacated by the refugee women in haste to
+return home, and where he now sat in Maitre Gardon's great straw
+chair, wrapped in his loose gown, and looking out at the northern
+gates, thrown open to receive the King and Duke, old Falconnet
+presenting the keys to the Duke, the Duke bowing low as he offered
+them to the King, and the King waving them back to the Duke and the
+Captain.  Then they saw Falconnet presenting the tall auxiliary who
+had been so valuable to him, his gesture as he pointed up to the
+window, and the King's upward look, as he doffed his hat and bowed
+low, while Eustacie responded with the most graceful of reverences,
+such as reminded Philip that his little sister-in-law and tender
+nurse was in truth a great court lady.
+
+Presently Berenger came up-stairs, bringing with him his faithful
+foster-brother Osbert, who, though looking gaunt and lean, had
+nearly recovered his strength, and had accompanied the army in
+hopes of finding his master.  The good fellow was full of delight
+at the welcome of his lady, and at once bestirred himself in
+assisting her in rectifying the confusion in which her guests had
+left her apartment.
+
+Matters had not long been set straight when steps were heard on the
+stone stair, and, the door opening wide, Captain Falconnet's gruff
+voice was heard, 'This way, Monseigneur; this way, Sire.'
+
+This was Madame la Baronne de Ribaumont's first reception.  She was
+standing at the dark walnut table, fresh starching and crimping
+Berenger's solitary ruff, while under her merry superintendence
+those constant playfellows, Philip and Rayonette, were washing, or
+pretending to wash, radishes in a large wooden bowl, and Berenger
+was endeavouring to write his letter of good tidings, to be sent by
+special messenger to his grand-father.  Philip was in something
+very like a Geneva gown; Eustacie wore her prim white cap and
+frill, and coarse black serge kirtle; and there was but one chair
+besides that one which Philip was desired to retain, only two
+three-legged stools and a bench.
+
+Nevertheless, Madame de Ribaumont was equal to the occasion;
+nothing could have been more courtly, graceful, or unembarrassed
+than her manner of receiving of King's gallant compliments, and of
+performing all the courtesies suited to the hostess and queen of
+the place: it was the air that would have befitted the stateliest
+castle hall, yet that in its simplicity and brightness still more
+embellished the old ruinous convent-cell.  The King was delighted,
+he sat down upon one of the three-legged stools, took Rayonette
+upon his knee, undertook to finish washing the radishes, but ate
+nearly all he washed, declaring that they put him in mind of his
+old hardy days on the mountains of Bearn.  He insisted on hearing
+all Rayonette's adventure in detail; and on seeing the pearls and
+the silver bullet, 'You could scarcely have needed the token, sir,'
+said he with a smile to Berenger; 'Mademoiselle had already shown
+herself of the true blood of the bravest of knights.'
+
+The tidings of the attack on Pont de Dronne had caused the Duke to
+make a forced march to its relief, in which the King had insisted
+on joining him; and they now intended to wait at Pont de Dronne
+till the rest of the troops came up, and to continue their march
+through Guyenne to Nerac, the capital of Henry's county of Foix.
+The Duke suggested that if Philip were well enough to move when the
+army proceeded, the family might then take him to Quinet, where the
+Duchess would be very desirous to see Madame; and therewith they
+took leave with some good-humoured mirth as to whether M. le
+Ribaumont would join them at supper, or remain in the bosom of his
+family, and whether he were to be regarded as a gay bridegroom or a
+husband of sixteen year's standing.
+
+'Nay,' said the King, 'did his good Orpheus know how nearly his
+Eurydice had slipped through his fingers again? how M. de Quinet
+had caught the respectable Pluto yonder in the gray moustache
+actually arranging an escort to send the lady safe back to Quinet
+_bon gre malgre_--and truly a deaf Pluto was worse than even
+Orpheus had encountered!'
+
+So laughing, he bowed again his compliments; but Eustacie demanded,
+so soon as he was gone, what he meant by calling her by such names.
+If he thought it was her Christian name, it was over-familiar--if
+not, she liked it less.
+
+'It is only that he last saw you in the Infernal Region, _ma mie_,'
+said Berenger; 'and I have sought you ever since, as Orpheus sought
+Eurydice.'
+
+But her learning did not extend so far; and when the explanation
+was made, she pouted, and owned that she could not bear to be
+reminded of the most foolish and uncomfortable scene in her life--
+the cause of all her troubles; and as Berenger was telling her of
+Diane's confession that her being involved in the pageant was part
+of the plot for their detention at Paris, Osbert knocked at the
+door, and entered with a bundle in his arms, and the air of having
+done the right thing.
+
+'There, sir,' he said with proud satisfaction, 'I have been to the
+camp across the river.  I heard there were good stuffs to be had
+there for nothing, and thought I would see if I could find a coat
+for Monsieur Philippe, for his own is a mere ruin.'
+
+This was true, for Eustacie had been deciding that between blood
+and rents it had become a hopeless case for renovation; and Osbert
+joyfully displayed a beautifully-embroidered coat of soft leather,
+which he had purchased for a very small sum of a plunderer who had
+been there before him.  The camp had been so hastily abandoned that
+all the luggage had been left, and, like a true valet, Osbert had
+not neglected the opportunity of replenishing his master's
+wardrobe.  'And,' said he, 'I saw there on whom M. le Baron knows,
+--M. de Nid de Merle.'
+
+'Here!' cried Eustacie, startled for a moment, but her eyes resting
+reassured on her husband.
+
+'Madame need not be alarmed,' said Osbert; 'M. le Baron has well
+repaid him.  Ah! ah! there he lies, a spectacle for all good
+Christians to delight in.'
+
+'It was then he, _le scelerat_?' exclaimed Berenger; 'I have
+already thought it possible.'
+
+'And he fell by your hands!' cried Eustacie.  'That is as it should
+be.'
+
+'Yes, Madame,' said Osbert; 'it did my very heart good to see him
+writhing there like a crushed viper.  M. le Baron's bullet was
+mortal, and his own people thought him not worth the moving, so
+there he lies on the ground howling and cursing.  I would have
+given him the _coup de grace_ myself, but that I thought M. le
+Baron might have some family matters to settle with him; so I only
+asked what he thought now of clapping guiltless folk into dungeons,
+and shooting innocent children like sparrows; but he grinned and
+cursed like a demon, and I left him.'
+
+'In any one's charge?' asked Berenger.
+
+'In the field's, who is coming for him,' said the descendant of the
+Norseman.  'I only told Humfrey that if he saw any one likely to
+meddle he should tell them he was reserved for you.  Eh! M. le
+Baron is not going now.  Supper is about to be served, and if M. le
+Baron would let me array him with this ruff of Spanish point, and
+wax the ends of his belle moustache---'
+
+'It is late,' added Eustacie, laying her hand on his arm; 'there
+may be wild men about--he may be desperate!  Oh, take care!'
+
+'_Ma mie_, do you not think me capable of guarding myself from a
+wild cat leap of a dying man?  He must not be left thus.  Remember
+he is a Ribaumont.'
+
+Vindictiveness and revenge had their part in the fire of Eustacie's
+nature. Many a time had she longed to strangle Narcisse; and she
+was on the point of saying, 'Think of his attempts on that little
+one's life--think of your wounds and captivity;' but she had not
+spent three years with Isaac Gardon without learning that there was
+sin in giving way to her keen hatred; and she forced herself to
+silence, while Berenger said, reading her face, 'Keep it back,
+sweet heart!  Make it not harder for me.  I would as soon go near a
+dying serpent, but it were barbarity to leave him as Osbert
+describes.'
+
+Berenger was too supremely and triumphantly happy not to be full of
+mercy; and as Osbert guided him to the hut where the miserable man
+lay, he felt little but compassion.  The scene was worse than he
+had expected; for not only had the attendants fled, but plunderers
+had come in their room, rent away the coverings from the bed, and
+torn the dying man from it.  Livid, nearly naked, covered with
+blood, his fingers hacked, and ears torn for the sake of the jewels
+on them, lay the dainty and effeminate tiger-fop of former days,
+moaning and scarcely sensible.  But when the mattress had been
+replaced, and Berenger had lifted him back to it, laid a cloak over
+him, and moistened his lips, he opened his eyes, but only to
+exclaim, 'You there! As if I had not enough to mock me!  Away!' and
+closed them sullenly.
+
+'I would try to relieve you, cousin,' said Berenger.
+
+The answer was a savage malediction on hypocrisy, and the words,
+'And my sister?'
+
+'Your sister is in all honour and purity at the nunnery of Lucon.'
+
+He laughed a horrible, incredulous laugh.  'Safely disposed of ere
+you cajoled _la petite_ with the fable of your faithfulness!
+Nothing like a Huguenot for lying to both sides;' and then ensued
+another burst of imprecations on the delay that had prevented him
+from seizing the fugitives--till be--till be felt as if the breath
+of hell were upon him, and could not help vindicating himself, vain
+though he knew it to be: 'Narcisse de Ribaumont,' he said gravely,
+'my word has never been broken, and you know the keeping of it has
+not been without cost.  On that word believe that Madame de
+Selinville is as spotless a matron as when she periled herself to
+save my life.  I never even knew her sex till I had drawn her half
+drowned from the sea, and after that I only saw her in the presence
+of Dom Colombeau of Nissard, in whose care I left her.'
+
+Narcisse's features contorted themselves into a frightful sneer as
+he muttered, 'The intolerable fool; and that he should have got the
+better of me, that is if it be true--and I believe not a word of
+it.'
+
+'At least,' said Berenger, 'waste not these last hours on hating
+and reviling me, but let this fellow of mine, who is a very fair
+surgeon, bind your wound again.'
+
+'Eh!' said Narcisse, spitefully, turning his head, 'your own rogue?
+Let me see what work he made of _le baiser d'Eustacie_.  Pray, how
+does it please her?'
+
+'She thanks Heaven that your chief care was to spoil my face.'
+
+'I hear she is a prime doctress; but of course you brought her not
+hither lest she should hear HOW you got out of our keeping.'
+
+'She knows it.'
+
+'Ah! she has been long enough at court to know one must overlook,
+that one's own little matters may be overlooked.'
+
+Berenger burst out at last, 'Her I will not hear blasphemed: the
+next word against her I leave you to yourself.'
+
+'That is all I want,' said Narcisse.  'These cares of yours are
+only _douceurs_ to your conceited heretical conscience, and a
+lengthening out of this miserable affair.  You would scoff at the
+only real service you could render me.'
+
+'And that is---'
+
+'To fetch a priest.  Ha! ha! one of your sort would sooner hang me.
+You had rather see me perish body and soul in this Huguenot dog-
+hole!  What! do you stammer?  Bring a psalm-singing heretic here,
+and I'll teach him and you what you MAY call blasphemy.'
+
+'A priest you shall have, cousin,' said Berenger, gravely; 'I will
+do my utmost to bring you one.  Meanwhile, strive to bring yourself
+into a state in which he may benefit you.'
+
+Berenger was resolved that the promise should be kept.  He saw that
+despair was hardening the wretched man's heart, and that the
+possibility of fulfilling his Church's rites might lead him to
+address himself to repentance; but the difficulties were great.
+Osbert, the only Catholic at hand, was disposed to continue his
+vengeance beyond the grave, and only at his master's express
+command would even exercise his skill to endeavour to preserve life
+till the confessor could be brought.  Ordinary Huguenots would
+regard the desire of Narcisse as a wicked superstition, and
+Berenger could only hurry back to consult some of the gentlemen who
+might be supposed more unprejudiced.
+
+As he was crossing the quadrangle at full speed, he almost ran
+against the King of Navarre, who was pacing up and down reading
+letters, and who replied to his hasty apologies by saying he looked
+as if the fair Eurydice had slipped through his hands again into
+the Inferno.
+
+'Not so, Sire, but there is one too near those gates.  Nid de Merle
+is lying at the point of death, calling for a priest.'
+
+'_Ventre Saint-Gris_!' exclaimed the King, 'he is the very demon of
+the piece, who carved your face, stole your wife, and had nearly
+shot your daughter.'
+
+'The more need of his repentance, Sire, and without a priest he
+will not try to repent.  I have promised him one.'
+
+'A bold promise!' said Henry.  'Have you thought how our good
+friends here are likely to receive a priest of Baal into the camp?'
+
+'No, Sire, but my best must be done.  I pray you counsel me.'
+
+Henry laughed at the simple confidence of the request, but replied,
+'The readiest way to obtain a priest will be to ride with a flag of
+truce to the enemy's camp--they are at St. Esme--and say that M. de
+Nid de Merle is a prisoner and dying, and that I offer safe-conduct
+to any priest that will come to him--though whether a red-hot
+Calvinist will respect my safe-conduct or your escort is another
+matter.'
+
+'At least, Sire, you sanction my making this request?'
+
+'Have you men enough to take with you to guard you from marauders?'
+
+'I have but two servants, Sire, and I have left them with the
+wounded man.'
+
+'Then I will send with you half a dozen Gascons, who have been long
+enough at Paris with me to have no scruples.'
+
+By the time Berenger had explained matters to his wife and brother,
+and snatched a hasty meal, a party of gay, soldierly-looking
+fellows were in the saddle, commanded by a bronzed sergeant who was
+perfectly at home in conducting messages between contending
+parties.  After a dark ride of about five miles, the camp at the
+village of St. Esme was reached, and this person recommended that
+he himself should go forward with a trumpet, since M. de Ribaumont
+was liable to be claimed as an escaped prisoner.  There was then a
+tedious delay, but at length the soldier returned, and another
+horseman with him.  A priest who had come to the camp in search of
+M. de Nid de Merle was willing to trust himself to the King of
+Navarre's safe-conduct.
+
+'Thanks, sir,' cried Berenger; 'this is a work of true charity.'
+
+'I think I know that voice,' said the priest.
+
+'The priest of Nissard!'
+
+'Even so, sir. I was seeking M. de Nid de Merle, and had but just
+learnt that he had been left behind wounded.'
+
+'You came to tell him of his sister?'
+
+And as they rode together the priest related to Berenger that M. de
+Solivet had remained in the same crushed, humiliated mood, not
+exactly penitent, but too much disappointed and overpowered with
+shame to heed what became of her provided she were not taken back
+to her brother or her aunt.  She knew that repentance alone was
+left for her, and permitted herself to be taken to Lucon, where
+Mere Monique was the only person whom she had ever respected.
+There had no doubt been germs of good within her, but the crime and
+intrigue of the siren court of Catherine de Medicis had choked
+them; and the first sense of better things had been awakened by the
+frank simplicity of the young cousin, while, nevertheless, jealousy
+and family tactics had led her to aid in his destruction, only to
+learn through her remorse how much she loved him.  And when in his
+captivity she thought him in her power, but found him beyond her
+reach, unhallowed as was her passion, yet still the contemplation
+of the virtues of one beloved could not fail to raise her standard.
+It was for his truth and purity that she had loved him, even while
+striving to degrade these quantities; and when he came forth from
+her ordeal unscathed, her worship of him might for a time be more
+intense, but when the idol was removed, the excellence she had
+first learnt to adore in him might yet lead that adoration up to
+the source of all excellence.  All she sought NOW was shelter
+wherein to weep and cower unseen; but the priest believed that her
+tears would soon spring from profound depths of penitence such as
+often concluded the lives of the gay ladies of France.  Mere
+Monique had received her tenderly, and the good priest had gone
+from Lucon to announce her fate to her aunt and brother.
+
+At Bellaise he had found the Abbess much scandalized.  She had
+connived at her niece's releasing the prisoner, for she had
+acquired too much regard for him to let him perish under Narcisse's
+hands, and she had allowed Veronique to personate Diane at the
+funeral mass, and also purposely detained Narcisse to prevent the
+detection of the escape; but the discovery that her niece had
+accompanied his flight had filled her with shame and furry.
+
+Pursuit had been made towards La Rochelle, but when the
+neighbourhood of the King of Navarre became known, no doubt was
+entertained that the fugitives had joined him, and Narcisse,
+reserving his vengeance for the family honour till he should
+encounter Berenger, had hotly resumed the intention of pouncing on
+Eustacie at Pont de Dronne, which had been decided on upon the
+report of the Italian spy, and only deferred by his father's death.
+This once done, Berenger's own supposed infidelity would have
+forced him to acquiesce in the annulment of the original marriage.
+
+It had been a horrible gulf, and Berenger shuddered as one who had
+barely struggled to the shore, and found his dear ones safe, and
+his enemies shattered and helpless on the strand.  They hurried on
+so as to be in time.  The priest, a brave and cautious man, who had
+often before carried the rites of the Church to dying men in the
+midst of the enemy, was in a secular dress, and when Berenger had
+given the password, and obtained admittance they separated, and
+only met again to cross the bridge.  They found Osbert and Humfrey
+on guard, saying that the sufferer still lingered, occasionally in
+a terrible paroxysm of bodily anguish, but usually silent, except
+when he upbraided Osbert with his master's breach of promise or
+incapacity to bring a priest through his Huguenot friends.
+
+Such a taunt was on his tongue when Pere Colombeau entered, and
+checked the scoff by saying, 'See, my son, you have met with more
+pardon and mercy even on earth than you had imagined possible.'
+
+There was a strange spasm on Narcisse's ghastly face, as though he
+almost regretted the obligation forced on him, but Berenger
+scarcely saw him again.  It was needful for the security of the
+priest and the tranquillity of the religious rites that he should
+keep watch outside, lest any of the more fanatical of the Huguenots
+should deem it their duty to break in on what they had worked
+themselves into believing offensive idolatry.
+
+His watch did not prove uncalled for.  At different times he had to
+plead the King's safe-conduct, and his own honour, and even to
+defend his own Protestantism by appealing to his wounds and
+services.  Hearts were not soft enough then for the cruelty of
+disturbing a dying man to be any argument at all in that fierce
+camp; but even there the name of Pere Colombeau met with respect.
+The saintly priest had protected too many enemies for any one who
+had heard of him to wish him ill.
+
+Nearly all night was Berenger thus forced to remain on guard, that
+the sole hope of Narcisse's repentance and salvation might not be
+swept away by violence from without, renewing bitterness within.
+Not till towards morning was he called back.  The hard, lingering
+death struggle had spent itself, and slow convulsive gasps showed
+that life was nearly gone; but the satanic sneer had passed away,
+and a hand held out, a breathing like the word 'pardon' seemed to
+be half uttered, and was answered from the bottom of Berenger's
+kind and pitying heart.  Another quarter of an hour, and Narcisse
+de Ribaumont Nid de Merle was dead.  The priest looked pale,
+exhausted, shocked, but would reveal nothing of the frame of mind
+he had shown, only that if he had been touched by any saving
+penitence, it was owing to his kinsman.
+
+Berenger wished to send the corpse to rest in the family vault at
+Bellaise, where the Chevalier had so lately been laid; and the
+priest undertook to send persons with a flag of truce to provide
+for the transport, as well as to announce the death to the sister
+and the aunt.  Wearied as he was, he would not accept Berenger's
+earnest invitation to come and take rest and refreshment in the
+prior's rooms, but took leave of him at the further side of the
+fortress, with almost reverent blessings, as to one not far from
+the kingdom of heaven; and Berenger, with infinite peacefulness in
+his heart, went home in the silence of the Sunday morning, and lay
+sleeping away his long fatigue through the chief part of the day,
+while Pastor Merlin was preaching and eloquent sermon upon his good
+brother Isaac Gardon, and Eustacie shed filial tears, more of
+tenderness than sorrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.  THE GALIMAFRE
+
+
+
+Speats and raxes, speats and raxes, speat and raxes
+                      Lord Somerville's billet
+
+
+Never wont to let the grass grow under his feet, Henry of Navarre
+was impatient of awaiting his troops at Pont de Dronne, and
+proposed to hasten on to Quinet, as a convenient centre for
+collecting the neighbouring gentry for conference.  Thus, early on
+Monday, a party of about thirty set forth on horseback, including
+the Ribaumonts, Rayonette being perched by turns in front of her
+father or mother, and the Duke de Quinet declaring that he should
+do his best to divide the journey into stages not too long for
+Philip, since he was anxious to give his mother plenty of time to
+make preparations for her royal guest.
+
+He had, however, little reckoned on the young King's promptitude.
+The first courier he had dispatched was overtaken at a _cabaret_
+only five leagues from Pont de Dronne, baiting his horse, as he
+said; the second was found on the road with a lame horse; and the
+halt a day's journey remained beyond it.  The last stage had been
+ridden, much to the Duke's discontent, for it brought them to a
+mere village inn, with scarcely any accommodation.  The only
+tolerable bed was resigned by the King to the use of Philip, whose
+looks spoke the exhaustion of which his tongue scorned to complain.
+So painful and feverish a night ensued that Eustacie was anxious
+that he should not move until the Duke should, as he promised, send
+a mule litter back for him; but this proposal he resented; and in
+the height of his constitutional obstinacy, appeared booted and
+spurred at the first signal to mount.
+
+Nor could Eustacie, as she soon perceived, annoy him more than by
+showing her solicitude for him, or attracting to him the notice of
+the other cavaliers.  As the only lady of the party, she received a
+great deal of attention, with some of which she would gladly have
+dispensed.  Whether it were the King's habit of calling her 'la
+Belle Eurydice_,' or because, as she said, he was '_si laid_' and
+reminded her of old unhappy days of constraint, she did not like
+him, and had almost displeased her husband and his brother by
+saying so.  She would gladly have avoided the gallantries of this
+day's ride by remaining with Philip at the inn; but not only was
+this impossible, but the peculiar ill-temper of concealed suffering
+made Philip drive her off whenever she approached him with
+inquiries; so that she was forced to leave him to his brother and
+Osbert, and ride forward between the King and the Duke, the last of
+whom she really liked.
+
+Welcome was the sight of the grand old chateau, its mighty wings of
+chestnut forest stretching up the hills on either side, and the
+stately avenue extending before it; but just then the last courier
+was discovered, reeling in his saddle under the effects of repeated
+toasts in honour of Navarre and Quinet.
+
+'We are fairly sped,' said the Duke to Eustacie, shrugging his
+shoulders between amusement and dismay.
+
+'Madame la Duchesse is equal to any _galimafre_,' said Eustacie,
+demurely; at which the Duke laughed heartily, saying, 'It is not
+for the family credit I fear, but for my own!'
+
+'Nay, triumph makes everything be forgiven.'
+
+'But not forgotten,' laughed the Duke.  'But, _allons_.  Now for
+the onset.  We are already seen.  The forces muster at the
+gateway.'
+
+By the time the cavalcade were at the great paved archway into the
+court, the Duchess stood at the great door, a grandson on either
+side, and a great burly fresh-coloured gentleman behind her.
+
+M. de Quinet was off his horse in a second, his head bare, his hand
+on the royal rein, and signing to his eldest son to hold the
+stirrup; but, before the boy had comprehended, Henry had sprung
+down, and was kissing the old lady's hand, saying, 'Pardon, Madame!
+I trust to your goodness for excusing this surprise from an old
+friend's son.'
+
+Neither seeing nor caring for king or prince, the stranger
+gentleman at the same moment pounced upon Eustacie and her little
+girl, crying aloud in English, 'Here she is!  My dear, I am glad to
+see you.  Give her to me, poor Berenger's little darling.  Ah! she
+does not understand.  Where's Merrycourt?'
+
+Just then there was another English exclamation, 'My father!
+Father! dear father!' and Philip, flinging himself from the saddle,
+fell almost prone on that broad breast, sobbing convulsively, while
+the eyes that, as he truly boasted, had never wasted a tear on his
+enemies, were streaming so fast that his father's welcome savoured
+of reproof: 'What's all this?  Before these French too.'
+
+'Take care, father,' cried Berenger, leaping from his horse; 'he
+has an ugly wound just where you are holding him.'
+
+'Wounded! my poor boy.  Look up.'
+
+'Where is your room, sir?' said Berenger, seeing his hosts entirely
+occupied with the King; and at once lifting the almost helpless
+Philip like a little child in his strong arms, he followed Sir
+Marmaduke, who, as if walking in his sleep, led the way up the
+great stone staircase that led outside the house to the upper
+chambers.
+
+After a short interval, the Duchess, in the plenitude of her glory
+at entertaining her dear Queen's son, came up _en grande tenue_,
+leading the King by the hand, the Duke walking backwards in front,
+and his two sons each holding a big wax candle on either side.
+
+'Here, Sire, is the chamber where the excellent Queen did me the
+honour to repose herself.'
+
+The Duke swung open the door of the state bed-chamber.  There on
+the velvet-hung bed sat _le gros Chevalier Anglais_, whom she had
+herself installed there on Saturday.  Both his hands were held fast
+in those of a youth who lay beside him, deadly pale, and half
+undressed, with the little Ribaumont attending to a wound in his
+side, while her child was held in the arms of a very tall, bald-
+headed young man, who stood at the foot of the bed.  The whole
+group of interlopers looked perfectly glorified with happiness and
+delight.  Even the wounded youth, ghastly and suffering as he was,
+lay stroking the big Englishman's hand with a languid, caressing
+air of content, almost like that of a dog who has found his master.
+None of them were the least embarrassed, they evidently thought
+this a visit of inquiry after the patient; and while the Duchess
+stood confounded, and the Duke much inclined to laugh, Eustacie
+turned eagerly, exclaiming, 'Ah!  Madame, I am glad you are come.
+May I beg Mademoiselle Perrot for some of your cooling mallow
+salve.  Riding has sadly inflamed the wound.'
+
+'Riding--with such a wound!  Are we all crazed?' said Madame la
+Duchesse, absolutely bewildered out of her dignified equanimity:
+and her son, seeing her for once at a loss, came to her rescue.
+'His Grace will condescend to the Andromeda Chamber, Madame.  He
+kindly gave up his bed to our young friend last night, when there
+was less choice than you can give him.'
+
+They all moved off again; and, before Eustacie was ready for the
+mallows, Madame de Quinet, for whom the very name of a wound had an
+attraction, returned with two hand-maidens bearing bandages and
+medicaments, having by this time come to the perception that the
+wounded youth was the son of the big Englishman who had arrived
+with young Mericour in search of her little _protegee_, and that
+the tall man was the husband so long supposed to be dead.  She was
+curious to see her pupil's surgery, of which she highly approved,
+though she had no words to express her indignation at the folly of
+traveling so soon.  Indeed, nothing but the passiveness of fatigue
+could have made her despotism endurable to Philip; but he cared for
+nothing so long as he could see his father's face, and hear his
+voice--the full tones that his ear had yearned for among the sharp
+expression of the French accent--and Sir Marmaduke seemed to find
+the same perfect satisfaction in the sight of him; indeed, all were
+so rejoiced to be together, that they scarcely exerted themselves
+to ask questions.  When Berenger would have made some explanation,
+Sir Marmaduke only said, 'Tell me not yet, my dear boy.  I see it
+is all right, and my head will hold no more yet but that I have you
+and the lad again!  Thank God for it!  Never mind how.'
+
+When, however, with some difficulty they got him away from Philip's
+bedside down to supper, the King came and made him high compliments
+upon the distinguished bravery of his sons, and Mericour
+interpreted, till Sir Marmaduke--though answering that of course
+the lads must do their duty, and he was only glad to hear they had
+done it--became more and more radiant and proud, as he began to
+gather what their trials and what their steadfastness and courage
+had been.  His goodly face, beaming with honest gladness, was, as
+Henry told the Duchess, an absolute ornament to her table.
+
+Unable, however, to converse with any one but Berenger and
+Mericour, and pining all the time to get back to his son, the
+lengthy and ceremonious meal was a weary penance to him; and so
+soon as his release was possible, he made his way up-stairs again,
+where he found Philip much refreshed by a long sleep, and only
+afraid that he should find the sight of his father merely a dream;
+then, when satisfied on that head, eager to hear of all at home--
+'the sisters, the dogs, my mother, and my little brother?' as he
+arranged his inquiry.
+
+'Ha! you heard of that, did you?'
+
+'Yes,' said Philip, 'the villains gave us letters once--only once--
+and those what they thought would sting us most.  O father, how
+could you all think such foul shame of Berry?'
+
+'Don't speak of it, Phil; I never did, nor Aunt Cecily, not for a
+moment; but my Lord is not the man he was, and those foes of yours
+must have set abroad vile reports for the very purpose of deceiving
+us.  And then this child must needs be born, poor little rogue.  I
+shall be able to take to him now all is right again; but by St.
+George, they have tormented me so about him, and wanted me to take
+him as a providence to join the estates together, instead of you
+and Berry, that I never thought to care so little for a child of my
+own.'
+
+'We drank his health at Nid de Merle, and were not a little
+comforted that you would have him in our place.'
+
+'I'd rather--- Well, it skills not talking of it, but it just shows
+the way of women.  After all the outcry Dame Annora had made about
+her poor son, and no one loving him or heeding his interest save
+herself, no sooner was this little fellow born than she had no
+thought for any but he, and would fain have had her father settle
+all his lands on him, protesting that if Berry lived, his French
+lands were enough for him.  Out of sight, out of mind, is the way
+with women.'
+
+Womanhood was already made accountable for all Lady Thistlewood's
+follies, and Philip acquiesced, asking further, 'Nay, but how came
+you hither, father?  Was it to seek us or Eustacie?'
+
+'Both, both, my lad.  One morning just after Christmas, I rid over
+to Combe with my dame behind me, and found the house in commotion
+with a letter that young Sidney, Berry's friend, had just sent down
+by special messenger.  It had been writ more than a year, but,
+bless you, these poor foreigners have such crooked ears and tongues
+that they don't know what to make of a plain man's name, and the
+only wonder was that it ever came at all.  It seems the Duke here
+had to get it sent over by some of the secret agents the French
+Protestants have in England, and what do they do but send it to one
+of the Vivians in Cornwall; and it was handed about among them for
+how long I cannot say, till there was a chance of sending it up to
+my Lord of Warwick; and he, being able to make nothing if it, shows
+it to his nephew, Philip Sidney, who, perceiving at once whom it
+concerned, sends it straight to my Lord, with a handsome letter
+hoping that it brought good tidings.  There then it was, and so we
+first knew that the poor lady had not been lost in the sack of the
+town, as Master Hobbs told us.  She told us how this Duchess had
+taken her under her protection, but that her enemies were seeking
+her, and had even attempted her child's life.'
+
+'The ruffians! Even so.'
+
+'And she said her old pastor was failing in health, and prayed that
+some trusty person might be sent to bring home at least the child
+to safety with her kindred.  There was a letter to the same effect,
+praising her highly too, from the Duchess, saying that she would do
+her best to guard her, but the kinsmen had the law on their side,
+and she would be safer in England.  Well, this was fair good news,
+save that we marveled the more how you and Berry should have missed
+her; but the matter now was who was the trusty person who should
+go.  Claude Merrycourt was ready---'
+
+'How came he there?' demanded Philip.  'I thought he had gone, or
+been sent off with Lady Burnet's sons.'
+
+'Why, so he had; but there's more to say on that score.  He was so
+much in favour at Combe, that my Lord would not be denied his
+spending the holiday times there; and, besides, last summer we had
+a mighty coil.  The Horners of Mells made me a rare good offer for
+Lucy for their eldest son, chiefly because they wanted a wife for
+him of my Lady Walwyn's and Mistress Cecily's breeding; and my wife
+was all for accepting it, having by that time given up all hope of
+poor Berry.  But I would have no commands laid on my girl, seeing
+that I had pledged my word not to cross her in the matter, and she
+hung about my neck and prayed me so meekly to leave her unwedded,
+that I must have been made of stone not to yield to her.  So I told
+Mr. Horner that his son Jack must wait for little Nancy if he
+wanted a daughter of mine--and the stripling is young enough.  I
+believe he will.  But women's tongues are not easy to stop, and
+Lucy was worn so thin, and had tears in her eyes--that she thought
+I never marked--whenever she was fretted or flouted, and at last I
+took her back to stay at Combe for Aunt Cecily to cheer up a bit;
+and--well, well, to get rid of the matter and silence Dame Nan, I
+consented to a betrothal between her and Merrycourt--since she
+vowed she would rather wait single for him than wed any one else.
+He is a good youth, and is working himself to a shadow between
+studying and teaching; but as to sending him alone to bring Berry's
+wife back, he was over-young for that.  No one could do that fitly
+save myself, and I only wish I had gone three years ago, to keep
+you two foolish lads out of harm's way.  But they set up an
+unheard-of hubbub, and made sure I should lose myself.  What are
+you laughing at, you Jacksauce?'
+
+'To think of you starting, father, with not a word of French, and
+never from home further than once to London.'
+
+'Ah! you thought to come the traveled gentleman over me, but I've
+been even with you.  I made Dame Nan teach me a few words, but I
+never could remember anything but that "mercy" is "thank ye."
+However, Merrycourt offered to come with me, and my Lord wished it.
+Moreover, I thought he might aid in tracing you out.  So I saw my
+Lord alone, and he passed his word to me that, come what would, no
+one should persuade him to alter his will to do wrong to Berenger's
+daughter; and so soon as Master Hobbs could get the THROSTLE
+unladen, and fitted out again, we sailed for Bordeau, and there he
+is waiting for us, while Clause and I bought horses and hired a
+guide, and made our way here on Saturday, where we were very
+welcome; and the Duchess said she would but wait till she could
+learn there were no bands of the enemy at hand, to go down with me
+herself to the place where she had sent the lady.  A right worthy
+dame is this same Duchess, and a stately; and that young King, as
+they call him, seems hard to please, for he told Berry that his
+wife's courtliness and ease in his reception were far above aught
+that he found here.  What he means is past a plain man, for as to
+Berry's wife she is handy, and notable enough, and 'tis well he
+loves her so well; but what a little brown thing it is, for a man
+to have gone through such risks for.  Nothing to look at beside his
+mother!'
+
+'If you could only see Madame de Selinville!' sighed Philip; then--
+'Ah! sir, you would know the worth of Eustacie had you seen her in
+yonder town.'
+
+'Very like!' said Sir Marmaduke; 'but after all our fears at home
+of a fine court madam, it takes one aback to see a little homely
+brown thing, clad like a serving wench.  Well, Dame Nan will not be
+displeased, she always said the girl would grow up no beauty, and
+'tis the way of women to brook none fairer than themselves!  Better
+so.  She is a good Protestant, and has done rarely by you, Phil.'
+
+'Truly, I might be glad 'twas no court madam that stood by me when
+Berry was called back to the fight: and for the little one, 'tis
+the loveliest and bravest little maid I ever saw.  Have they told
+you of the marigolds, father?'
+
+'Why, the King told the whole to the Duchess, so Berry said, and
+then drank the health of the daughter of the bravest of knights;
+and Berry held her up in his arms to bow again, and drink to them
+from his glass.  Berry looked a proud man, I can tell you, and a
+comely, spite of his baldness; and 'tis worth having come here to
+see how much you lads are thought of--though to be sure 'tis not
+often the poor creatures here see so much of an Englishman as we
+have made of Berry.'
+
+Philip could not but laugh.  ''Tis scarce for that that they value
+him, sir.'
+
+'Say you so?  Nay, methinks his English heart and yours did them
+good service.  Indeed, the King himself told me as much by the
+mouth of Merrycourt.  May that youngster's head only not be turned!
+Why, they set him at table above Berenger, and above half the
+King's gentlemen.  Even the Duchess makes as if he were one of her
+highest guests--he a poor Oxford scholar, doubting if he can get
+his bread by the law, and flouted as though he were not good enough
+for my daughter.  'Tis the world topsy turvy, sure enough!  And
+that this true love that Berenger has run through fire and water
+after, like a knight in a pedlar's run through turn out a mere
+little, brown, common-looking woman after all, not one whit equal
+to Lucy!'
+
+Sir Marmaduke modified his disappointment a little that night, when
+he had talked Philip into a state of feverishness and suffering
+that became worse under Madame de Quinet's reproofs and remedies,
+and only yielded to Eustacie's long and patient soothing.  He then
+could almost have owned that it was well she was not like his own
+cherished type of womanhood, and the next day he changed his
+opinion still more, even as to her appearance.
+
+There was a great gathering of favourers of the Huguenot cause on
+that day; gentlemen came from all parts to consult with Henry of
+Navarre, and Madame de Quinet had too much sense of the fitness of
+things to allow Madame de Ribaumont to appear at the ensuing
+banquet in her shabby, rusty black serge, and tight white
+borderless cap.  The whole wardrobe of the poor young Duchess de
+Quinet was placed at her service, and though, with the thought of
+her adopted father on her heart, she refused gay colours, yet when,
+her toilette complete, she said into Philip's room, he almost
+sprang up in delight, and Sir Marmaduke rose and ceremoniously
+bowed as to a stranger, and was only undeceived when little
+Rayonette ran joyously to Philip, asking if _Manan_ was not _si
+belle, si belle_.
+
+The effects of her unrestful nights has now passed away, and left
+her magnificent eyes in their full brilliancy and arch fire; the
+blooming glow was restored to her cheek; and though neck, brow, and
+hands were browner than in the shelter of convent or palace, she
+was far more near absolute beauty than in former days, both from
+countenance and from age.  Her little proud head was clustered with
+glossy locks of jet, still short, but curling round her brow and
+neck, whose warm brunette tints contrasted well with the delicate,
+stiffened cobweb of her exquisite standing ruff, which was gathered
+into a white satin bodice, with a skirt of the same material, over
+which swept a rich black brocade train open in front, with an open
+body and half-sleeves with falling lace, and the hands, delicate
+and shapely as ever, if indeed a little tanned, held fan and
+handkerchief with as much courtly grace as though they had never
+stirred broth nor wrung out linen.  Sir Marmaduke really feared he
+had the court madam on his hands after all, but he forgot all about
+his fears, as she stood laughing and talking, and by her pretty
+airs and gestures, smiles and signs, making him enter into her
+mirth with Philip, almost as well as if she had not spoken French.
+
+Even Berenger started, when he came up after the counsel to fetch
+her to the banqueting-hall.  She was more entirely the Eustacie of
+the Louvre than he had ever realized seeing her, and yet so much
+more; and when the Duchess beheld the sensation she produced among
+the _noblesse_, it was with self-congratulation in having kept her
+in retirement while it was still not known that she was not a
+widow.  The King of Navarre had already found her the only lady
+present possessed of the peculiar aroma of high-breeding which
+belonged to the society in which both he and she had been most at
+home, and his attentions were more than she liked from one whose
+epithet of Eurydice she had never quite forgiven; at least, that
+was the only reason she could assign for her distaste, but the
+Duchess understood her better than did Berenger, nay, better than
+she did herself, and kept her under the maternal wings of double
+form and ceremony.
+
+Berenger, meanwhile, was in great favour.  A command had been
+offered him by the King of Navarre, who had promised that if he
+would cast in his lot with the Huguenots, his claims on all the
+lands of Ribaumont should be enforced on the King of France when
+terms were wrung from him, and Narcisse's death removed all valid
+obstacle to their recognition; but Berenger felt himself bound by
+all home duties to return to England, nor had he clear convictions
+as to the absolute right of the war in which he had almost
+unconsciously drawn his sword.  Under the Tudors the divine right
+of kings was strongly believed in, and it was with many genuine
+misgivings that the cause of Protestant revolt was favoured by
+Elisabeth and her ministers; and Berenger, bred up in a strong
+sense of loyalty, as well as in doctrines that, as he had received
+them, savoured as little of Calvinism as of Romanism, was not ready
+to espouse the Huguenot cause with all his heart; and as he could
+by no means have fought on the side of King Henry III. or of the
+Guises, felt thankful that the knot could be cut by renouncing
+France altogether, according to the arrangement which had been
+defeated by the Chevalier's own supper-subtle machinations.
+
+At the conference of gentlemen held at Quinet, he had been startled
+by hearing the name of the Sieur de Bellaise, and had identified
+him with a grave, thin, noble-looking man, with an air of high-bred
+and patient poverty.  He was a Catholic but no Guisard, and
+supported the middle policy of the Montmorency party, so far as he
+possessed any influence; but his was only the weight of personal
+character, for he had merely a small property that had descended to
+him through his grandmother, the wife of the unfortunate Bellaise
+who had pined to death in the dungeon at Loches, under Louis XI.
+Here, then, Berenger saw the right means of riding himself and his
+family of the burthen that his father had mourned over, and it only
+remained to convince Eustacie.  Her first feeling when she heard of
+the King's offer, was that at last her ardent wish would be
+gratified, she should see her husband at the head of her vassals,
+and hear the war-cry motto '_A moi Ribaumont_.'  Then came the old
+representation that the Vendeen peasants were faithful Catholics
+who could hardly be asked to fight on the Calvinist side.  The old
+spirit rose in a flush, a pout, a half-uttered query why those
+creatures should be allowed their opinions.  Madame la Baronne was
+resuming her haughty temperament in the _noblesse_ atmosphere; but
+in the midst came the remembrance of having made that very speech
+in her Temple ruin--of the grave sad look of rebuke and shake of
+the head with which the good old minister had received it--and how
+she had sulked at him till forced to throw herself on him to hinder
+her separation from her child.  She burst into tears, and as
+Berenger, in some distress, began to assure her that he would and
+could do nothing without her consent, she struggled to recover
+voice to say, 'No! no! I only grieve that I am still as wicked as
+ever, after these three years with that saint, my dear father.  Do
+as you will, only pardon me, the little fierce one!'
+
+And then, when she was made to perceive that her husband would have
+to fight alone, and could not take her with him to share his
+triumphs or bind his wounds, at least not except by bringing her in
+contact with Henry of Navarre and that atmosphere of the old court,
+she acquiesced the more readily.  She was a woman who could feel
+but not reason; and, though she loved Nid de Merle, and had been
+proud of it, Berenger's description of the ill-used Sieur de
+Bellaise had the more effect on her, because she well remembered
+the traditions whispered among the peasants with whom her childhood
+had been passed, that the village crones declared nothing had gone
+well with the place since the Bellaise had been expelled, with a
+piteous tale of the broken-hearted lady, that she had never till
+now understood.
+
+For the flagrant injustice perpetrated on her uncle and cousin in
+the settlement on Berenger and herself she cared little, thinking
+they had pretty well repaid themselves, and not entering into
+Berenger's deeper view, that this injustice was the more to be
+deplored as the occasion of their guilt; but she had no doubt or
+question as to the grand stroke of yielding up her claims on the
+estate to the Sieur de Bellaise.  The generosity of the deed struck
+her imagination, and if Berenger would not lead her vassals to
+battle, she did not want them.  There was no difficulty with Sir
+Marmaduke; he only vowed that he liked Berenger's wife all the
+better for being free of so many yards of French dirt tacked to her
+petticoat, and Philip hated the remembrance of those red sugar-loaf
+pinnacles far too much not to wish his brother to be rid of them.
+
+M. de Bellaise, when once he understood that restitution was
+intended, astonished Sir Marmaduke by launching himself on
+Berenger's neck with tears of joy; and Henry of Navarre, though
+sorry to lose such a partisan as the young Baron, allowed that the
+Bellaise claims, being those of a Catholic, might serve to keep out
+some far more dangerous person whom the court party might select in
+opposition to an outlaw and a Protestant like M. de Ribaumont.
+
+'So you leave us,' he said in private to Berenger, to whom he had
+taken a great liking.  'I cannot blame you for not casting your lot
+into such a witch's caldron as this poor country.  My friends think
+I dallied at court like Rinaldo in Armida's garden.  They do not
+understand that when one hears the name of Bourbon one does not
+willingly make war with the Crown, still less that the good Calvin
+left a doctrine bitter to the taste and tough of digestion.  Maybe,
+since I have been forced to add my spoon to stir the caldron, it
+may clear itself; if so, you will remember that you have rights in
+Normandy and Picardy.'
+
+This was the royal farewell.  Henry and his suite departed the next
+morning, but the Duchess insisted on retaining her other guests
+till Philip's cure should be complete.  Meantime, Claude de
+Mericour had written to his brother and arranged a meeting with
+him.  He was now no boy who could be coerced, but a staid, self-
+reliant, scholarly person, with a sword by his side and an English
+passport to secure him, and his brother did not regard him as quite
+the disgrace to his family he had at first deemed him.  He was at
+least no rebel; and though the law seemed to French eyes infinitely
+beneath the dignity of a scion of nobility, still it was something
+not to have him a heretic preacher, and to be able at least to
+speak of him as betrothed to the sister of the Baron de Ribaumont.
+Moreover, that Huguenot kinsman, whose extreme Calvinist opinions
+had so nearly revolted Mericour, had died and left him all his
+means, as the only Protestant in the family; and the amount, when
+Claude arranged matters with his brother, proved to be sufficient
+to bear him through his expenses handsomely as a student, with the
+hope of marriage so soon as he should have kept his terms at the
+Temple.
+
+And thus the good ship THROSTLE bore home the whole happy party to
+Weymouth, and good Sir Marmaduke had an unceasing cause for
+exultation in the brilliant success of his mission to France.
+
+After all, the first to revisit that country was no other than the
+once homesick Philip.  He wearied of inaction, and thought his
+county neighbours ineffably dull and lubberly, while they blamed
+him for being a fine, Frenchified gentleman, even while finding no
+fault with their old friend Berenger, or that notable little,
+lively, housewifely lady his wife, whose broken English and bright
+simplicity charmed every one.  Sorely Philip needed something to
+do; he might have been a gentleman pensioner, but he had no notion,
+he said, of loitering after a lady to boat and hunt, when such a
+king as Henry of Navarre was in the field; and he agreed with
+Eustacie in her estimate of the court, that it was horribly dull,
+and wanting in all the sparkle and brilliancy that even he had
+perceived at Paris.
+
+Eustacie gladly retreated to housewifery at Combe Walwyn, but a
+strenuous endeavour on Lady Thistlewood's part to marry her stepson
+to a Dorset king's daughter, together with the tidings of the
+renewed war in France, spurred Philip into writing permission from
+his father to join the King of Navarre as a volunteer.
+
+Years went by, and Philip was only heard of in occasional letters,
+accompanied by presents to his sisters and to little Rayonette, and
+telling of marches, exploits, and battles,--how he had taken a
+standard of the League at Coutras, and how he had led a charge of
+pikemen at Ivry, for which he received the thanks of Henry IV.
+But, though so near home, he did not set foot on English ground
+till the throne of France was secured to the hero of Navarre, and
+he had marched into Paris in guise very unlike the manner he had
+left it.
+
+Then home he came, a bronzed gallant-looking warrior, the pride of
+the county, ready for repose and for aid to his father in his
+hearty old age, and bearing with him a pressing invitation from the
+King to Monsieur and Madame de Ribaumont to resume their rank at
+court.  Berenger, who had for many years only known himself as Lord
+Walwyn, shook his head.  'I thank the King,' he said, 'but I am
+better content to breed up my children as wholly English.  He bade
+me to return when he should have stirred the witch's caldron into
+clearness.  Alas! all he has done is to make brilliant colours
+shine on the vapour thereof.  Nay, Phil; I know your ardent love
+for him, and marvel not at it.  Before he joined the Catholic
+Church I trusted that he might have given truth to the one party,
+and unity to the other; but when the clergy accepted him with all
+his private vices, and he surrendered unconditionally, I lost hope.
+I fear there is worse in store.  Queen Catherine did her most fatal
+work of evil when she corrupted Henry of Navarre.'
+
+'If you say more, Berry, I shall be ready to challenge you!' said
+Philip.  'When you saw him, you little knew the true king of souls
+that he is, is greatness, or his love for his country.'
+
+'Nay, I believe it; but tell me, Philip, did you not hint that you
+had been among former friends--at Lucon, you said, I think?'
+
+Philip's face changed.  'Yes; it was for that I wished to see you
+alone.  My troop had to occupy the place.  I had to visit the
+convent to arrange for quartering my men so as least to scandalize
+the sisters.  The Abbess came to speak to me.  I knew her only by
+her eyes!  She is changed--aged, wan, thin with their discipline
+and fasts--but she once or twice smiled as she alone in old times
+could smile.  The place rings with her devotion, her charity, her
+penances, and truly her face is'--he could hardly speak--'like that
+of a saint.  She knew me at once, asked for you all, and bade me
+tell you that NOW she prays for you and yours continually, and
+blesses you for having opened to her the way of peace.  Ah! Berry,
+I always told you she had not her equal.'
+
+'Think you so even now?'
+
+'How should I not, when I have seen what repentance has made of
+her?'
+
+'So!' said Berenger, rather sorrowfully, 'our great Protestant
+champion has still left his heart behind in a French convent.'
+
+'Stay, Berenger! do you remember yonder villain conjurer's
+prediction that I should wed none but a lady whose cognizance was
+the leopard?'
+
+'And you seem bent on accomplishing it,' said Berenger.
+
+'Nay, but in another manner--that which you devised on the spur of
+the moment.  Berenger, I knew the sorcerer spake sooth when that
+little moonbeam child of yours brought me the flowers from the
+rampart.  I had speech with her last night.  She has all the fair
+loveliness that belongs of right to your mother's grandchild, but
+her eye, blue as it is, has the Ribaumont spirit; the turn of the
+head and the smile are what I loved long ago in yonder lady, and,
+above all, she is her own sweet self.  Berenger, give me your
+daughter Berangere, and I ask no portion with her but the silver
+bullet.  Keep the pearls for your son's heirloom; all I ask with
+Rayonette is the silver bullet.'
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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