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THE

MAGICIAN

LEITCH RITCHIE

THREE VOLUMES VOL. II

LONDON JOHN MACRONE ST. JAMES'S SQUARE

MDCCCXXXVI

J. Haddon and Co , Doctors' Common*.

8^3

THE MAGICIAN.

CHAPTER I.

The conspiracy of the relations of Gilies de Retz, which disturbed the latter part of the reign of John v., was in all probability, as the English knight Beauchamp had hinted, entered into more from personal than public motives. Or rather, it may be considered as one of the last throes of a convulsion which had continued for numerous cen- turies. The patient had been bled and blistered almost ad cleliqiiium cniimi, and the disease could

VOL. II. B

2^ THE MAGICIAN.

no longer pamper itself on the rebellious juices of the body ; but still, a sudden heave now and then demonstrated, that although subdued it was not yet expelled. Like the devils of Scripture, when adjured by a stronger power, it would rend the victim once more, before leaving him for ever.

However this may be, the conspirators who, during the night, had held grave debate on the question, as to whether they should seize and cany off a prisoner, the Damsel of Laval, vied with each other in the morning for the distinction of being the most respectful and devoted of her satellites. The air was cool, yet balmy; their road lay among swelling hills, covered with vhies and fruit-trees ; and, instead of the hazy moon- light which, but a few hours before, had wrapped the world, as if with a winding-sheet, a joyous sun looked down upon their line of march, and glittered along the course of the beautiful Loire, till it was lost in the distance.

In addition to the two hundred men-at-arms who escorted the Damsel, there were several of

THE MAGICIAN. 3

the gentlemen whom Douglas had seen the night before in the ruined hall, with a body of their retainers corresponding to the rank of the indi- vidual. These armed retinues followed the main body, while their commanders rode in front near the litter of Mademoiselle de Laval ; and as, one by one, on arriving at the avenues which led to their own chateaux, they detached themselves from the mass, it w^as not uninteresting to see the whole line halt during the ceremony of leave- taking, and to watch the glittering of their ar- mour, and the dancing of their plumes, as they spurred haughtily along the wooded paths, and at length disappeared among the trees. Sometimes, when the chateau was near, its lord prevailed upon the principal travellers to ride up to the gate, and drink a cup of wine without dismounting, and on such occasions the ladies of the family came out to salute the Damsel as she passed. All these in- cidents contributed, and had done so from the first, to render the progress of the cavalcade ex- tremely slow ; for in reality, a vigorous traveller, b2

'1 THE MAGiCIAN.

even without the assistance of his horse, might liave performed the distance from Angers to Nantes in two days.

There was one thing, however, which gave a very pecuhar character to the procession, as it might be called. This was the absence, even in well-peopled districts, of that noisy crowd which usually fawns upon the progress of the i^reat. The peasants got out of tlie way altogether, or else stood still, either gazing on (be show in absolute silence, or with their eyes fixed upon the ground. All, however, hud their heads unco- vered, and their bodies bent. Groups of meaner travellers, instead of attaching themselves, for pro- tection, to the great body, melted away as it approached, and disappeared among the trees ; and tlius the procession, instead of uniting to itself, as usual, every body whom leisure pernjit- ted or business required to travel the same way, rolled silently along, the uniformity of its march only broken by such incidents as we have men- tioned.

THE MAGICIAN. 5

Among the chiefs who surrounded the litter, although at as great a distance as the breadth of the road permitted, the most conspicuous was Roger de Briqueville, a relation of the family of Laval, and in some sort, a dependant upon his kinsman, the lord de Retz. To him was intrusted, on this occasion, the command of the men-at-arms; but his ordinary office was that of captain of the body-guard of his master. He was low in stature, square-built, and long-armed ; and his coarse, weather-beaten, pock-pitted face, without a single gleam of what is properly termed intellect, disclosed notwithstanding the keenness of a practised sol- dier, and the instinctive fidelity of a mastiff dog.

Close by the litter rode Orosmandel, a man whose extraordinary dignity of deportment awed the rude soldiers around him, as much as the benignity of his countenance interested them. To look at him behind, you would have supposed that he was some sovereign prince, of that by-gone time when the attributes of royalty were not merely its crown and sceptre, but grace, majesty,

6 THE MAGICIAN.

personal strength, and beauty of manly form. In front, his beard, as white as the driven snow, his calm deep eyes, his pale face, moulded by habit into an expression of lofty contemplation, mingled both with sweetness and sadness, gave the idea at once of an apostle and a philosopher ; and few travellers there were who looked upon him, who did not step aside out of his path, and hold their breath while he passed by.

His benign expression, however, had not the usual effect of leading on to familiarity and confi- dence. The persons on his side of the litter sat their horses with an air of constraint ; they gave him, as the sailors say, a wide berth ; and when they conversed at all with each other, it was in a whisper.

Behind the litter, was Hagar, mounted on a mule, her hood drawn over her face, and her whole form enveloped in her cloak. From time to time, she quickened her pace, to reply to the questions of the Damsel, who, in the absence of other female society, than that of her waiting-woman.

THE MAGICIAN. 7

desired occasionally to converse with the stranger. Hitherto they had hardly exchanged words, ex- cept at the moment when the Jewess presented the note from Sir Archibald Douglas ; but at this point of the journey, when they might be said to be almost in the heart of Gilles de Retz's personal domain, all the chiefs who had joined the pro- cession on the route, had taken their leave, and mademoiselle de Laval had time to think of her protogee.

"Tell me, maiden,'' said she, "you whose dark eyes speak of warmer suns than ours, what is your parentage and country V

" My father, lady, is a merchant from the east, who liveth by trafficking in goods and monies ; and for me, I have no country, being as one bom in the desert, and by the wayside."

'' Poor girl ! and you know not even the land wherein you saw the light ! Speak, is your father wealthy ?"

" Of a merchant it cannot be said. He is wealthy; for his substance is always in peril. Nevertheless

THE MAGICIAN,

the Lord hath dealt bountifully with our house^, and we have wherewithal to live.

" Is he in Paris ? "

" Nay."

" Then with whom didst thou part ? " interposed Orosmandel, fixing his penetrating eye upon her. " I can read the signs of the human affections, and I know what belongeth to love, and what to kindred."

Hagar stood silent, and interdicted ; for she had not lied boldly, like one who would save her father at the expense of a harmless falsehood ; but had cheated her conscience with the quibble contained in her words : for the Jew was not in Paris, but under it.

"To whom go you at Nantes?" demanded Pauline goodnaturedly, in order to screen the young woman's confusion.

'^ To the kinsfolk of our house, who are also traffickers like my father.''

" And the knight," added Pauline, in a lower tone, after glancing furtively at Orosmandel, who had relapsed into his usual abstraction, — "he

4 THE MAGICIAN. 9

whose missive you delivered to me — how did you — " She coloured deeply while she spoke, and then added, with an effort at indifference, •^ Have you known him long ? "

" I never saw him before that night/' replied Hagar.

" Indeed ! And where did you see him then ? You were, no doubt, strongly recommended."

" I was — 1 met him at a hostehie called the Pomme-du-Pin." There was a peculiarity in Ha- gar's voice while she spoke, which induced the Damsel to look up at her face, which was partly concealed by her hood ; and she saw that her usually colourless complexion was suffused with a bright glow. Pauline was silent for some moments.

" Did you say by whom you were recommend- ed ? " said she at last carelessly.

" By an intimate friend and blood-relation of the knight."

"Minion!" said the Damsel suddenly, and in a tone of haughty displeasure ; " he has nor friend nor kinsman in the whole realm of France." b3

10 THE MAGICIAN.

" Of a surety, madam, I have spoken the truth ; and the meeting was appointed by the knight himself." Having so spoken, Hagar suffered her mule to fall gradually behind; aware she had given offence, she could not conceive of what nature, to her powerful protectress ; yet desirous of discontinuing, at all risks, a conversation which might tend to the discovery of more of her affairs than might be consistent with her father's safety.

The cavalcade at length reached a side path, which, diverging from the great highway to Nantes, led across the country to La Verriere, the residence of the lord de Retz. This was not their route, however, for it was intended to go straight on to the city ; and Pauline, after pausing for a moment to gaze up the avenue, and to whisper a prayer before a crucifix which marked its entrance, directed her litter to proceed. But Orosmandel stood still ; and she paused again out of respect. No one would presume to pass the philosopher, who appeared to be plunged in the deepest ab-

THE MAGICIAN. 11

straction ; and thus a silent and unbidden halt took place along the whole line.

A peasant woman was kneeling at the foot of the crucifix, completely wrapped in her cloak, and apparently absorbed in religious meditation ; but the caution or timidity, whichever it might be, that had seemed to affect the whole of her class, was lost in curiosity when the procession stopped, and she turned her head to see what was the matter. She proved to be the same young woman who had given the warning to Sir Archibald Douglas ; and the Damsel, observing her, made a sign that she should approach when she had finished her devotions.

"How is it with you, Marie?" said she, in a low voice ; ^' Are you quite recovered?"

"Yes, madam: thanks to your ladyship, St. Julian, and the Holy Virgin." " Where have you been?" " To see a relation of my late uncle.'* *' And you are now going back to your village ?"

12 THE MAGICIAN.

" Yes, madam ; to be married, if you please."

" You met with no mishaps or adventures this time I hope," said the Damsel, smiHng, as she put a piece of money into the girFs hand, and waved an adieu.

" Yes, madam," rephed Marie, taking care that no one else should hear, yet avoiding any look or tone of sifrnificance : " I fell in with a knioht under unusual circumstances, with a bloody heart emblazoned on his coat of arms/'

" Under what circumstances?" demanded Pau- line quickly.

" A report had got abroad among the peasants that you were in danger. The knight perilled his life, on a desperate chance, to find out the truth ; and I have not seen or heard of him since.'*

At this moment, Orosmandel, awaking from his reverie, commanded De Briqueville to take the path to La Verriere.

"To La Verriere!" repeated the latter in sur- prise, but with submissive respect ; " to-morrow, my lord gives a mystery to the people at Nantes,

THE MAGICIAN. 13

and I understood, from his own letters and your directions, that he would expect us at the hotel de la Suze."

"He did — he does not," replied the sage mildly, *' proceed."

Pauhne de Laval, who was by this time much nigh tired of shows and cities, and too well accustomed to Orosmandel even to wonder at his apparently supernatural intelligence, consented readily to the change of route. She was, besides, desirous of obtaining more leisure than Nantes would afford for those metaphysical medi- tations which are so important to a girl of seven- teen ; and, tlesiring Marie to walk near the litter, so far as her village, the cavalcade was once more in motion.

Hagar, in the meantime, in whose mind the ideas of death and dishonour were inseparably connected with the abode of Prelati, was uncertain for a moment how to act. Her heart impelled her to thank mademoiselle de Laval for her protection, and take open leave ; but she remem-

14 THE MAGICIAN.

bered the offence she had unconsciously given, and the flash of haughty anger which had lightened for a moment in the Damsel's eyes ; and the habitual caution of the oppressed and persecuted — which the oppressors and persecutors term mean- ness of spirit — prevailed. Amidst the confusion of turning into so narrow a path, she suffered her mule to fall behind, edging herself gradually out of the mass, and hoping that, if once clear of the leaders of the cavalcade, the others would con- clude that she had permission to pursue her own way.

In this manner she found herself at length com- pletely extricated from the line ; and switching her mule with good will, she rode as quickly along the highway as she could venture to do without running a risk of exciting suspicion. Having gained a certain short distance, she could not resist a desire which beset her to look round ; and, turning her head, as if by fascination, she saw Sir Roger de Briqueville standing in his stirrups, and looking after her. The knight waved his

THE MAGICIAN. 16

hand for her to return ; and she was near enough to observe a grim smile upon his countenance. Hagar at first, without stopping, merely pointed along the road, as if to say that Nantes was her destination; but a more impatient gesture from Briqueville convinced her that he was in earnest, and with a quaking heart, she rode back.

" Sir Knight,'' said she, " the term of my jour- ney is not La Verriere, but the city Nantes ; and I pray thee humbly, that thou wilt accept of the thanks of thy handmaid, and convey them also to the Damsel of Laval, for the protection vouch- safed to me thus far."

" La Verriere is your road to Nantes," replied the knight gruffly, " come, come," as he saw she hesitated, " if you affect so much state, we must have a groom to lead your mule by the bridle." Hagar instantly rode up to the litter.

" Damsel," said she, dismounting, " I return thee my humble thanks for the protection thou hast vouchsafed to me thus far ; and I now crave permission to proceed direct, even to the city Nantes."

16 THE MAGICIAN.

" I have had occasion to question your ve- racity," replied the Damsel, severely, but in a low tone ; " Did you mean to prove it by absconding stealthily from my protection ? "

" Madam," said Hagar in desperation, " thou didst ask of my kindred and my 'country. Behold, I am a Jewess, even a dweller in the wilderness! Let me pass on in peace ; for there can be no communion betwixt tliee and me."

'^ How ! a Jewess ! This is indeed surprising ! A Jewess gives rendezvous to a man in a public tavern ; and he — a kinsman of the princely house of Douglas, and a Christian knight — imme- diately upon making her acquaintance under these circumstances, craves my friendship in her behalf! Do you know^ her, De Briqueville ? "

" I only know that she must go with us to La Verriere ; and upon business more serious, I guess, than meeting a gallant in a vvinehouse, Jewess though she be."

" I hate all mysteries, except those in a tale ! Will you explain yours, maiden, or pass entirely from my hands ? Choose."

THE MAGICIAN. 17

" I commit myself to the hands of the Most High ! " said Hagar : and with a deep sigh she folded her hands upon her breast, and resumed her journey, following the litter as before. Pau* line looked back more than once, as if hesitating ; but between the stories of Hagar and Marie, such a conflict had been raised in her breast, that her reason had not fair play. She could not help suspecting her own conduct to be ungenerous ; but she quieted her scruples by determining to redeem her word on the following day ; and whether Hagar persisted or not in withholding an explanation, to have her delivered in safety and honour to her friends in Nantes.

As for the Jewess, notwithstanding all that had passed, she trusted so much to her skill in physi- oo:nomy, that she would cheerfully have confided her safety to the Damsel of Laval ; had she not been aware — or at least, if she did not believe — that even her power, and that of her father to boot, would be as nothing against the immutable will of one who was in her judgment the most

J8 THE MAGICIAN.

talented and subtle villain on the face of the earth. She determined to escape, if escape was possible, before entering the inclosures of the chS,teau of La Verriere; and for this purpose she awaited with impatience till a halt should take place for refreshment.

At present, in fact, she knew herself to be out of her element, seated on the back of an animal to which she was a stranger, and which she could not manage, and exposed to the gaze of a crowd of men. She had no self-confidence ; she felt powerless and awkward ; and eagerly did she long for the moment when, placed on her own feet, she might exercise that art which the habits of her life had rendered easy — of " going and coming with no more noise than the shadow on the wall." The thought did not present itself without associations. The art was not entirely born of persecution and mystery. It had also been cultivated as a means of surprising and interesting the young Scot; and that which at first was an amusement of her girlish fancy, had

THE MAGICIAN. 19

become at length — though still unconsciously— the business of her woman's heart. Bitterly did she grieve for the selfish cruelty of her father in devoting David to a danger so imminent. " Well may the heathen despise us," said she in her heart ; " the God of Jacob must first renew our spirit, before he buildeth up again the house of Israel."

The halt at length took place at the castle of Huguemont, the lord of which claimed kindred with the house of Laval. The Damsel was here under a well-known roof, and in the society of friends ; and although the distance was now in- considerable to La Verriere, as some unfavourable symptoms of a change of weather presented them- selves in the sky, it was determined to remain there for the night.

Hagar crossed the drawbridge with a beating heart — which ceased to beat for some moments when she found herself in a court, surrounded by walls so lofty, that hope itself could not soar over them; and when soon after she knew by the clanking of the chains of the bridge, that the only

20 THE MAGICIAN.

passage for human foot to the external world was withdrawn. De Briqueville looked at her with a sarcastic smile, as he saw her fairly caged ; but, controlling himself as it seemed, he said in a tone more respectful than the words,

" We would receive you into the hall, were it possible ; but, being an unbeliever, you must eat either above, or with any of the servants who will suifer you."

" Not soj De Briqueville," interposed Pauline de Laval, who overheard him, " This young woman, be it known to you, is under my special protection. She will in the meantime eat with the peasant Marie, for whom I have ordered some refreshment, before she passes on to her village ; and ere retiring to rest, I shall see her myself, and give farther instructions respecting her."

Hagar was now shown into a small low-roofed room, which, but for a window, might have seemed nothing more than a recess ; and there she re- mained for some time alone, her thoughts too deeply concentrated to be disturbed by the tumul-

THE MAGICIAN. 21

tuous noise of hurrying steps and calling voices which filled the corridor, and, it might have seemed, the whole castle. Everj^ chance of escape depended upon the character of Marie ; and when at length this young woman entered the room, bearing the refreshments in her hand which the domestics were either too busy or too proud to serve, she gazed in her face with a look of such intense scrutiny as to excite the girl's surprise.

** Perhaps you wonder at my waiting upon a Jewess ?" said Marie at last ; '* but the blessed St. Julian bestows upon travellers what company he pleases ; and moreover, we do not find that the good Samaritan inquired into the belief of the wounded man before he relieved him. Eat and drink, therefore, you who are weary and desolate by the wayside, and stricken, God help us 1 even while yet a girl, by the troubles of the world."

'' I knew it," said Hagar, almost aloud ; *' I saw it in her eye. She hath neither the stupid brutality of a peasant, nor the ignorant pride of a noble. The

22 The magician.

God of our fathers be praised !" She then, after grateful thanks, '' brake bread " with her, and, having fortified her trembling heart with a mouthful of wine, spoke thus :

^' Thou hast truly said, that I am weary and desolate, and stricken with sorrow 1 I am even as a bird, chased into the net of the fowler; and I have no hope save in the great God of Jew and Gentile — and in thee ! Start not : although well- nurtured, and taught beyond thy rank, I know that thou art yet an unregarded peasant ; and for that very reason, thou canst save me."

'' From what, in the name of God ? And in what manner? You are no prisoner;" for Marie had not heard what was said by De Brique- ville — "and the Damsel of Laval, with her own lips, gave me strict charge to treat you well. If you are oppressed, it is to her you must address your- self; for she is mistress even here, where her father does not command."

" Were it in the power of the Damsel of Laval to protect me, I would confide in her even us

THE MAGICIAN. 23

in a good angel ; but, if once within the precincts of La Verriere, I am lost."

'' You are indeed fair," said Marie, thinking that at last she understood her; "you are passing •fair; but you will be under the charge of his own daughter ; and above all, you are a Jewess. Still it is said," and she sunk her voice to a whisper, *' it is said, that Gilles de Retz is not scrupulous ; and wilder stories are told of the deeds in La Verriere than ever entered into the brain of a fablier."

** What stories ?" demanded Hagar. *' Fables, doubtless. Screams have been heard in the midnight wood ; and corpse-lights seen glimmering among the trees. Individuals belong- ing to the establishment at the castle have sud- denly disappeared ; and the skiff of more than one fisherman, returning at night, has run against a corpse floating in the sluggish Erdre. The Damsel of Laval has not been there since she was a child ; and that is nothing to the credit of La Verriere." After the girl had finished, Hagar sat looking

24 THE MAGICIAN.

at her for some time, in silent dismay ; her thoughts, however, not altogether occupied with her own danger. She at length took a purse from her girdle, and, putting it into Marie's hand, which she pressed convulsively within both hers :

"Wilt thou aid me to escape?" said she. The girl calmly rejected the bribe, and then moved her seat away ; partly offended by the offer, and partly as feeling the degradation of having been touched so familiarly by a Jewess.

" I cannot," she replied, somewhat more coldly than before, " I dare not even hint at your danger, to the Damsel of Laval."

"I ask it not," said Hagar, eagerly, "but we are alike in stature ; take thou my cloak, and give me thine, and I will go forth in thy semblance. Take also this under robe," for she saw the girl's eye glisten as if in admiration of its richness and elegance, " it will be a wedding garment— nay, let me throw it on thy shoulders. There ; it becometh thee well, for it is only the free and the happy for whom such raiment is fitting. And it shall come

THE MAGICIAN. 25

to pass, that when thou wearest it, thou shalt think of her whom thou didst preserve ; and be- hold ! thy face at that moment shall look more lovely in the eyes of thine husband, than if there were enwoven in the silk a talisman framed by the art of the magician !'

Marie was generous and high-minded ; but she had a touch of woman's vanity as well as woman's pity, and it was with a sigh she rejected the robe.

'' I consent to exchange cloaks," said she ; " the Damsel will think me ungrateful, but the time may come when she will find out her mistake; and, if it never does, I shall know that she is mistaken myself." She would then have taken off the robe ; but Hagar suddenly threw her cloak above it, and enveloped her in its voluminous folds. She then wrapped herself in the cloak of the peasant girl.

''Tell me," said she, " what is the risk which thou runnest ?"

'* The risk of appearing ungrateful. You will probably pass in this disguise ; and I shall only

VOL. II. C

26 THE MAGICIAN-

have to wait for a change of guard ; for as my face is known, I can pass in any dress."

" But if the damsel should call for me before a change of guard ?"

" Take no thought of that ; when my determina- tion is taken, I can dare as well as you. Turn to the left when you pass the gate, and walk on with what speed you may, till nightfall. You will then, since you have money in your purse, find lodgings for the night, in the nearest cottage, and a guide to Nantes by daybreak. Adieu !" Hagar, who was but little accustomed to kindness, could not speak for the swelling of her heart. She stooped down, and kissed the peasant's hand. Marie hesitated for a moment ; but then, putting her arm round the waist of her protog^e, she kissed the Jewess on the brow. And so they parted.

27

CHAPTER II.

Hagar, unencumbered by her mule, and in the disguise of a peasant, had Uttle difficulty in escaping from the castle ; more especially as she found few of the guards completely sober, except the individual whose duty it was to turn the key. When she made her appearance at the postern, it had just been opened for the egress of several persons of her own apparent rank ; and a hearty buffet which, in the surprise and terror of the moment, she presented to one of the soldiers who attempted to salute her, not only kept up the character she personated, but afforded her an ex- cuse for gliding suddenly past the gate-keeper, without waiting for the usual examination, c 2

28 THE MAGICIAN.

" Who goes there ?" cried the man in surprise : "Comrades, did you see any one pass?— if you are still capable of seeing."

" I saw a shadow, " answered one, " gliding along the wall, and then vanishing."

" Shadow !" repeated a soldier, rubbing his ear, " It was flesh and blood — or rather absolute bone - ril answer for it ; and, by the same token, it had the hand and arm of Marie."

"It was the Jewess," said another, ^* — hiccup ! — touching whom we were warned so severely. I knew her by the black eyes — hiccup ! — for being seated on this bench — by reason — "

" By reason that you cannot stand."

"Hiccup! — I saw up under her hood. Thou wilt dangle, comrade, from the battlements to- morrow, as surely as these keys dangle to-night at thy girdle." The laugh of derision which fol- lowed this speech reached the ears of Hagar, and assured her that she was safe for the present.

She walked, or rather glided on with a rapidity which made her incapable of coherent thought,

THE MAGICIAN. 29

and for a space of time which she could only guess at by the changes which took place in the sky. When she left the castle, it was a duil^ lowering, threatening afternoon j and when she halted, for the first time, the shadows of evening were dissolving, like exorcised spirits, beneath a briUiant and beautiful moon. The Loire, with its massive coteaux and magnificent vistas, was far behind her ; and she seemed to have entered an- other country — but still a land of enchantment, which the imagination disunites from the realities of life, to identify it with its own creations.

The horizon was everywhere bounded by low, wooded hills, swelHng in wild confusion ; yet smooth and unbroken, like the waves of the sea subsiding after a storm. In the middle, at the foot of the eminence on which she stood, but still at some distance, lay an immense oblong sheet of water resembling a lake, the waters of which, as tranquil as death, resembled a mass of molten silver, while their level banks were as black as night. A portentous stillness seemed to

30 THE MAGICIAN.

brood in the air. Not a human habitation was visible. The night-wind, which cools the cheek everywhere else, was not admitted here. There was no motion perceptible in nature ; except that of the distant shadows of twilight, sinking con- fusedly in the earth, or disappearing as they fled over the hills.

Hagar looked round in surprise, and growing alarm. But, lonely and outcast as she had been from her birth, it was not of solitude she was afraid, nor of the stillness of nature. There was no lake, she knew, in that part of the country — no waters of any extent, save those of the Erdre ; and those dreary banks, dark, solemn, and mysterious, could be none other than the confines of this noiseless, and nearly motionless, river. Marie, in directing her to walk on till nightfall, had cal- culated her speed by that of other people ; and, by this fatal mistake, she was now, no doubt, running straight into the jaws of that danger from which it was worth life and honour to escape.

As soon as this conviction flashed upon the

THE MAGICIAN. 31

mind of the Jewess, she turned abruptly from the path ; and, measuring the country as well as she could with her eye, shaped her course in such a manner as to enable her to continue parallel with the river, without approaching it : the chateau of La Verriere, she knew, standing close to the water's edge. She found it a different thing, however, from gliding along a beaten path, to cut through seemingly interminable woods, and wind around hills and eminences ; and when at length she gained an elevated spot clear of trees, she saw that the Erdre was much nearer, and at least sus- pected a dark formless object on the bank to be the abode of Prelati. Again she made an effort to escape ; even retreating so directly from the river, as to leave behind her destination, Nantes, at the same time. All was in vain. A spell seemed to be around her ; and when she saw for the third time the stirless waters of the Erdre, she could perceive distinctly that they were domi- nated by a fortified building.

Hagar sat down upon a stone, quaking in every

32 THE MAGICIAN.

limb, and looking towards this object without being able for some time to withdraw her eyes from its fascination. She was not much given to superstition ; yet the feeHng crept upon her mind that she was the victim of magical delusion, that she was at that moment upon enchanted ground ! The spot where she rested was a conical eminence, so regular in form as to give the idea of an artificial mound. It was in some places covered with stunted trees and brushwood, with here and there large mossy stones, similar to the one on which she sat. As Hagar observed this, she got up hastily, and saw that she had been sitting on a tombstone.

She walked on a few steps in trepidation ; and then paused abruptly.

" It is a sepulchre," said she, almost aloud, and as if debating with her own thick-coming fancies — " And what then ? Is a grave-stone so unfit a resting-place for a daughter of the captivity? Will the dead refuse fellowship with one cut off from the living ? And will the spirits of the dead

THE MAGICIAN. 33

arise from their forgotten tombs to say unto me, 'Hence, outcast! begone from us!'" She sat down upon another stone, and burying her face in her hands, prayed silently.

On raising her head again, she was ashamed of the childish terrors which had beset her. Con- vinced that it was in vain to think of escape by the uncertain light of the moon, she looked about for some shelter which might preserve lier from the keen night air ; and, so far from disliking the locality to which chance, or fate, had guided her, she now thought that her best chance of safety was with the dead.

'*The Christians affirm," vsaid she, ^^ that bad spirits dare not enter within the circle of their holy ground ; and, in like manner, a deserted church- yard is no place for the midnight resort of bad men."

She had hitherto been in the moonlight ; but on going down the shady side of the eminence, she saw, half hidden by trees, some ruined walls ; but of what description the original building had been, it was impossible to tell. From the locality, c 3

34 THE MAGICIAN.

however, she guessed it to have been a chapel ; and this idea was confirmed when, on approaching nearer, she discovered an opening, arched with mouldering stones, and almost choked up with thorns and nettles, which was evidently the en- trance to what had once been a burying vault. Here was shelter from the keenness of the night air. Here was refuge from her enemies. Why should she hesitate to take up her abode for a few hours upon such a spot? Was not the whole earth a burying-giound? And was this lonely, silent nook a worse resting-place for the living, because a hundred years ago, or more, it had been a resting-place for the dead ?

Hagar, unfastening her cloak, removed her hood from her head, and suffered it to fall back upon her shoulders, that she might stoop more easily ; and as her eye rested for a moment upon her boddice and gown thus disclosed, a sorrowful yet disdainful smile lighted up her features, as with a gleam of moonlight. The garments were highly fantastic in their fashion, and of a stuff so

THE MAGICIAN. 36

prodigiously rich, that her father had insisted upon her wearing them under her cloak and upper robe (which she had given to Marie), as the most certain means of preserving them. Her figure at that moment — her strange dress, and the lofty expression of her beautiful, foreign-looking coun- tenance, must have formed altogether a very re- markable picture ; especially when taken in con- junction with the scene — a ruin of ruins — a de- cayed mansion of the dead.

As she stretched forth her hand to put aside the brambles, it may be that some lingering feeling of superstition assailed her; for she stepped hastily back, and retreated several paces. Her heart beat wildly. She stood for some time gazing at the cavern ; till, at length, ashamed as well as alarmed, she endeavoured by a strong effort to banish the infantine fears which, by deluding and bewildering her imagination, threatened every moment to realize themselves. The thorns and brambles, in fact, which half concealed the vault, began to move. Hagar thought she was fainting,

36 THE MAGICIAN.

and that this was a symptom, and caught at the ruins beside her for support. But the next moment a human figure appeared at the door of the house of mortahty.

She did not scream ; she did not move ; she did not close her eyes; yet her recollection was gone for some moments. The idea of Prelati filled her mind, and pressed upon her brain. This was all the consciousness she possessed. Everything else — place, time, circumstance — had vanished.

Even before her outward senses completely re- turned, her mind was busy preparing its energies to meet so fearful an emergency. She raised her figure to its full height ; and, passing her hand before her eyes, as if to drive away the film which obscured them, fixed a look of sedate and collected resolve upon his face. It was not the face of Prelati. A tall man, approaching to middle life, stood before her; his figure concealed by the folds of his cloak, but his dark and lustrous eyes fixed upon hers, with an expression in which wonder struggled with veneration.

THE MAGICIAN. 37

^' Is it come at last?" said he, his voice quiver- ing: vvith emotion; " Speak ! Art thou dust ? Art thou a thing of mortal life ? Answer, for I will not blench ! "

" I am even as thou," replied the Jewess, draw- inor the hood of her cloak over her head. " For- give, I pray thee, an intrusion which I could not intend, seeing that I am as one who hasteth on a journey;" and, with a humble reverence, she moved quickly away, yet with sufficient presence of mind to take the direction leading from the castle.

She had not raised her eyes to observe the eftect of her words upon the stranger ; but on leaving the spot, she had heard a deep expiration, as if of one whose breath had been pent up for some time. She glided on, however, with as much speed as she could exert, without appearing to fly. In that neighbourhood, she thought, all men were dangerous to her, for it was the property of Pre- lati to bend to his own will the soul of every one within his reach, and to make him an agent and

38 THE MAGICIAN.

tool of his designs. After some minutes had elapsed, she began to breathe more freely ; the country seemed to open ; and from the glimpse occasionally afforded, she knew that she had at length broken the spell which confined her feet within the circle of La Verriere.

Her self-gratulations, however, were premature ; for by and by she heard the noise of footsteps behind her. She quickened her steps, till, on gaining an open space, she might have seemed to a spectator to skim along the sward ; but still her pursuer gained upon her ; and in a few minutes more he was by her side.

In vain she quickened, then slackened her pace, he still maintained the same relative position. In the moonlight, his tall shadow mingled with hers ; in the dusky grove she could hear him breathe close beside her, when she could hardly discern his figure. She was at length emboldened by her very terror to look up, and she saw with surprise that her companion was buried in a reverie, which appeared to render him wholly unconscious of her

THE MAGICIAN. 39

presence. This odd and unexpected neglect con- tributed much to restore the Jewess's self-pos- session ; and at length, as they gained an eminence which suddenly disclosed a view of the public road, and a village close by, she stopped suddenly, and said in a resolute tone,

" Permit me to thank thee humbly for the escort with which thou hast honoured me — I am now almost at home." The stranger started from his reverie at her voice. He looked at her so long and earnestly — examining not only the general character of her face, but each individual feature — that her eyes at length sunk beneath his. There was nothing, however, which could offend her modesty in the gaze, for there was nothing in its expression which might not have been as appli- cable to a statue as to a living being.

'*You wish me then to leave you?" said he, " What a strange fate is mine, that I should in- spire distrust or hatred where I would fain seek confidence. Look at me. I am perhaps not an object of admiration, but neither am I calculated

40 THE MAGICIAN.

to create loathing. Here are we, two denizens of the earth, having met by chance, or destiny, in a lonely spot, sacred to the dead ; why should we tly from each other ? Why not rather enter into the communings which relieve the heart of its feeling of solitude ? We are not enemies by nature, but are of the same species, it may be of the same country. What curse is it that hangs upon the human race, turning them one against the other, as if by in- stinctive hostility, even when most closely con- nected by social and natural ties V

The stranoer's words were addressed to Haoar ; yet they seemed to flow in soliloquy. She looked at him several times while he spoke ; but her eyes sunk under the brightness of his. She saw enough, however, to ascertain that he was singu- larly handsome, and noble-looking, that his hair was blacker than the raven's wing, and his com- plexion startingly pale.

"Why do you not answer?" continued he, after a pause ; " I perceive that you understand me ; why, then, do you not speak ? Is it more

THE MAGICIAN. 41

a crime to converse with the lips than with the soul ?'

*'The soul respondeth unconsciously," replied Hagar ; ^* there are many things which place a seal upon the lips. Thou and I are not mere abstractions ; and we cannot hold communion as such. Methinks, for a lover of society, and of the intercourse of his kind, yonder ruined vault was a strange resort !"

" I had business there," said the stranger.

" Business !''

** Yes," said he, as he drew from beneath his cloak an infant's skull. ^' Why start at the sight V he continued ; *^ Do you dislike to look upon] the dead as ^well as the living? What is there in this to fear?"

*' What is there in it to covet ?" demanded she. "Why violate the sanctuary of the dead, to possess a thing at once so useless and so mournful ?" A strange smile passed across his face.

'* Mournful !" said he : " so is the vault in which it was found ; so is the chapel of the

42 THE MAGICIAN.

vault ; so is the hill ; so is the soil on which we tread : for all are ruins, and relics, and remem- brances of what hath passed away. The earth itself is a vast burying-place ; whose mould is composed of the generations it has buried. In a little while this skull will be earth ! If it is more mournful now than then, it is only a proof that our soul is the slave of our senses."

^* And its use ?" said Hagar ; wondering at her own desire to prolong so useless a conversation ; yet fascinated, not only by the musical tone of the speaker's voice, but by what to her half-informed mind was the novelty of his ideas.

^' It is a question that should be answered ; and yet, which cannot be answered lightly or in a breath. The answer would involve a history of myself; a key to my most secret ^thoughts — to my most lofty aspirations. I think, however, I feel — I know that I should not be silent, if I knew you better. You seem to me as one for whom I have been long looking. There is a spirit, a meaning in your eye, of which you are perhaps yourself

THE MAGICIAN. 43

unconscious, but which my soul, practised in the mysteries of nature, knows how to interpret. I feel as if we had known one another in some former state of existence, and half remembered it in this. Let us be friends ; or, if the request be too much for one so recently known, let us become acquainted. I would fain relieve my mind of a load of knowledge which lies upon it like guilt. I have long sought, and sought in vain, the individual in whom the confidence is destined to be placed. If I am not deceived in an art known to few, you are that individual !"

Hagar was not unacquainted with the reveries of the astrologer, the alchemist, the physiognomist, and the other enthusiasts who, at that period, groped in the dark after knowledge ; and, per- haps, if this" discourse had been addressed to her in her father's laboratory, she would have listened without surprise. Here, however, the scene, the time, the person, threw over it an air of such extravagance, that she could have believed herself to be in a dream ; and, for that very reason, it produced the more effect.

44 THE MAGICIAN.

" Sir/' said she, " a communion like that at which you so darkly hint, could only take place between two minds which had undergone the same preparation. I am not different from thee in kind ; neither is the naked African : but my soul is not as thy soul ; I have neither knowledge nor wisdom ; and even in rank, we are so far asunder, that men would wonder to see us hold converse together." And she drew her peasant's cloak around her, forgetting that the stranger must ^have seen the gorgeous apparel beneath ; and unconscious, that her language, and manner of thinking, w^ere at least those of an instructed person.

** Your soul," said he, " I do not know, I only imagine it j for, although it is easy for such as I to guess at the depth from the surfaxie, yet it is only an empirical philosophy which pretends to penetrate to the bottom at a single glance. If you are not she whom I seek, wherefore are you here ? Why should we two have been sifted from the mass of mankind, and thrown together at an hour when the rest of the world is asleep, and on a lonely and

THE MAGICIAN. 45

remote spot, filled with the bones of the forgotten dead ?

" As for rank," and a scornful smile passed over his features, '^ can you tell me whether this was the skull of a royal infant, or a beggar's brat ? What are those distinctions which last but for a few years, and then vanish like a dream? They are as ' nothing, less than nothing, and vanity.' A prince without power and without fortune, is no- thing better than a peasant. Were I, at this mo- ment, to array you in the state of a queen — to rear a silken canopy over your head — to place your foot upon marble and gilding — to stretch under your sway a tract of country greater than the eye could measure — would you be anything; less than a queen because you were born in a village ?

" It is in my power to do this — but this is no- thing. Vanity has no desire, and pride no object, which is not attainable by us both. If you are she whom I seek, queens will be your handmaidens, and knights and bannerets your slaves. But enough for the present. You lodge, where ?"

46 THE MAGICIAN.

The Jewess pointed at hazard to the only cottage in the village where there was still a light in the window,

" Do we meet again at the ruined chapel ?"

*' No— no — no."

" It does not matter. Where ?"

" Verily, I am but a passer by, I may not tarry by the wayside."

" What of that ?"

" I am journeying towards Nantes."

" Be it so, were it towards Babylon. We meet next at Nantes." And the stranger took her hand, and bowing his head upon it gravely, touched it with his lips ; he then turned away without another word, and in a few moments, his graceful figure was lost among the neighbouring trees.*

Hagar was perplexed and astonished ; but as we

* A scene similar to this occurs in the author's " Wan- derings by the Loire ;" to which -work the reader is referred for a historical account of Gilles de Retz, and to the drawings by Turner it contains, for an idea of some of the localities of the present story.

THE MAGICIAN. 47

have already hinted, uot so much by the enthu- siasm of the stranger, which was perfectly in con- sonance with the spirit of the age, as by the whole adventure, taken with its concomitant circum- stances. This singular man was doubtless one of the learned and ingenious persons who occasionally sojourned at the almost regal court of La Verriere. Nay, such was his loftiness of manner and aspect, that she might have supposed him to be the fa- mous Gilles de Retz himself, had she not been aware of the character of the latter. So far from being a contemner of the advantages of rank like the stranger, he was one of the proudest and most ostentatious men of his time. He aped the monarch in state ; transacted his business by means of ambassadors ; and never stirred out of doors, unless when attended by a body-guard of hundreds of men at arms.

Hagar walked slowly towards the village ; and having reached the cottage distinguished by a light in the window, knocked gently at the door. She had heard voices within, and sounds, as if of

48 THE MAGICIAN.

mirth ; but all became silent in an instant. She knocked again ; and, putting her ear to the key- hole, could hear whispered consultations as to the propriety of opening.

"Take care what you are about," said one. " It is nearly midnight — and who knows what visitors this unlucky candle may have attracted ! "

" But only think, Jehan, if it should be one from the castle — and you know they do not care about hours — "

" Bah ! nobody coming from the castle strikes so softly. That was no flesh and blood knock, you may depend upon it. Hush ! "

'* Good friends," said Hagar, " I am a weary and benighted traveller ; and I can pay, in silver money, for a night's lodging."

"Ay, ay, a traveller, no doubt," repeated Jehan, in his rough but frightened whisper, "going to and fro, as usual."

" Yet it was a sweet, low voice."

" To be sure. Does the wolf howl when he asks the sheep to open ? But your honest tra-

THE MAGICIAN. 49

veller does not say, ' Open for a piece of silver,' but, ' Open for the love of the Holy Virgin, who hath sent you one ! ' "

" For all that, I will speak to our bride-cousin ; for she can read and write as well as father Bona- venture himself. Hist! Marie!" and someone came apparently from an inner room. " Here is a knock, which Jehan says is not of flesh and blood ; but to my thinking, the voice that accompanies it is as sweet as a lute ; whereas the Evil One, you know better than we, is likened unto a roaring lion."

Hagar tried the magic of her voice once more, and the door was instantly thrown open.

"Are you come at last?" said the peasant Marie, grasping her hand ; " 1 inquired for you at every house in the village; and, knowing that there was no other shelter, I had begun to dread the worst. Nevertheless, I contrived to persuade my cousin Jehan to sit up for a while, with his sister, on pretence of wishing to talk of some business-matters after my journey with — " A

VOL. II. D

50 THE MAGICIAN.

hoarse chuckle from Jehan, and a laugh from the sister, interrupted her.

" What then ? " said Marie, severely ; " I am to be married the day after to-morrow, and where is the harm ? But make haste, cousin, and give the traveller to eat and drink, for it is time we were all in bed."

" Tell me," said Hagar, " was the anger of her of Laval kindled against thee ? "

" I did not see the Damsel — the watch was changed before she called for me. Yet I had some difficulty in passing the gate ; an absurd story having got among the guard, that I had been already there, beat three of the soldiers black and blue, and rushed out without waiting to an- swer a question. And all because I can read and write ! But come, eat, drink, and to bed. Jehan growls, but will not bite ; and both he and his sister are ignorant that you are — not of us. In the morning we shall all go to Nantes together; as a party has been made up, to see a mystery given to the people by the great lord de Retz."

51

CHAPTER III,

After taking some refreshment, Hagar lay down, without undressing, on a pallet spread in a recess, and speedily sunk into a long though troubled sleep. She was awakened by the beams of the sun striking painfully upon her eye-lids ; and, on looking up, saw Marie standing by he couch, and gazing at her with a strong expression of wonder and admiration.

'* You are a picture," said the latter, " for a limner to draw ! — lying on that bed of leaves, in raiment of gold and silver, like a fairy princess — with your hair blacker than midnight, floating in dishevelled tresses over a cheek, which would be like a marble image, but for the dreams that pass d2

52 THE MAGICIAN.

across it. Get up, lady, and say your matins (if such be the custom of your people), and make your toilet quickly ; for half the village is waiting for us." Hagar obeyed her humble friend at once j and in less time than the latter would have taken to arrange a single curl of her hair, was ready for the journey. In saying her matins, she turned towards the region of the early sun — looking in vain for that Star which had risen above her head while she sleptj and which shall never come again till the firmament itself has passed away. Marie stepped back unconsciously, and turned away her head ; crossing herself repeatedly, as the unhallowed prayers ascended to heaven.

She advised Hagar to draw her cloak com- pletely round her, so as to conceal the singularity of her dress ; and, again bidding her remember that none of the other villagers knew that she was an unbeliever, conducted her out of the house.

" Do not be alarmed," she said, as they walked along, '' at the rough speeches of my cousin Jehan ; for, although he thinks harm almost

THE MAGICIAN.

53

always, he rarely does any. I can, at least, insure you a safe journey to Nantes. That is all you require ?"

"All, my kindest friend. My kindred dwell in the city, under the protection of the duke, and I may look for my father every day. He will thank thee, both in words and deeds, for his daughter ; and believe me, Marie, the old man's blessing will do thee good, and no evil, even though he be of a more ancient faith than thine."

They found about twenty individuals, men, women, boys, and girls, waiting for them at the end of the little village. Among the females there were two or three sufficiently agreeable faces; but Marie was incomparably superior to all both in beauty and manner. Her intended husband was a tall, handsome, good-humoured looking young man, with but little intellect in his coun- tenance, and nothing about him which seemed " nobler than his fortune." In those days, and in that country, the barriers of rank were almost im- passable ; and the education which Marie had

54 THE MAGICIAN.

accidentally received, served no other purpose than occasionally to make her discontented with her lot, and at all times to make her feel as if separate and alone. Her manner towards her betrothed might be termed affectionate ; but it was the affection of a sister to a brother— to a younger brother, whom it w^as her pleasure as well as duty to love and take care of.

Jehan was a sturdy, surly-looking peasant, of some five-and-thirty years of age. His sister, a low-born lass of eighteen, inherited a modification both of the family physiognomy and temper. What was ill-humour in him, however, was in her, at the worst, only a transitory pettishness ; and the straiglitforward coarseness of his mind became refined in the feminine, by the admixture of a little humour and sprightliness, to the sort of acidity usually termed sharpness, or shrewdness.

It was principally with Marie, however, that

Hagar conversed, as they walked along ; and the

former seemed delighted at the opportunity both

. to speak and listen — for conversation was not the

THE MAGICIAN. 55

forte of her betrothed. The Jewess endeavoured to extract from her some more tangible informa- tion than had been afforded by her hints con- cerning the doings at La Verriere ; but she heard nothing that was pleasing ; and indeed, little that was very inteUigible. In the following portion of their dialogue is comprehended nearly all to which she possessed any clue.

*' You must know/' said Marie, *' that a certain number of years ago, there came to the castle a philosopher, as he was called, whose name was messire Jean of Poitou. What is the matter ? Are you unwell ? "

" It was a spasm— it hath passed away," *' He was an unbeliever. He defied God, and worshipped the devil ; and when he met the divine Host upon the road, he turned aside, and spat upon the ground. He occupied separate' apartments in the castle, where a light was seen in the windows all night ; for he possessed, among other wonderful faculties, that of living without sleep. Smoke, and sometimes flame, issued day

56 THE MAGICIAN.

and night from the chimney ; and noises were heard, sometimes as of the rush of waters, and sometimes as of men hammering on an anvil."

'^ He was^ doubtless, an alchemist," said the Jewess.

" He was something worse, as you shall hear. The devil is a dangerous master to serve ; and one day, messire Jean, by some error, either of omission or commission, fell, body and soul, into his power. You may be sure he begged hard for his temporal life ; and at last he gained the boon. The condition was, that every two years he should furnish the fiend with a servant, ready trained and seduced ; whom at the end of the term the Evil One was, if possible, to entrap and destroy. If the victim, however, should contrive to escape, from the horns of the altar, as I may say, messire Jean himself was to take his place, and without hope of further reprieve."

'* And dost thou believe this wild tale?" said Hagar, scarcely able to repress her indignation.

" After a fashion," replied Marie, — " I do not

THE MAGICIAN. 57

believe that beasts can speak and reason ; but I believe in the truth conveyed in the fables, which are the tales of philosophers. We of the ignorant have our fables, as well as the learned, although they be not invented from design ; and even in the wildest and most extravagant, there lurks some matter of fact at the bottom, if we could only obtain a clue to it."

" How was the compact fulfilled ?" demanded Hagar, indignant no more, but in a low and fal- tering voice.

" Messire Jean left the castle, and in due time the first substitute came. I remember seeing him myself He was a young man — tall, pale, and thin ; dark in complexion, and with long black hair falling down upon his shoulders. A bright, red spot burned on either cheek, and his eyes shone so wildly from their deep sockets, that they seemed to shed a preternatural glare over his face. At the end of the two years, he vanished."

" How ? " asked the Jewess, in a scarcely audible whisper.

D 3

5S THE MAGICIAN.

" Doubtless, in sulphureous flames !'* replied Marie, smiling bitterly. *' That night there was a cry heard in the wood — " She stopped in agi- tation.

"Was the spot searched? Did he pass away for ever, without leaving a trace — "

*' Yea — save a handful of his long black hair upon the ground, dabbled in blood ! The second victim — "

'^ Spare me !''

" You do not love horrors ? But this one is soon told ; and it finishes the history. He was a youth with light, silky hair, blue eyes that seemed to dance and swim, and a cheek as fair as a girl's — "

'* Ismael ! Ismael !"

" How ! You knew him V'

'' It is indeed the portrait," said the Jewess, unable to repress her tears, '* of one with whom I played when a child. Go on; for the youth I loved, even as an elder brother, had no portion in the kingdom of darkness."

THE MAGICIAN. 59

" At the end of two years he vanished ; but without cry, and without blood."

*'Then there is hope," said Hagar eagerly, ^^ that he was not — not — "

" There was, for a whole week. But one night the keel of a fisherman's boat struck against something floating on the Erdre. It was the body of the second victim. The third is expected to reach the castle to-morrow."

'^ How knowest thou that, in the name of God V

"Because the precise time will then have elapsed which intervened between the disap- pearance of the first, and the coming of the second victim."

" Tell me — is there any chance of his escape ? any possibility of saving him ?"

" The lord de Retz might doubtless save him, if he would — but we touch on dangerous ground, and I shall speak no farther."

" Once more I entreat ! If the Evil One hold not state, in bodily presence, at La Verriere, he must have some delegate — some viceroy — "

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" Silence ! Forbear ! I have already said too much — I know not why — Not a word "- — for Hagar still attempted to speak — " Not a syllable, or I will have you bound with cords, and carried to the castle."

'* It would be the best thing you could do with her," said Jehan, overhearing her last words, ^' but too wise a thing for you to do, with all your learn- ing. What business had you in the matter? If she was really wanted at La Verriere by those you wot of, it will be the destruction of our whole race."

This sudden and unexpected termination of Marie's disclosures left the Jewess completely bewildered. One thing was certain, however, that David was to be in reality the third vic- tim, and offered up by her father ! A thought of the stranger, and of their promised meeting at Nantes, crossed her mind like a gleam of hope. He had influence, doubtless, with the lord de Retz, and might not slie contrive to acquire influence over him ? '' I will die the death," she mentally

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exclaimed, " if it be needful ; but I will save his life, and I will save the soul of my father from a mortal sin ! "

As the village party approached its destination, they could see the population of the whole sur- rounding country hurrying towards Nantes as to a common centre. All were dressed in their holiday apparel ; and even the sturdy peasant, in his suit of hodden grey, contributed to the picturesque of the scene, having strained the buckle of his belt, upon the same principle on which a beauty endangers her stay-laces, and polished the leaden image stuck in his hat, till it might have been likened to the helmet of a knight, intended at once for ornament and defence. His womankind, in the meantime, trudged after him, vieing with each other in the brilliance both of kerchiefs and complexions; but sometimes the good dame was mounted on horseback, and kept her seat not the less majestically that she rode astride, like a man, as do her descendants of the present day.

Hagar had been but httle accustomed to spec-

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tacles of popular excitement; and, even in her pre- sent anxiety, as they neared the town, where the crowd and hurry redoubled, she felt her colour rise, and her naturally buoyant heart throb with expecta- tion. Every where the people were shutting up their shops and houses ; and all business was, for the time, at a stand. Even the itinerant venders of such luxuries as minister to the appetites of a crowd were contented, on this occasion, to assume the character of disinterested spectators ; for Gilles de Retz, when he entertained the populace, would brook no interference whatever, — furnishing gratuitously, at his own cost, not only the show, but the refreshments.

They at length reached the grand square, where a temporary stage was erected, with galleries near it for the more distinguished spectators, similar to those that were erected for viewing a contest in the Hsts. At this place it was the purpose of Hagar to have withdrawn quietly from her com- panions, and, leaving the square by one of its numerous avenues, to have inquired her way to

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her kinsman's house. Once fairly upon the scene of the spectacle, however, it was in vain to think of escape. In the midst of that crowd she was like a straw in a torrent ; and had it not been for the protection of the surly Jehan, she must have been trampled under foot. But even his efforts in her favour were so far unlucky, that they awakened the ire of several other peasants, who w^ere alike zealously employed in piloting their womankind ; and a kind of scuffle ensued, in which Hagar lost her cloak.

No sooner had this metamorphosis been effect- ed, in which the hooded peasant was converted into a " fairy princess," than a sudden reaction took place, both in the mind and manners of the crowd. Every one believed that, woman though she was, she had something to do in the coming spectacle, or at least that she was in some way connected, with its master; and all held back either in respect or terror. Hagar thus found herself at the extreme edge of the living mass, where it was dressed in line to allow the procession

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of the actors to pass on to the stage ; and there she stood, conspicuous and alone, in a wide semi- circle formed around her by the populace, her fears completely overpowered by shame and vex- ation.

A burst of music at length proclaimed that the procession had entered the square, and a shout of welcome arose from the multitude. When this was silent, Hagar, in the midst of all her em- barrassment, felt her heart stirred at once with fear and delight by the sound of the clear-toned trumpets, mingling with the swell of numerous large organs. The latter instruments, blazing with gold and silver, were carried on men's shoul- ders, and belonged to the private chapel of the singular character who presided over the scene.

Immediately after, a company of valets made their appearance, clearing their way by means of batons, which they applied without ceremony to the shins of the crowd. Then came the band of music, and then the priests of the chapel ; the latter marshalled by a troop of beautiful boys, walking

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backwards, and flinging up golden censors^ from which the incense came forth in wreaths of smoke. The banners, shrines, reliquaries, cru- cifixes, and sacred vessels of their religious esta- blishment, were borne aloft by the ecclesiastics, who were all dressed in robes of cloth of gold ; and perhaps there was not one of the rich abbeys of France which could have decked forth a pageant more sumptuous and imposing. The necks of the crowd were wearied with bowing, and their hands with making the sign of the cross, as one by one those holy things passed by ; but when at length the banner of the patron saint of the house of Laval made its appearance, the whole multitude sunk upon their knees, at the same moment — all save one.

"Down with thee!" cried Marie. "Down, stranger, if you be not mad as well as impious ! " The Jewess crossed her arms tightly upon her bosom, as if she would shrink within herself; but she remained standing erect.

" Is the king of Babylon," said she to her own

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quaking heart, " more terrible than the Most High ? I put my trust in the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ! "

Immediately after the priests came the body- guard, two and two, clad in complete steel, and mounted on superb war-horses. The line extended the whole length of the square ; but, close by, a more than usual space intervened, in the midst of which rode a single knight. The crowd did not rise till he had passed by ; and, indeed, the ho- mage which they rendered him seemed to be even more devout than that accorded to the saint. Every lip moved with sounds of praise or admi- ration ; but the words came forth muffled, as if they dreaded to offend even by flattery. " Noble — generous — bountiful ! " were the whispers that met the ear of Ha gar on one side, and " hand- some— graceful — gallant ! " on the other. At that moment her fears were lost in feminine curiosity ; and, bending forward, she watched impatiently to obtain a full view of the famous Gilles de Retz. The graceful and stately warrior sate with re-

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laxed bridle, as if he left to the fancy of his horse the part they should both play in the procession ; and the animal, conscious of the honour, arched his neck with haughtiness, snorting, and tossing his head, while he stepped mincingly on, as if disdaining to touch the ground. The rider, in the meantime, looked occasionally to one side, to acknowledge, with a half-negligent, half-conde- scending bend, the homage of the people ; and it happened, that as he approached the place where Hagar stood, his face was turned away for this purpose. The Jewess felt more annoyed than she would have acknowledged to herself, when she saw him about to pass by before she had obtained a glimpse of his features ; but at the instant the bridle was tightened, the steed checked in his career, and the knight, turning full round, fixed his eyes with a brilliant, yet respectful smile of recognition upon her face, while he pulled off his jewelled bonnet, and bent his head even to the horse's mane.

Hngar was stunned. The scene fled from her

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eyes ; and for a moment, the grand square of Nantes was filled with the lonely church-yard of the Erdre, and its sepulchral ruins. This was he of the burying-vault — the philosophical enthusiast — the contemner of rank and birth — the companion of her midnight wanderings ! She was aroused from her stupor by the voice of a page, announcing that the lord de Retz invited her to a seat in the gallery. She would have declined the honour ; but a line was already formed for her passage in front, and to retreat through the crowd behind was impossible. In another moment, the Jewess, wondering at all things, and at herself more than all, was seated in a gallery next to that of the family of Laval, and set apart for the magnates of the city.

The priests of the chapel of La Verriere were as expert in the histrionic art as the brothers of the Passion at Paris ; and no sooner had the mystery commenced, than the people forgot even the ge- nerous master of the spectacle, in enthusiasm and delight. There was one of the actors more espe-

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cially, who seemed a well-known favourite of the audience. He was a strangely misshapen being, of dwarfish stature, but singularly agile. The features of his face, if taken individually, might have been reckoned even handsome ; but by some freaks of nature, or else some mischance which occurred in early childhood, every thing seemed out of place, and the jumble produced was at once ludicrous and horrible. His hands and fingers were strangely long and thin, and, but for their delicacy of colour, would have somewhat resem- bled those of an ape. His distorted arms and legs seemed to be of bone and muscle, without a particle of flesh ; and, cased as he was in the fur of a wild beast, his feet hidden by artificial hoofs, and two twisted horns rising from his ominous brow, no better representation could have been found among the sons of men of the goblin he mimicked.

His voice, although not so full and loud as that of David Armstrong, when he enacted Hashnio- dai, was capable of making itself heard still far- ther. Even when coming from a distance, its

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shrill tones seemed to pierce the air, and quiver in the ear like an arrow. But his almost superna- tural agility awakened in a yet higher degree the admiration of the crowd. He leaped about like a being altogether independent of the common laws of motion; vomiting himself up from the jaws of hell, as if he had been nothing more than a puff of sooty smoke, and vanishing again instantane- ously therein, as if the cavity had possessed neither sides nor bottom.

All went on in dumb show while this strangely gifted actor was on the stage; for the crowd ^houted till they were hoarse, and clapped their hands till their fingers ached. At length, in the very midst of one of his flights across the scene, in which he seemed to have intended to fly at one leap, from side to side, he stopped suddenly, as if transfixed with a lance. In this position, he remain- ed so long, without the slightest living motion, that the voices of the people died away in wonder and expectation, and a profound silence succeeded to the uproar.

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By degrees, the fixed eyes of the dwarf began to expand and glare ; his nostrils dilated, his chest rose and fell convulsively ; his limbs writhed and trembled ; and at last, in a voice which made every heart leap, he shrieked, '' Master, I come !'* and sprang from the stage among the crowd. For some moments all was confusion and dismay ; but the voice of Gilles de Ketz, commanding him to return, was speedily heard above the cries of the affrighted peasants. The seeming goblin at first pursued his way, although more slowly; but finally he turned round, as if by compulsion, and climbing up the gallery of Laval like an ape, stood upon the cushioned edge, confronting its lord.

" Whither goest thou ?" demanded the lord de Retz.

"Whither I am summoned," was the reply; and the dwarf writhed in agony while he spoke, and large drops of sweat coursed down his face.

'' How knowest thou that thou art summoned ?"

" By a power— by a sign. For mercy's sake allow me to depart !"

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" What sign? Speak, and go."

The dwarf turned up the sleeve of his dress, and pointed to his long fleshless arm, from which a stream of blood bubbled forth. He then sprung once more among the crowd, and in an instant disappeared.

From the commencement of the show, Hagar had debated within herself, whether or not she should embrace the opportunity, which would no doubt be offered her at its conclusion, of a con- versation with the lord de Retz. This, it seemed, was the meeting to which he had referred on the preceding night ; when it appeared a matter of indillerence to him whether the scene was to be Nantes or Babylon ! There was something so like fatality in the manner in which she had been compelled to keep the rendezvous, that she felt a kind of awe gather upon her mind as she looked upon him. There was nothing, however, in that noble countenance to excite fear ; and when she reflected that he must have been as unconscious as herself of the mode in which they were to be

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acrain thrown too;etber, she at length resolved to give herself up to the current of circumstances, and leave the direction of her course to heaven.

But just as she had come to this conclusion, and began to arrange in her mind the terms in which it would be most proper to introduce the bubject of David Armstrong, the scream of the dwarf broke upon her ear— '' Master, I come!" Hagar, as much startled as the rest of the audience, watched what followed with even more interest than they; and the connexion which appeared to exist between the seeming goblin and Gilles de Retz shocked and alarmed her. The stories of Marie came back upon her recollection with new force ; and she reflected that such horrors could not have taken place at La Verriere without the knowledge and permission of its lord. Although more than ever resolved to attempt all things, in order to save the third victim^ she felt it to be her wisest course to parley with the power- ful and mysterious baron when under the pro- tection of her kinsmen ; and, at the moment of

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the greatest agitation, when a thunderbolt might have fallen among the multitude unnoticed, she glided out of the gallery, and plunged into the crowd.

" If our interview," said she mentally, as she threw a parting glance at Gilles de Retz, whose soul appeared to be absorbed in following the flight of the dwarf — '' If our interview be to come of destiny, or enchantment, my efforts to postpone it will be alike harmless and unavailing " — and, assisted by the prestige which seemed to attach itself to her sumptuous apparel, she made her way through the crowd with less difficulty than might have been expected.

Her good fortune so far, however, was owing in part to the same assistance which she had enjoyed during her entrance; for Jehan, whom she met in the middle of the press, had not yet recovered from his unwonted fit of gallantry.

"And now whither go you, fair mistress ? " de- manded he bluntly, when they were clear of the crowd.

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" To the abode of Rabbi Solomon, if I can find it. If the place be unknown to thee, as being a man of the fields, I can scarcely do wrong in asking the guidance of the first person I meet ; for the Rabbi Solomon, the son of Jacob, is a star in Israel with which the eyes even of the Gentiles are famiHar."

" I know the man, and the place," said Jehan." "Then hesitate not; but let us go swiftly, and a piece of coined money shall testify my grati- tude." Jelian led the way, and Hagar followed him, for a time, with more lightness of heart than she had felt for years. Her perilous journey wa.i accomplished. In a few minutes she would be in the midst of friends and kinsmen, powerful alike by their wealth and the favour of the duke. To that circle would be added, in a few days, by the blessing of Jehovah, her father ; and from such vantage ground she might parley in safety even with Gilles de Retz. The pecuniary embarrass- ments of the lord of La Verriere, if these had been described truly by Prelati, would render him E 2

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still more accessible to her influence ; and David Armstrong, loosed from the horns of the altar, would owe his life to her. The dreams of the Jewess extended no farther. " He will be free," said she, " he will be safe, and I shall be — " The word ' liappy,' which had risen to her lips, was lost in a deep sigh ; and when she raised her eyes to the face of Jehan — for he had stopped, there was in her expression so much of loneliness and desolateness of heart that the rude peasant was troubled.

'^Why do you not knock ?" said he at last, in a forced gruffness of tone.

*• Are we arrived ?''

" Yea." The building seemed to be of immense size ; but, as was frequently the case in the habi- tations of the persecuted Jews, the door was small, and entered from a mean and obscure street. Hagar knocked gently, and then turned round to her conductor.

" My friend," said she, " I this day did thee injustice in my thoughts, and I shall henceforth

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be more distrustful of my own hasty impressions. Accept of this piece of gold as the external token of ray thanks ; but imagine not that my heart will cease to recollect gratefully what thou hast done for one whom thou must have supposed to be a friendless outcast." Jehan looked greedily at the money for a moment, but he drew back without accepting it.

" I have done nothing," said he, " that I ought to repent. Nothing ! — but yet, had I known that she would have so looked, and spoken, and offered gold, when at most I reckoned upon a small piece of silver — Hold ! " for the door had opened, and Hagar was crossing the threshold — *' Yet another word — I did mistake — " The Jewess threw the piece of money to him with a smile, thinking that he had repented his generosity. She then went in, and the door shut.

^' This is not my doing," said Jehan, " after staring vacantly for some time at the closed door ; '' I would have saved her, but she went in of her own free will ; and now the affair is between her

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and the lord de Retz. Few there be who come out of the hotel de la Saze as they went in ! But what is that to me ? Yet I will not touch her money ; no, not with my finger-end ! I have done my duty, and saved my family from the conse- quences of Marie's folly : that is reward enough. But is the gold to lie there, perhaps as a trap, and a snare, and a stumbling-block for the next passer by ? The saints forbid ! I shall carry it straightway to the Hotel Dieu, and give it to the poor ; or rather will I purchase an offering for our altar — Hum ! it may be better still to lay it up with my other savings in the green stocking, and wait the Virgin's pleasure for an opportunity of spending it in some holy purpose ! "

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CHAPTER IV.

Leaving Hagar in the sumptuous city resi- dence of the lord de Retz, called the Hotel de La Suze, we now turn to certain other personages of our history.

When the Damsel of Laval set forth on that day, on the last short stage of her journey to La Verriere, it was with a spirit full of vague un- easiness. Soon after entering the chateau of Huguemont, the evening before, she had had time to reflect on her conduct in the matter of the for- lorn Jewess, and perhaps formed a true judgment in setting it down both as unjust and ungenerous. That the exodus from Paris of one of the per- secuted remnant should be involved in darkness

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and mystery, was surely nothing more than natu- ral ; and the part taken in it by Sir Archibald Douglas, though not yet fully explained, was obviously consistent with the generosity of his character. The blush of Hagar— the changing of her cheek from one colour to another— this was her sole pretext and j ustification !

Even giving the fullest possible weight to this phenomenon, what did it indicate? That the knight was false ? or simply, that the thoughts of a young Hebrew girl, friendless, outcast, and alone, had dwelt somewhat too tenaciously on perhaps the only being upon earth who had ever shown her disinterested kindness ? As for the story of the young knight's " kinsman," of whom she had never heard, this, she thought, might have been a mere mistake ; or else it might have arisen from the ambition of some obscure foreigner in Paris to have it supposed that he was con- nected with the noble house of Douglas. Pauline could not disguise from herself that her moment- ary jealousy originated more in a mean pride than

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womanly passion. Douglas, though noble, vvas a poor adventurer, while she was one of the richest heiresses in Europe. Does he love me for my- self? vvas the barbed thought which had entered her soul, or am I merely the star of his ambition, while another is the mistress of his heart ? She now blushed at the paltriness of such a suspicion when applied to her preux chevalier, and awaited with impatience the moment when the ceremonies of society would permit her to call the young Jewess to her presence.

Sucli was her frame of mind when she received tidinors of the flioht of Hag^ar.

n o o

" Let no one pursue, or molest her," said she, after a moment's pause. " I cannot know," she added, mentally, " how instant may be her busi- ness at Nantes ; but be this as it may, to fly from injustice is no proof of guilt."

" Madam," remonstrated De Briqueville, " the night is clear, and she cannot be far distant. My commands to take her to La Verriere are urgent."

" I release you from all responsibility." e3

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"Then let him hear that you do so," and he in- dicated the person to whom he alluded rathei by the expression of his eye than by a look to where he stood. ^' In the concerns of any one else," added he, '' I would peril my life to obey you ; and you know. Damsel, I have done so before now." Pauline did not hesitate to grant the re- quest of this faithful adherent of her family ; and going up to the philosopher, she acquainted him with what had taken place, and with her desire that since the young woman had escaped, she should be permitted to take her own course. The sage paused for an instant.

" Be it so," said he, at length, with an indul- gent smile. " It matters not whose course she takes, for all must inevitably tend to the same end. Inert matter must be acted upon by extra- neous bodies ; but men are the agents of their own .destinies." But, notwithstanding this decision, ^PauHne set out on her journey, as we have said, in little tranquillity of mind. It was Sir Archi- bald's singleness and purity of heart which had

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won her love ; or, in other words, it was the idea that he was wholly hers ; and the thought (which suggested itself in spite of her struggles) even of one of those transitory infidelities of the senses, rather than the soul, which were in general still less regarded in that age than in ours, was terrible to her imagination. Hagar was a Jewess, indeed, but still a woman ; and Pauline hardly exagge- rated the truth, when she confessed that she was '' fearful fair."

The scene, which the reader has viewed by moonlight, presented a somewhat different cha- racter when warmed and illumined by the beams of the morning sun. The same stillness, indeed, the same idea of loneliness and mystery prevailed, which to this day enwraps the Erdre ; but the air was cool and invigorating, the leaves glanced and stirred, and the human heart, as usual, bore sym- pathy with the joy of nature. Pauline herself was not long of yielding to the influences which seemed to rain down from heaven upon the earth. " Look, father," said she— for by this name she

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frequently addressed the philosopher, — "would you not think that these trees and shrubs, and yonder hills and waters, were things of life like ourselves ? Do you not feel the breath of the flowers, and hear the whisper that runs through the grove ? It seems to ine as if I were at home ; and that I feel, for the first time, as one belonging to the great family of nature ! '*

"It is a wholesome thought, my daughter," replied Orosmandel, " and more true than thou dost imagine. We are all things of life, from the clod to the worm, from the worm to the angel. All matter is the body of spirit ; and to the un- equal distribution of the latter is owing the varie- ties presented by the universe. The flower hath more of spirit than the clod, on whose juices it doth live ; the lamb hath more of spirit than the flower which it crops in passing along ; and man hath more of spirit than beast, vegetable, or earth, which he changeth or devoureth for his own profit."

" Alas ! that nature should thus flourish upon

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her own harm, and that we of the human race should be the most destructive of her children ! "

" Nature, my child, may change, and reproduce, but she destroy eth not. The juices of the clod still live in the body of the flower ; the perfume of the flower still sweetens the blood of the lamb; and all things grow in the growth and strengthen in the strength of the general devourer, man."

" But man cannot devour spirit, else would the greatest eater be the greatest wit. Yet the spirit does not die ?"

" Neither spirit nor matter dieth. If thou burn this tree to the ground, it is not destroyed, even in Its corporeal part. Its substance is merely de- composed by the more subtle body of fire, and returns, in smoke and ashes, to the elements whence it arose. Its spirit, in like manner, is shed abroad over general nature ; and that which animated a tree still liveth in the body of the universe."

" But spirit, my father," said Pauline, endea- vouring to grasp the ideas which flitted indefinitely

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through her half-cultivated mind, ^^ has spirit, which is the nobler part, no power over matter ? Would the tree, think you, if so animated, remain for ever fixed to the earth ? "

"It is the distribution of spirit," replied the philosopher, " to which is owing the inequalities which exist in the scale of being. The meanest worm that crawls, hath more of spiritual essence than the proudest oak ; and it is not till we ascend to man, that we find the quantity sufficient to operate a change upon his mortal destinies. Man is indeed lower than they that are called Spirits by way of excellence, and his soul is clogged by its earthly tabernacle ; still, he hath that within him, which, if well and boldly used, will make even the demons tremble."

The cheek of the Damsel flushed, and her bo- som throbbed, as these words awakened a train of glorious and daring thoughts.

^' Would that I were as you," she exclaimed, •*0 Orosmandel ! If to read and fast, and pray — if to outwatch the midnight lamp — if to give up

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wealth, and health, and youth, and pleasure, and the world's applause, would make me other and higher than I am— cheerfully would the sacrifice be made !" " I know it," repli'ed the sage calmly ; " Thou couldst not feel otherwise, if thou wouldst ; for such lofty, yet vague aspirations, are a portion of the gift of life bestowed upon thee by thy father. The w'atchings, and fastings, and studies, however, of the master, render the duties of the scholar less arduous. Knowledge may be acquired by com- munication as well as by search. But enough for the present. At another time we may talk farther."

" And why not now ? I fear you mistrust -me because of my youth, and because I am a woman ; but in aught that Christian hands may dare — in aught that involves offence neither to God nor man"-- Orosmandel smiled sarcastically, but ob- serving that she paused, disconcerted by his look, he resumed his usual serious, and benignant ex- pression.

'^ I fear," said he, '^ that we should differ in our estimate of what doth constitute offence. Even

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now thou didst blame the flower for drinking the juices of the sod, and the lamb for browsing on the flower, and man himself for decomposing the bodies, and shedding abroad the spirits of his fellow-beings of the earth !''

^* Nay, my father, I was hardly serious in this ; for without such nourishment, the flower would wither, and man die, and thus a greater evil be produced than the marring of the meaner works of nature. But yet, is there not danger to weak in- tellects like mine in such a system ? If all things are beings gifted ahke with hfe and spirit, where lies the line of distinction between those that are com- mon and those that are sacred ? — between those that are given to man for the uses of his body, and those that are fenced round, even from his vengeance, by the interdict, Thou shalt not kill ! I have heard of plants which so nearly approach to animal life that they shriek when wounded, and of wild animals that are capable of being converted, by education, into men. To what scale of being does the do- minion of man extend ? and where is the limit

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thereof? Suppose him to overstep the bound, and well may he do so where the line is so indefinite, and slay from some motive, higher and nobler, we shall suppose, than that which arises from the wants of his body, an individual of his own kind and rank in creation — is not this murder ?"

" It is the decomposing a more perfect form — the detaching from an individual part, and giving to the universe, a greater portion of divine essence."

" How !" exclaimed the damsel, in indignant surprise.

'* It is as I have said," replied Orosmandel calmly, " A man taketh away vegetable life be- cause he is hungry, and animal life to appease some fouler instinct of his nature. These are crimes, if committed without suflScient motive; for he shall not be held guiltless if he root up the produce of the soil, or slay the meaner animals, to no purpose. Reasoning from this analogy, I would say — as a looker-on, however, rather than an actor in the business of life — that a motive may exist sufficiently high and urgent to authorize

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what in the vulgar language you have denomi- nated * murder.' "

" Great God ! and do I hear such doctrine from your lips ?"

'* It is the doctrine," said he with a smile, " of all schools, and all ages ; although thou art as yet too little accustomed to such idle disputation to note the difference between words and things. Men seize upon their neighbours, and convert them into cattle ; and the world does not condemn because the skin of the slave is darker in hue than that of his master. The soldier slays his neigh- bours, and for no better reason than that his prince desires it ; the patriot slays his prince in order to avert a tax upon the country ; yet neither homi- cide is called a murderer. 1 say unto thee that a motive may exist which shall render the decom- posing of the elemental form, and the shedding of the spirit, whether of man or beast, a work not only innocent but laudable and virtuous !"

PauHne was for some time silent in dismay. The speculations of Orosmandel were often dark and

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mystical, and she had before now had occasion to wonder at the shght consideration in which he seemed to hold those words and things which blanch the cheek of other men : but till this day, although frequently tending towards it^ he had never given her a general glimpse of the theory whence appeared to emanate all that to her was singular in his opinions. Being a woman, she could not hold her tongue for ever, when words had been spoken which sounded like blasphemies to her ear ; and too uninformed to expose his fallacies by reasoning, she had recourse, like other ignorant persons, to Scripture.

" Your doctrine of spirits," said she, '' I fear is not only dangerous but damnable : it is opposed to holy writ."

" On the contrary," said Orosmandel, " it is based upon Scripture. Every line of the sacred writings inculcates the connexion and integrity of the whole system of the universe ; and in the book of the Preacher we find express mention of the souls of beasts."

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" Be it so. Of this I know nothing ; but can that doctrine be scriptural in which virtue is founded on mere expedience? Are the eternal and immutable laws of God to be broken at the pleasure, or according to the reason of so fallible a being as man T

" The divine laws," said Orosmandel, speaking carelessly, as if appearing to tire of controversy with so weak an antagonist, ^' are neither eternal nor immutable. They were promulgated for the benefit, not of God, but of man ; and were there- fore wisely adapted to the wants and uses of a being whose condition is subjected to perpetual and infinite change. Are they to be set aside, thou demandest, according to the fallible reason of a man ? Why this is done every day by pope, cardinal, or bishop — nay by the meanest priest that ever heard confession and absolved the sinner from the consequences of transgression. But even setting aside the practice of the Christian church in our day, which some heretics conceive to be erroneous, we find in every page of Scrip-

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ture unanswerable evidence of the adaptation of the laws of God to the mutability of human life. To take an extreme case, for the purpose of avoid- ing any cavilling with regard to the heinousness of the action, the world was peopled at first by the incestuous loves of its inhabitants. This was commanded — this was a law of God. A race, however, which is thus propagated, deteriorates in the course of a few generations, and would pro- bably finish by sinking to the scale of the beasts. The law, therefore, which had been instituted for tlie good of mankind, was for the good of man- kind not only repealed but reversed ; and the means alluded to, after its expedience had ceased, was declared to be an enormous and deadly sin. But this talk is unprofitable. Thy mind must first be purged of prejudice before it can admit truth. Of this, however, rest assured, that no philosophy can be true which is irreconcileable with Scripture !" and with this wholesome dogma the sage concluded his lesson.

Pauline made no reply. The conversations

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which she had held with the old man on her present journey bad more confused than en- lightened her ; and she desired rather to arrange her thoughts, than to overburden her mind with new ones. She was glad when the philosopher ceased to speak ; and in order to change the current of his ideas, she reminded him of a question she had put on their leaving Huguemont, as to whether she might expect to meet her father at La Verriere. Orosmandel started as she spoke, and his eyes flashed fire.

" I had forgotten," said he, and he added, be- tween his teeth, in a scarcely audible mutter, *' The lagging cur ! if he do not howl for this !" and taking a small silver horn from beneath his cloak, he applied it to his lips. Pauline remem- bered tliat on asking her question, as they left Huguemont, he had sounded a low note upon this instrument, saying to her, ^^Anon," as if promising a speedy answer. The blast at present was hardly louder, and ytt appeared to vibrate in the air at a great distance. He paused, and looked

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in the direction of Nantes. Presently some object was seen crossing an open space with the speed of a hare; then thefoHage moved nearer the road; and then an uncouth creature, apparently neither man nor beast, darted out of the wood, and sprang at one bound upon the sage's horse^ where he sat upon the neck of the animal in the manner of an ape.

At this apparition, Pauline could not repress a scream, and a hoarser cry arose from more than one of the bold bosoms near her. The horses, however, appeared to be still more affected by the intrusion. Some took the bit in their mouths, and fled at full speed ; while others, under more but not better command, plunged, and reared, as if they would have thrown their riders. Oros- raandel alone looked fixedly at the strange figure before him ; and his noble steed remained as motionless as if he had been cut out of stone.

" How now, sirrah ?" said the philosopher sternly : " Must I call twice?''

'^ Forgive me, master," replied the dwarf, shak- ing with terror ; " I was detained in answering the

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questions of him whom thou didst command me to obey ; but when once free, I came at thy bidding, even as an arrow cleaveth the air."

Pauline, as well as De Briqueville, and the others near him, had by this time recognized, through his goblin dress, a well-known slave — some said a familiar — of Orosmandel ; and, although their surprise was undiminished, they were able to look without terror on one to whose imp-like form they had been reconciled by habit. The line was speedily redressed, and in utter silence ; for none of the whispered intercom- nninications were heard, to w^hich an unusual or terrifying circumstance gives birth. Each man locked up his thoughts in his own breast; and many would not trust them with freedom even there, but held them down with aves and credos for the rest of the journey.

Orosmandel, in the meantime, after having in- formed the damsel that she should find her father at La Verriere, continued his route unmoved, with the dwarf sitting behind him. Sometimes they

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conversed^ but it was in an unknown tongue. De Briqueville, who had been in the East, thought this language resembled Arabic; but he was never heard to make further remark on the subject, except in thanking God that he did not understand a word of it.

Nothing else worthy of observation occurred till they reached La Verriere. Of this place Pauline had a very indistinct recollection, never having been there since her childhood ; and now she no longer wondered that her father should have chosen another domicile for her, or that he him- self should have sunk, while inhabiting it, into the melancholy and abstractedness for which he was remarkable.

The chateau was a dark and sombre fortress seated on the brink of the lifeless Erdre. On the landward side, besides its walls and ditches, it was defended by dark woods and morasses, as in- tricate of passage as the stronghold of the Cretan monster. On the side of the river all access was cut off, except by a narrow and secret channel,

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winding through the floating swamps that were ^lled in the language of the district " plains." In summer these were covered with the richest vegeta- tion, so tempting to the eye of cattle, that every year many a strong ox perilled and lost his life in order to gratify his appetite. The ground sunk under his feet while he rioted in the meal ; and, in endeavouring to regain the firm earth, it usually happened that he plunged into some treacherous hole, deceived by the grass which coated its sur- face, and disappeared in a gulf,

** Where never fathom line could touch the ground ! "

Pauline, acquainted though she was with Brit- tany, where at that time almost every gentleman's house was a regular fortress, shivered as she crossed the first drawbridge, and heard the rattle of the chains as it was raised behind her. She was still, however, it might have seemed, in the open country, for her way lay with many a turning and winding, through woods and jungles and morasses, where the earth trembled beneath their

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feet. The second gate was, in like manner, passed, and almost the same scene still continued ; for the castle which they beheld at a distance, had va- nished on their entering the precincts. At length she stood within the court-yard, and saw the heart of all this mystery, with feelings not greatly diflPerent from those of the unwilling visitors of the Minotaur after traversing the Labyrinth. It w^as a huge but low building, of prodigious strength, black with age, half hidden by the fortification termed a curtain, its few windows almost as nar- row as loopholes, and the only visible doorway sunk in the earth, like the entrance to a subter- ranean habitation.

Up to this moment Pauline, who was only too happy to be permitted to see her father anywhere, had indulged in no speculations upon the cause of her present visit. She had received the summons as a boon, and looked forward with girlish delight to the freedom she would enjoy in roaming among the woods of La Verriere, and skimming in some fairy-like bark the placid waters of the Erdre. f2

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Slie now recollected, however, witli an uncomfort- able but indefinite sensation, that the chateau, and all things pertainino' thereto, had been a for- bidden topic '<!t the Hotel de la Suze ; and that her father, so far from giving her an invitation to his habitual country residence, had on more than one occasion silenced her with sternness, and almost violence of manner, when she hinted her desire to visit it.

*' What can have produced so sudden a change ?'* she inquired mentally, as she stooped her head to enter the low vaulted door. " Why am I here at last? and how long am I to remain in a place that looks like a dungeon, and smells damp and faint like a burying-vault?"

101

CHAPTER V.

Before conducting the reader into the interior of La Verriere, it is necessary that we bring np another group of the travellers, with whom wt set out ; for our narrative is like that of Sancho Panza, in which a certain number of sheep were to be ferried across a river one by one, and, it good count were not kept, the story was at an end.

Sir Archibald Douglas and David Armstrong, as we have seen, followed close upon the proces- sional march of the Damsel of Laval ; both inte- rested in its progress, in the same manner, and in pretty nearly the same degree. The knight, how- ever, had the advantage of his friend, inasmuch as he could talk boldly and openly of his hopes and

102 THE MAGICIAN.

his love ; while our unfortunate scholar shut up his secret in the depths of his own bosom, where its stirrings were even as those of the sons of Titan. The knight, in fact, in spite of David's natural shrewdness, was at times incUned to sus- pect him of being not altogether composed in his intellects ; and he did not scruple to attribute whatever damage he might have sustained therein to the vain studies in which he had found him engaged, and above all, to the doctrines of that pernicious heathen, Nigidius Figulus.

When the Damsel and her party were encamped for the night at Huguemont, the two friends were prowling about the neighbourhood, and circling round the chateau like birds of prey. David, indeed, perhaps saw with his own eyes the wan- dering Jewess skimming along the path ; but if so, the sympathy which should have revealed her to him, even through the guise of a peasant, must have been rendered powerless by the unhallowed nature of his passion. He knew her not, and she passed on her way.

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" Tell me, Archibald," said he, when they awoke in the morning, " have you again been taking- advantage of my eyes being shut, to get up and stra vague about like an evil-doer in the night ? "

" On the contrary, I never slept more soundly in my life."

" That is well ; for something tells me we are anon to have need of a stout arm. As for me, I am a man accustomed all my life to the study of humane learning, and to lie dreaming, from morn till night, under the peaceful trees of Academia. Even this sword is strange to my hand ; it being fustes, called in the vernacular cudgels, that we more affected at the university, as instruments better adapted to scholastic humihty, and the meekness of demeanour which befitteth Christian priests. However, I must do as I may. We do not excel in all things alike ; and of few it can be said, 'Nee in armis praestantia quam in toga.'" Notwithstanding this humility, however, as David bared his arm to the shoulder, to prepare for his morning ablutions, his eye rested with some com-

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placency upon a set of muscles, which would have done honour to a gladiator, or professional player with the sword.

" It is an indifferently good arm for a clerk," remarked the knight. " These muscles, moving under your skin like twisted steel, were no doubt nourished to their present growth by the exercise of turning over the leaves of your a, b, c ! But whence is your presentiment of evil ?"

'' Of the devil, for aught I know. But be this as it may, the temple of Jupiter Patuleius is assuredly open, and the sooner you loosen your sword in its scabbard the better. The house of Mars last night entertained a visiter who rarely enters there for nothing ; and I never dream as I have just now done, without awaking to strife in the morning."

"As for that saaie temple," said the knight, ** they are all of them open in Paris every day in the year, morning, noon, and night ; and it is better to awake to strife than be awakened by it; which I take to have been your case, David, in

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what you call your peaceful Academia, seven tiraes a week. But come, what was your dream ? Expound, as we amble along ; for yonder we shall meet a group of peasants who have doubt- less passed the procession.*'

" My dream," answered David, " was not of actions, but of feelings ; not of places, but of void and vacancy. There was darkness around me, and clouds, and shadows. I was neither in the air, nor on the earth, nor in the waters. I sought, and could not find ; I opened my eyes till they ached, and could see nothing ; I stretched fortli my hands, and emptiness was in my grasp. My life was disappointment. I was alone; and that was misery and agony, and terror — alone in eter- nal night— alone in illimitable space ! Me- thought hell itself would have been a welcome refuge from such a doom."

" Mother of God ! " cried the knight, " but that was a dream ! Had I been you, I would have shouted to every saint in the calendar."

"All would have been in vain. I knew that f3

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the saints would spurn, and the demons laugh at my prayers. The anathema had gone forth, and I was a banished man alike from heaven and earth."

" I fear me, David," said the knight after a pause, and laying his hand affectionately upon his friend's shoulder, as they rode side by side — '^I fear me, you have something worse on your con- science than the breaking even of tonsured crow^ns. If so, take heart of grace, and lay the matter before the Holy Mother ; or if you be ashamed exceedingly, begin with Saint Bride, and she will help you on. If I myself may aid in your penance, either in person or purse, I am ready at a word ; for well I wot, that however great be your bin, it is the sin of a Scot and a gentleman. Yet take heed, that no penance can avail without repentance. Take hold of this secret enemy of your soul, and cast it forth, even if it cling to your heart-strings : tear it away, even if blood and tears gush after it like water. Remembei-, O my friend ! that the earth is but for a time ; that our

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most darling vices are but as flowers that pass away ; and give not up heaven for a perfume, and eternity for an hour ! " Sir Archibald spoke with unction ; and even at that moment, David could not help turning an admiring eye upon him, as he rode proudly and loftily on, with the air of a Christian knight who disdained to choose but between victory and martyrdom.

'' I will repent first," said the scholar, " and confess afterwards. Yes," continued he, catch- ing the enthusiasm of his companion, "out it shall come, that poison-flower whose roots are the life- strings of my heart ! The idolatrous image shall be broken, and its fragments cast forth. I promise, Archibald — and when I promise not hell itself shall turn me back — I promise that within four-and-twenty hours — "

" Hush ! we shall be presently overheard. Saint Bride understands what you would promise, and that is enough."

^' I promise," continued David to himself, as the group of peasants came up, that the image of

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Hagar shall forth from my breast, if I dig it out with my poinard ! that is, after — after I learn that she has reached the homes of her unbelieving clan and is there in safety — and peace — and honour!"

After Sir Archibald had asked his usual ques- tions, and ascertained from the answers that Mademoiselle de Laval was in health and safety, and within very few hours' journey of her father's abode, David lingered to extract, if possible, without making a plain demand, the information most interesting to him.

" Does the Damsel journey alone," said he, " excepting her escort ?"

" Alone."

*'The wretched cattle!" (aside) "they count ^er for nobody! — That is, my worthy people, you would say, in some sort alone, as qualifying the expression. For instance, there be her maidens, her two maidens, "to kame her yellow hair," as the song goes — and if I said three, perhaps I should not be far mistaken. Is it two of the feminine, or three, that follow the litter ?"

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"Two."

" Then one of the bower-lasses must have been taken sick at Huguemont ; for those queans have dainty stomachs, that will not sit easy under any gallimaufry that may be going on the road." But the peasants assured him that the two they had seen were veritable bower-maidens, and that the damsel had had no other personal attendance from the first.

" And ye dare to tell me," said David, almost with a shout, yet growing pale at the same time, '' that the Damsel and her two menials are the only feminine in the procession ?"

" What advantage should we gain by telling a lie ?" replied the peasants. ** There is no other woman among them, gentle or simple ; although we indeed heard some idle story of one who glided through the barred gate of Huguemont, and flashing along the road like an evil spirit, disap- peared among the woods of La Verriere."

" It is no idle story," said another, '* for I saw her with my own eyes. She was dressed in a

110 THE MAGICIAN,

cloak like one of ourselves ; but beneath, I could see raiment of gold and silver, and w'mgs upon her shoulders. She passed along quicker than the wind, yet without bending the grass ; and her foot made no sound when it touched the earth."

" What is the matter, David ?" cried the knight, *' Are you clean distraught? or do you glare in that fashion to frighten the good people with the countenance of Hashmodai?"

'^ Silence, Archibald ! In another moment I shall be able to think — and then act."

*' Is it even so ? Alas, I now see it all ! Yet why this mystery with one who would trust his very soul to you ? You love yonder damsel, whom I recommended to the protection of Made- moiselle de Laval ; and although so noble-looking, she is perhaps the daughter of some mesalliance, and so your heart is torn asunder between pride and passion. But, courage ! There is that in you which, with the aid of God and good fortune, would shed nobility upon a peasant's brow."

" O that she were a peasant ! O that her father

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were a bondman, and her brothers and sisters the meanest of the slaves of the soil !"

''And even then you would love her — woo her — marry her?"

" I would kneel at her feet before the assembled world. I would sink myself to her station — or rather raise her to mine— ay, to loftier than mine. I would clear a way for her either with my wit, or my sword, till high-born dames should envy the fortune of my gracious bride ! But come, let us spur on, for this is idle talk. If she is indeed at La Verriere, she is in the clutches of one who, if her own knowledge be correct, has neither fear nor mercy." They accordingly put their horses to their mettle, and rode on in silence ; the knight more than ever perplexed with regard to David.

If it is not ignoble birth, thought he, which is the stumbling-block of my friend, what can it he t She is too young to have imbibed those heretical opinions which would be a just bar to their union ; and David's mind is not of that substance which would become the thrall of mere beauty, unattended by worth. Is she already a bride,

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or the betrothed, of another ? God forbid ! that were worse than all ! Or, has sin shed its wither- ing influence on their love — and does the betrayer shrink from restoring peace to the bosom he has robbed of virtue ?

The last supposition, although tlie most dis- honourable to his friend, appeared, under all circumstances, the most probable ; and Sir Archi- bald, after musing upon the subject for some hours, in the course of which he sighed heavily and often shook his head, at length caught hold of his companion's bridle, and bringing both horses to a sudden halt, planted himself before him, face to face.

"It is now time," said he, fixing a severe look upon the culprit, "before accepting the assistance you have offered me, to know whether I can honourably render you assistance in return. An- swer me, yea or nay, and as plainly as I ask the question : Is it your purpose, after delivering this damsel from the hands of her enemies, to marry her according to the forms of holy church?"

^^Now God forbid !'^ cried David, starting

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back; " and may the saints forgive you for putting- such a thought into my head !"

'* You love her," continued the knight, elevat- ing himself on his saddle, till he sat as stiffly as his lance ; '^ and many things that escaped my apprehension at the time convince me now that you love not in vain. The parting glance which she gave you in the Pomme du Pin I read only as touching the awkwardness of her then situation; but there was in it, nevertheless, fear, sorrow, regret, warning, supplication, secret understanding, shame ! Nay, hearken, for I will not be silent. If you have fallen into the snares of sin, it is no reason why you should plunge deeper at every step. The seducer is himself seduced by a more potent spirit of evil than his own ; and so his fault may in some sort be reckoned rather weak- ness than crime. But if, after the hour of in- toxication is over, he refuse to repair the mischief he has done — to give back the peace of which he has robbed his victim — to build up anew the honour he has cast down — he must be accounted

114 THE MAGICIAN.

an outlaw of nature, a wilful and purposed felon ; and must live henceforth a man forbid, excom- municated as it were, from all offices of friendship and affection. That man, were he now before me, I would try, as a christian, to recall do the paths of honour; and, if my appeal were unsuc- cessful, it would become my bounden duty, as a knight and a gentleman, to renounce him for ever! Speak ! Am I mistaken ? But no — thou art the man I"

David, after in vain endeavouring to stop the torrent of the knight's eloquence, had listened to this speech with varying emotions of shame and indignation. At its conclusion he became deadly pale.

'' Sir Knight," said he, " however heavily your accusation might bear against me in a moral and religious sense, it but lightly affects my character, according to the standard of honour recognized in our present world ; and, for the sake of old friend- ship, I gladly make use of the pretext for forgiving you, so far as your remarks apply to me individu-

THE MAGICIAN. 115

ally. With regard to her, however, whom I was so foolish and so unhappy as to intrust to the safe- guard of your recommendation, I have another duty to perform. Anent her — who is as pure as any virgin of your house — you have most foully lied in your thought ; and in her behalf. Sir Archi- bald Douglas, called of the Braes, I hereby deliver to you my mortal defiance, in the name of God, St. Michael, and St. George !" and David backed his horse several paces, and drew his sword.

The knight was inwardly pleased that his sus- picions had proved to be unfounded, although not a little chafed by the uncourteous terms in which his companion had replied.

'' If this is a feud," said he, after a moment's hesitation, '* which may be prevented by acknow- ledgment of error on one side, and the retraction of dishonourable words on the other, I say, for the sake of old times, let there be peace between us. But if not— " and he slung his shield behind him, and fixed his lance upright, that he might have no advantage over his opponent — ^Uhe Douglas sword

116 THE MAGICIAN.

must not remain in sheath when its master is defied."

" Bare not your blade, '' cried David suddenly, *^ for my spirit is vexed within me, and the sight of a naked sword may be more than the placabihty of my nature can withstand. I say not with you, Let there be peace between thee and me ; but only, let there be a truce for a while. I am weary of mystery ; and I postpone my challenge, till I can repeat it with an uncovered face.'' They were yet in a belligerent attitude, Sir Archibald delaying to remove his hand from the hilt of his weapon, till David had first returned his into the scabbard — when a peasant girl rushed in between them.

" For shame, messires," she cried, '^ do you prove your love for your lady by seeking each to deprive her of a friend at a time when she is more than ever in need of friendship ? She for whom you would fight is now safe at La Verreire ; althou2;h safe for how long no one can tell."

*'Then it is even true," cried David, ''and she

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fled, like an unconscious dove, into the snare ! Tell me not of safety at La Verriere. Its very atmosphere is poison; and I will away to admins- ter the antidote, or die with her."

" It is of the Damsel of Laval she speaks," said Sir Archibald — " this is she who gave me the midnight warning."

"Are you for La Verriere ?" demanded Marie, turning from her quondam acquaintance, and looking at the student with strong interest and curiosity — " Are you bidden ? are you summoned ? are you sent?"

" I am."

" You come from messire Jean of Poitou ?" continued she, sinking her voice to a whisper, half of terror, half of pity.

David nodded.

"And this is he! — the Third!" she glided up close to liis horse's side — " Will you be warned ?" said she, speaking rapidly, " will you turn back? or are you driven on by inevitable destiny? Death awaits you there — a cruel, bloody, and secret

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death ! This is true as if an angel from God had spoken it. Will you still go ?"

" I will."

" Then all is true ! Do you know that there were two before you ?"

" Yes."

" God help us ! but this is a strange and awful doom. So young — so handsome— so brave !"

" I tell you, David," interposed Sir Archibald ; "she spoke of the Damsel of Laval. Your hooded maiden, who is so nimble and noiseless of foot, may have escaped to Nantes, since it seems there is something for her to dread at La Ver- riere."

" Tt is of the damsel I spoke," said Marie. " As for the other, she is a living mystery, and never walks abroad but in a cloud. God knows it grieves me to think ill of one so fair and so pure- looking; but appearances are woefully against her." She then described her meeting with Hagar, and the escape of the latter, and went on thus :

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" And now, messires, she was at length fairly at Nantes, in open day, and in the midst of a crowd where no harm could befall her. The dread she had had of La Verriere was natural enough : — it is a dread that even I should feel, humble as I am, and no more to be compared to her in beauty than the weed is to the flower — had I not been, from my earliest girlhood, under the special pro- tection of the Damsel of Laval. She had fled from this supposed danger, — in a word, from the lord de Retz — whom, as she assured me, with all the apparent truth and innocence of an angel, she had never seew."

^* No more she had ! " interrupted David, "never even with the unconscious eyes of infancy."

"Their recognition, then, of each other was a miracle ! When the procession of the mystery was passing by, she stood up, when everybody else knelt, straining her eyes to catch a glimpse of the baron. He at length turned round when he was just beside her, and they smiled, and bowed, as if they had been prince and princess !"

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" Woman," said David, sternly, " however gentle your tongue may be, you have yet but a peasant's apprehension. The bow of the lord de Retz was a homage which the libertine pays to beauty : hers was the habitual and ahnost un- conscious obeisance of one who is so noticed by a superior."

" But she was noticed still more condescend- ingly. She was invited to a seat in one of the principal galleries ; and she who had fled from La Verriere in such haste accepted its master's offer without a moment's hesitation."

" Hesitation would have been impolitic and un- availing ; and she is one whose thought flies like lightning to the mark. Had she been called, under such circumstances, to the scaffold, she w'ould have mounted with a step just as ready and composed."

" I am not her accuser," said Marie mildly, " I would a thousand times rather be her advocate ; but as soon as the mystery was over, she de- scended from the gallery, inquired her way of

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those she saw in the street, and walked straight to the hotel de la Suze, the mansion of the lord de Retz!"

David looked as if he had been struck dead in his saddle ; but the next moment, starting into life, he bent forward, caught hold of the girl with one nervous arm, and, stripping off her hood with the other, held up her face. It was a pale, fair face, rendered beautiful by the blush which his earnest scrutiny brought into her cheeks. The head might have sate without question upon the shoulders of a baroness, for it exhibited none of the peculiarities of her condition. It was a por- trait of woman ; in which mercy, gentleness, and truth were rendered still more apparent by the o-leams of intellect which shot from her eves. David released her with a deep sigh,

" Forgive me," said he, '^ you have spoken the truth as you understand it. Yet will I rather believe it to be all a magical illusion than distrust her. Her enemy was not the lord de Retz— she was not even fully aware of the libertinism of his

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character. I pray you forgive ine, and tell me, if you can, where she now is."

" That I do not know ; but the baron is expect- ed at La Verriere this evening, and I have no doubt that she will be with him, either by force or good- will."

" Farewell then, Archibald ; let us part as friends, however we may meet."

" Stay, messire, you cannot possibly be there be- fore sunset, and after that hour no one may pass even the first drawbridge without being able to give the word. Besides, it is not your time. Why attempt to hasten the doom that is upon you, even by a single night? Stay with us at our village, which is close by ; and where, in the morning, a ceremony is to take place, not worth your seeing indeed, but which will help to pass the time till the lord de Retz can be spoken with."

" Be it so," said David. " Come, Archibald," and he rode on, forgetting in his preoccupation of mind, that he left her who was to have been his conductress behind.

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" Tell me," said the knight, in a whisper, as he prepared to follow, " tell me, for the love either of courtesy or of a broad piece of silver, what is the name of yonder damsel errant of whom you spoke ?"

" I 'cannot tell/' replied Marie, " for I do not know."

" Her country ?"

" She has no country."

"How!"

"She is a Jewess."

" Sacred heaven ! my worst guesses were as nothing to this!"

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124

CHAPTER VI.

The scholar's presentiment of strife must be held to have been realized by his quarrel with Sir Archibald ; for nothing else occurred that day, tending in any measure to the hostile display even o^ fustes. At the village, all v^as peace or good- humoured merriment ; and even Lisette,the sister of Jehan, who was supposed to have formerly had some notion of appropriating the bridegroom's affections to herself, seemed to bear her disappoint- ment with great equanimity. The hero of the night was as joyous as a very tolerable dose of wine could be expected to render a man looking forward to so serious a ceremony in the morning ; although it must be confessed that he checked

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himself occasionally in his mirth, and looked in- quiringly at Marie, with somewhat of the ex- pression of a noisy boy, who doubts whether his elder sister will not think him a little too obstrepe- rous. If any one demands how this union came about, we answer, that it came about in the natural course of things. The bride, both in regard of beauty and sense, was a fair mark for a villager's ambition ; and when Victoire proposed, Marie, although not in love, thought he would do for a husband a little better than any one else she .knew, in the degree to which her choice was limited. The necessity of a husband at all, might be another question, if Marie had been thirty or forty years older.

The more David reflected upon the adventures ^of Hagar, the less gloomily he was disposed to view the subject. A pang of doubt had indeed shot across his mind at the moment when Marie mentioned that she had entered of her own accord the house of the lord de Retz,but this was speedily dismissed, as unworthy both of him and her. He

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felt that the risk had been run for his sake, and the idea would have been productive of as much pain as pleasure, had he not also believed her to be too wise and clear-sighted, to have gone into the lion's den without knowing well how to get out again. Hagar was, by this time, he had little doubt, in safety with her friends at Nantes ; and to-morrow he could begin with an untroubled mind — here David sighed heavily — his singular and dangerous ap- prenticeship.

By this time, he, as well as Sir Archibald, had spoken more fully with Marie, whose frankness was increased by the impunity with which she had hitherto touched upon the forbidden subject ; and, although the mystery which enveloped La Verriere was as opaque as ever, he now saw, with tolerable distinctness, the fate threatened to himself His unbelieving master had, no doubt, good cause for the horror with which he regarded Prelati ; for his two disciples had [indeed been murdered. David, from the conversation he had overheard between the Jew and this person, could easily trace the

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esoteric meaning of the popular legend recited by Marie. Messire Jean, it was justly said, had fallen into the power of the Evil One, for he had been detected by Prelati in the commission of a crime which placed him for ever more at his mercy. Pre- lati, besides, knew of his abode at Paris, in contra- vention of the savage edict against the Jews ; and thus he had been able to say, and say truly, " What more have I to do than name your name, or even point with my finger, to have you and your daughter torn to pieces, the fragments burnt with fire, and their ashes scattered upon the winds of heaven ?"

Since the fatal day when the Alchemist had fallen into the power of this man, he had bought his safety it appeared, sometimes with gold, some- times with human blood. This was the mystery. If Prelati was not the Fiend himself, in carnal form, what was the meaning of these horrible sacrifices ? Was he really engaged in some such high researches as he had hinted at to the alchemist ? and was the blood of his assistants to flow upon the altar of the infernal deities ? or, what was still more proba-

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ble, were their lives to become forfeit at the mo- ment when their progress in the science had ren- dered them rivals of their master.

Who was this Prelati, whom he had seen alive with his own eyes, yet who was believed even in the neighbourhood of La Verriere to have perished at sea ? It was surely impossible that Orosman- del could have any connexion with such atro- cities ; yet was it not equally so that they could be carried on without the philosopher's know- ledge? What, in fine, was the relative position of Gilles de Retz himself between these two men, each so different, each so extraordinary, each so mysterious ? It was in vain to puzzle himself with such inquiries. Everything around him was as incoherent as the wildest dream that had ever flitted before his imagination. Nothing was cer- tain but the danger which threatened himself.

It will easily be conceived by those who are still in the heyday of youth, and also by those who are able to remember that era distinctly, that there must have been something still more attrac*-

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live than terrifying to David Armstrong in the idea of exploring the depths of such a mystery. This feeling of the young and the bold, although perhaps nothing more than an elevated species of curiosity, is the grand material of the old romancers. It is this which is personified in the chivalrous adventurer who plunges into the gloom of primeval forests, and sounds the horn at the gate of enchanted castles. But as for David, who belonged to a people who were, at the epoch, as individuals, the most adventurous in Europe, he, no doubt, felt strongly enough the spirit of enter- prise : yet in him this was controlled by a certain degree of judgment, or forethought — still better developed among his countrymen in modern times .—and if honour permitted, he would, in vulgar phrase, have "jouked and let the jaw go by'' with any canny Scot in the realm.

His motives, therefore, were of a mixed cha- racter. Curiosity, or youthful daring, may have led the van ; but selfish speculation came imme- diately after. Gilles de Retz he thought, as has G 3

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been mentioned before, was the dupe of Prelati, and in saving one of the greatest and most in- fluential lords of the time from ruin, the young Scot thought he could not miss making his own fortune. Next came friendship ; for, in spite of their frequent quarrels, David would at any time have perilled his life in order to advance the pros- pects of Sir Archibald ; and gliding in among them all, appeared the veiled and shadowy form of Hagar, tlie interests and the very being of whose house appeared so closely inwoven with the mys- teries of La Verriere, that he could hardly separate them in imagination.

After passing all the details of the subject in review before him, David came to the same con- clusion with which he had set out. In the first place, even if his indefinite projects should fail, the danger that threatened him, judging by the history of the two former victims, could not be immediate ; in the second place, he had a quick eye to see it afar off when actually on its way ; and lastly, his nerves were good, and his arm

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strong and ready for self-defence — while, if the odds were too strong against him, he could show as light a pair of heels as any lad on the Borders, from sea to sea.

The meditations of Sir Archibald were employed upon the same subject, and their result will appear in the following conversation which he held with his friend in the morning.

" David," said he, " after due consideration, I have now to demand your pardon for my unworthy suspicions, and to grant you mine, even before you ask it, for a hasty word, drawn from a heart which at the moment must have been filled with bitter- ness and confusion. I will not ask in what manner you became connected with the family — for they are father and daughter I will be sworn — of the individual who is called, no doubt by way of a nom de guerre, messire Jean of Poitou ; for well I wot you must have fallen through ignorance into the snare laid for you by the enemy of man- kind. Neither will I speculate on the manner in which this history is to end. Your heart, my

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friend, is not one that will give up so easily as even you yourself may imagine, an object it has once taken into its very being; and rather than see your young life pass away like a shadow, I would build upon the goodness of the ever- Virgin in vouchsafing to change the spirit — "

''Then would you build in vain," interrupted David gloomily, " for Hagar will be faithful alike in good and bad.''

" Let me pass on, then, to what I have to say, leaving the rest to the mercy of Providence. It appears, from all we have been able to gather, that you have been trepanned into this appoint- ment at La Verriere by messire Jean ; that you have been sold, as it were, to the Adversary ; and that, after a certain time, you will be offered up to him as a blood-sacrifice. If this be true, the arm of the flesh will avail nothing. But Satan, for all his cunning, may be cheated. I, for instance, am a Christian knight ; my soul is unsoiled by such devilries as the transmutation of metals, or other profane and unlawful delusions; and I thank God

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I own another master than Nigulus Figulus. Let me take your place, since there must needs be the likeness of a third victim ; the only eye I shall have to avoid will be that of Orosmandel ; and if you will instruct me in what I have to do and to say, I have no doubt that by the blessing of St. Bride, to whom I commit my protection, I shall bring the adventure to a happy issue."

*' Had you listened," replied David, " to the explication I offered of the synodal statute De Sortilegiis, an imperfect knowledge of which seems to have clouded your understanding — "

" I declare before heaven I have no knowledge of it whatever ! "

" Well, well ; you would at least have learnt that alchemy cannot justly be reckoned among either the profane or unlawful sciences. The mi- raculous stone is not a delusion, but a reality ; and to question the possibility of the EHxir Vitae is to assign limits to the power and goodness of God. But with all this unbelief,"— and David's solemnity of visage relaxed into a broad grin —

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" methinks you conjoin a very extraordinary degree of credulity. I am sold, it seems, by a magician ! I am to be offered up as a blood-sacrifice to the devil ! Diabolum ludificare ! — I should indeed make a precious bargain. My poor friend, this is all very well for a soldier, but a scholar is not so easy of faith. Trust me, the affair in hand will he decided, not by spells and cautrips, but by the arm of the flesh, and the wit of the spirit."

" Be it so," said the knight ; '^ and then the question comes to be, which of us two is the fitter man for the adventure : I, who, as a soldier, must perforce know some httle matter of defences and onslaughts, ay, and ruses and ambushes ; or you, who, at the best, have but led on Bauldy, and Nigel, and Andrew at the university, to the break- ing of a few pows, bare even of the hair which nature gave them for a defence ? Besides, David, I would fain see you take your vows in right earnest, and rise, before you die, to be at least a cardinal ; while as for me, if I do fall in the at- tempt, it is but the casualty of a knight-adven-

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turer in the way of his business — and the greater luck would be his, to die within the very walls that hold the lady of his love ! "

"Archibald, my man," said David, taking his friend's hand, and clearing his throat of a kind of huskiness which had beset it ; ** you are about as fine a fellow as ever poised a lance since the days of St. George ! But it may not be. You have a career before you worthy of your ambition ; and the very difficulties in the way of your love should only be a greater excitement to a Douglas bosom. As for me, I must follow out my fate ; and, if the worst befall, it is but a poor scholar the less, and a single ray of science extinct."

The knio;ht saw that it would be in vain to press farther his generous offer; and the two friends passed the remainder of the time in ar- ranging the manner in which David, while at the chateau, might act most beneficially for his ally.

They were called up in the morning by those musical sounds which usually usher in a bridal day; and which, in the case of the sons and

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daughters of poverty (as well as in a few other cases), may be said to resemble the clear, loud, last twang of a harp-string when it is breaking. The whole village was already astir ; and a smile was on every face they saw, except one. The bride could not be said to be either happy or otherwise. She was quiet and sedate as usual, and would have been the very last person whom a stranger would have taken for the heroine of the day.

" She looks," whispered the knight, " as if she thought a little of this merriment might be spared."

'* I warrant," replied David, *' the verguncula is busy with the future. She is thinking what else than the fountains of her own bosom she will have to offer the knave-bairns when they come. Alas! in that day there will be no mirth; and, I fear me, but little love. Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus : an adagium, Archibald, which means, that connubial affection dwindles down with the meal-poke. But I must now away. Marie, I thank you heartily for your hospitality —

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and for more than that, which I may one day be able to repay. I wish you all manner of happi- ness, and especially the gift of patient endm^ance ; in token whereof I beg you will permit me, in the room of a more eloquent valediction, to touch your cheek with my lips, ere yet its virgin-flowers are gathered."

** I thank you, messire," replied Marie, " for your good wishes, and not the less, that they suit the time so closely. As for my cheek, since its wild flowers — for such is the name which our fabliers give to weeds — are still my own, I shall accept humbly the honour you intend them; but on condition that you tarry with us yet a little while. There is the bride-song now to be sung, a custom preserved in Brittany from the old time ; and, although I never heard it myself, yet my cousin Lisette has a sweet voice, and that will make it worth the hearing. Will you still go?" continued Marie, sinking her voice to a whisper; " Will you not be warned?"

" I will first hear the bride-song," answered David, gently ; and Marie, glad even of the brief

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respite she had gained for the third victim, turned away to take her place in the ceremony.

She was crowned with flowers, and seated on a chair in the middle of a wide circle formed by the wedding guests. Her betrothed stood near her ; and Lisette, the sister of Jehan, tripping out from the crowd, and planting herself directly opposite the bride, fixed earnestly her keen bright eyes upon her face, and commenced a song, which is to this day sung on such occasions in the valleys of Brittany.

" List, Marie, list the nightingale. The singer of our native vale ! Alas ! a dearer voice, they say. Hath drowned the burden of his lay, Which tells, in warning notes, the pain, The weight of an eternal chain.

Yet, Marie, list the nightingale. The sweet, wise singer of the vale !

" List, Marie, list — that lovely strain Shall never reach thy heart again ! Another voice thou soon wilt hear, Another music fill thine ear —

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Not always like the gentle tale

Of the sweet singer of the vale !

List, Marie, list the nightingale, The sweet, kind singer of the vale !"

Here the emphasis of the bridemaid made some of the listeners laugh ; and Marie, who had doubt- less expected quite another kind of wedding lay, opened her eyes upon her friend in grave surprise. Lisette, however, went on with new earnestness, fixing a look upon the bride's face, which David remarked to his companion might have *' peeled off the skin."

Hark ! yet another voice doth come To swell the discord of sweet home — The cry, long, peevish, and forlorn. Of thy young babe, thy earliest born ! Mingle the wife's, the mother's wail. No more she hears the nightingale.

List, Marie, list the nightingale. The sweet, blithe singer of the vale !

" Swiftly love's honeymoon hath past, Then coldness comes — scorn — ire at last :

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Slowly goes by the cheerless day. More slowly creeps the night away. Perching the neighbour trees among. The owl doth join her cradle song.

List, Marie, list the nightingale. The sweet, gay singer of the vale !'

Marie darted a look of indignation upon the impertinent monitress, and turned away her chair ; but Lisette moved round at the same moment, and, confronting her as before, fixed anew her eyes on her face, and continued the nuptial song.

" Go then, devoted girl, and give. For love that but a moon doth live. The love of years ; the village green For the lone housewife's silent scene ; The music of the nightingale For the owl's harsh and boding tale !

Thou wilt not hear the nightingale, The singer of our native vale.

" Love, man's good angel, doth depart, And demons seize the vacant heart. The goblet flows ; rude jest and song, Till dawn the wild debauch prolong :

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Meantime the wife, by taper dim, Sings, with the owl, her cradle hymn. List, Marie, list the nightingale. The singer of our native vale !

" Wine leads to folly — madness — crime — "

Marie started up, her eyes flashing with anger, and her bosom heaving Hke the vexed wave ; but, recollecting herself, she sat down again, sweeping round her chair, however, till her back was turned to the singer. Lisette tripped round in the same instant; and, fastening her eyes earnestly upon her face, resumed the interrupted song.

" Wine leads to folly — madness — crime ; The rattling dice harmonious chime To his hoarse laugh ; till, one by one. Fields, flocks, and house, and home are gone He then returns by morning's sun To her he dares not look upon.

List, Marie, list the nightingale, The sweet, wise singer of the vale !

" Bed — cftidle — distaff— all are gone. Hence, wanderer ! — but not hence alone :

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Take th}' j'oung baby on thy back, And follow in tliy husband's track, Lonely and haggard, mute and pale, Away from thy dear native vale !

No more tliou'lt hear the nightingale. No more thou'lt see our native vale ! "

The bride's courage could hold no longer. She turned away from her betrothed, who stood trying to smile with all his might ; and throwing herself upon the neck of her nearest companion, burst into tears.* David took advantage of the con- fusion, mingled with jeers and laughter, which this incident occasioned ; and griping his friend's hand for a moment, almost as fiercely as the operation had been performed by the Black Knight, he glided swiftly away in the direction of La Ver- ri^re.

The scholar pursued his way, according to the

* The above is a close translation of a very spirited French song, purporting to be one usually sung at the nuptials of the Breton villagers. The translator regrets that he cannot call to mind where he found the original.

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directions he had previously received ; and at length reached a spot which commanded a view of the chateau of La Verriere. It was an object far less formidable than he had expected ; for the buildings, though extensive, were low, and pos- sessed nothing of the imposing grandeur with which his imagination had invested the place. Their black colour, however, the strange lifeless- ness of the Erdre, and the unnatural stillness which seemed to brood over the whole scene, im- pressed him with a feeling approaching to awe ; and a thought of the village he had just left, its smihng faces, and even the mirthful malice of Lisette's song, came back upon him like a regret.

He went on, however, without looking back, till he imagined that he must be in the immediate neighbourhood of the chateau ; but this landmark had now entirely disappeared, and the adventurer, bewildered by the number of low eminences swell- ing around him in inextricable confusion, each exactly resembling the others, and all covered with trees, stopped short to inquire whether he

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had not committed some mistake. He had set out on a well-beaten path ; but this had no sooner conducted him into the wilderness, than it shot out into so many branches, that it could no longer serve for a guide. The multiplicity of paths, in fact, was in itself a very remarkable circumstance ; and he observed that they rarely proceeded far without sweeping into a curve, the termination of which was lost among the trees. Sometimes this could be accounted for by the intervention of a wooded eminence, or a swamp ; but, even when these obstacles were not in the way, the same eccentric course was observed.

David was unwilling to proceed farther in un- certainty, and climbed a tree in order to discover his bearings. He found that his progress, though slow, had been in the proper direction. The tur- rets of the chateau were visible above an inter- vening wood, at no great distance ; and the smooth bosom of the Erdre, shone on by the sun, was almost too bris^ht to be looked on. In his descent, he had gained the lowest branch of the

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tree, and was just about to spring to the ground, when the appearance of a female figure within fifty yards of the spot made him pause. David rubbed his eyes, to make sure that he was awake ; for it was the village-bride he saw, in her bridal dress, and with the chaplet of flowers still on her head ! Marie passed on her way, in her usual composed manner, looking neither to the right nor to the left, and pursued her path into a thick grove, where she disappeared from his eyes. His first impulse was to call out her name ; but checking this, he hardly knew from what motive, he leaped down, and sprang after her as lightly as a grey- hound. In the grove the path divided into two branches, and in all probability he took the wrono- one ; for, on emerging from the gloom of the trees, lie found no trace of her whom he sought. It was impossible, however, that she could be far distant — certainly not a great number of yards ; and he put his hand to his mouth to give a hollo, which, if she recognised his voice, would probably pro- duce an answer.

VOL. II. H

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At the moment his elbow was touched by some one behind ; and David, when he had turned round, good as he had boasted his nerves to be, started back several feet, and clapped his hand to his sword.

/•^Holy mother of God!" cried he, "what art thou ? Answer, if thou hast the gift of speech !"

" I am my master's man," replied the dwarf, " and thou art no better !''

" Then is your master Beelzebub, you misbe- gotten imp ! Holy Mary ! that my heart should have leaped into my mouth for a jackanapes ! Speak. Why come you ? What is yom- busi- ness ?"

" I come because I am sent ; and my business is to welcome thee to La Verriere."

" I am much beholden to you ; in troth I thank you heartily, and there is an end. Let us now part in God's name ; for I promise you I would rather have a man of six feet, in full armour, rise up before me out of the sod, than a shape like that — larvalis habitus, as we say— drop down upon

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my traces in the midst of a wood, like an acorn from a tree."

" I know it, David," replied the dwarf, with a grin, "but for all that we must be better ac- quainted. Wert thou as nice of vision as any girl of fifteen, thou wilt soon o-et accustomed to me, and we shall be good comrades. What; shall we not be brothers ? If we must labour with our necks in the same yoke, shall we not also take our diversion ? I will show thee a way through' the swamp where the ground is thinnest, and v/hen the nights are darkest; I will teach thee to follow the corpse-lights into the thick of the fen; some- times we shall hunt the grey bat with bow and arrow, or mock the owl— which is rarer sport — when he singeth to the moon ; and sometimes, for the sake of variety, we shall spear the snake as he rustles homeward through the grass, or fish toads in the ditches of the chateau. Toads ! these be capital sport 1 Your toads of La Verriere are three times the ordinary size: they carry poison enough under their tongue to fill you a H 2

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phial : and then to see them goggling and gasp- ing when they come up — ho ! ho 1 ho ! it is ex- cellent, I promise thee!"

While the dwarf was speaking, David examined him attentively from head to foot, and before he had done, was sony for the disrespect with which he had treated Sir Archibald's superstition. The creature before his eyes had nothing about him but the outward form; and that was imitated so miserably, that the beholder could only have been prevented from laughing by horror. This lusus naturee, however, this goblin, whichever he might chance to be, was to be his comrade at La Ver- riere. Of what nature, in the name of God, could be their duty, since for recreation they were to follow the ignis fatuus over bogs — turn the bird of Minerva into ridicule — fish reptiles for trouts — and bottle poison ? The scholar began to ask himself what pressing business he had there at all. Hao-ar was off his hands ; and even her father could not suffer blame, if his apprentice did not choose to be indented to Satan. At all

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events, concluded he, go with a guide like this I will not. I shall return forthwith to the village, and take a human conductor thence to the chateau to-morrow morning. Thus the enchant- ment will be broken which the wench IViarie would persuade me I am under; the appointed day will be past and gone ; and I shall make my appearance at the gate a free man, and not like a jongleur taken prisoner, and led in by his own jackanapes.

" Hark ye, friend," said he ; '' I was brought up to spear salmon in the river, and strike deer in the forest ; and my stomach would ill brook the grewsome sports you intimate. But ' trahit sua quemque voluptas;' which is equivalent to the expression made use of by the old woman who kissed her cow. I do not accuse your tastes, but I follow my own. For my part, I had ever an horror of toads and serpents ; and I pray you to notice, that I will in nowise be art or part in such unseemly pastimes. And now stand out of my way, that I may return whence I came, seeing that my morning's walk is at an end."

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'^ Thy morning's walk !" repeated the dwarf, opening his goggle eyes ; " and dost thou ab- solutely fancy that it is thy walk thou art taking — that thou art here on thy own business or plea- sure—that, in fact, thou still belongest to thyself V

^'That is decidedly my belief and opinion," re- plied the scholar. " It is true I may be said to have bargained to take on service for a time in the laboratory of him at La Verriere ; since the very habiliments I now wear, as well as a horse which I left at the village, may be looked upon as the arrha, or earnest money. Thus much I freely con- cede ; saying nothing of an epitogium or gra- duate's cloak of my own (on account of its being somewhat the worse for wear) which I ceded up at the same time. Still, no precise day of entrance was mentioned, and for that matter, no precise period of service ; and I accordingly hold myself my own master, while I remain on this side the threshold of the chateau."

'* Admirably argued," exclaimed the dwarf, and he broke into a laugh so shrill and wild, that the whole grove rung with it.

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^' Stand out of my way, you hellicate imp !" cried the startled scholar, " were it not shame to offer violence to such a pigmy — that is, supposing you to be anything else than a phantasma — I would send you to fish for toads in yonder quagmire. Away, you misbegotten knave !" and threatening him with his sheathed sword, he turned back by the path by which he had come ; the dwarf stood his ground till the enemy began to move ; but he then made instantaneous way for him, by leapmg to a surprising distance out of the path, and dis- appeared among the trees with screams of laughter, like an evil spirit.

David pursued his route in not a little confusion of mind ; and yet, by no means, feeling confident that he had acted a part worthy of his sires and country, in postponing an enterprise he had under- taken, for no better reason than that he had met a misshapen dwarf upon the road. This personage was now richly dressed, in a kind of eastern cos- tume, covered with hieroglyphics, and letters ap- parently of an unknown language. He might

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have seemed to be the page of some great lord, thus decked out at his master's capricious fancy ; and his strange discourse might have been nothing more than the dictates of an intellect, sometimes as weak and crooked, in persons of this unhappy class, as their bodies.

The adventurer walked on, plunged in medita- tion, till at length he began to be somewhat sur- prised that he had not already reached the village. The same character of scenery prevailed, the same confusion of woods and eminences ; and he was under the necessity of again having recourse to the expedient of climbing a tree. It may be con- ceived with what astonishment he found on reaching the top, that, instead of having progressed towards the village, he was much nearer the chateau than before I At the moment he made this discovery, the shrill lauojh of the dwarf smote upon his ear ; and he descended both in anger and perturbation of mind.

He now walked on with less confidence. He saw clearly that the paths were meant less to guide

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than to bewilder; and, although but little versed in mathematics, the idea occurred to him, as just possible, that they might have been constructed for the very purpose of preventing escape from La Verriere. A still greater work of art, thought he, must have been the Cretan labyrinth, (to say nothing of the greater prodigy of Egypt, and the lesser ones of Lemnos and Italy ;) and for all that, Daedalus, though a cunning man of artifice, was no magician. While comforting himself, however, with this idea, he could not resist a growing conviction, that in the whole of this affair he had been the subject of a species of fatality ; and when at length he saw at a short distance through the trees a portion of mason- work, it was with but little confidence he exclaim- ed, ** There is the village." It was the chateau of La Verriere.

Again, the same eldritch laugh" met his ear; but the sound was now close by, and the dwarf, dropping down from the bough of a tree, stood

beside him.

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J54 THE MAGICIAN.

" Thou hast thought better of it, David^" said he, " and we are to be comrades after all ! Since thou art thy own master, thou must be here of thy own purpose ; and accepting the token as a testi- mony of good will to me, thy fellow-servant, I shall now conduct thee to the gate, if so be thy pleasure."

" Lead on," replied David, " for I will follow." They now emerged altogether from the trees ; and a fair view of the fortress was no sooner obtained, than the student forgot his personal feelinos in the admiration which it inspired.

The ditch was an immense canal, in which a modern frigate might have swam, and its border was thickly planted with sharp iron spikes. Be- yond this, the ramparts, constructed of earth, rose like a chain of hills. They were battlemented at the top, girded by a chemise of solid stone, and defended from distance to distance by half-moons. Above the gate towered a lofty corps de guarde, which was bristled with the lances of sentinels ; and on the ramparts, at either side, the muzzle

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was presented of an enormous iron culverine, each twenty-four feet long, and so solid, that it must have been moved with difficulty by fifty horses. A pile of balls, of corresponding magnitude, lay near these gigantic pieces of artillery, some of stone, and some of lead.

The visitor had never seen the like, except in fortified towns of the first class; although even these monstrous dimensions were a reduction lately introduced. The earlier cannon had been found by experience to be somewhat unmanageable, being from fifty to sixty feet long, with balls of five or six hundred pounds' weight !

David expected to be closely questioned at the gate, but at the sight of his conductor he was allowed to pass without remark, and he found himself fairly within the walls of La Verriere. Winding their way through jungles and morasses, where they might have imagined themselves to be still in the open country, they at length amved at the second, and then at the third inclosure ; and when about to cross the last drawbridge, it was

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not without some secret emotion that the scholar saw pointed at him from the wall, one at either side of the gate^ two hand culverines, which one man poised on his shoulder, while another behind, directing its aim, held a lighted match in his hand, ready to fire.

He entered, however, as before, without ques- tion ; and crossing the square or court, was intro- duced into the low, black building, guarded so jealously. Here he was left alone for some time in the dimly-lighted hall ; and we shall take the opportunity of opening to the reader the door of the chamber to which he was about to be sum- moned. But this demands a new chapter.

57

CHAPTER VIL

The principal buildings of the chateau were not in the middle of the court, as was usual with the donjon. They stood in an angle, on a base of rocks overhanging the Erdre ; and were closely girded, towards the river, by the ramparts. This disposition, however, did not render the fortress less secure; for an assault by water was all but impossible. The *' plains," as they were called, or floating swamps, which we have already no- ticed, extending far out into the stream, formed a natural barrier against any hostile approach ; while the channel through them, besides being too narrow to admit more than one small boat at a time, was cut by art into a kind of labyrinth. So

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secure was the castle deemed on this side by the engineers of the age, that even the usual barbican had not been erected on the opposite bank. Nothing more was required to collect the dues, which every river-side baron of the time thought he had a right to exact, than a skiff lying at anchor without the swamps ; for the country barges, sailing by to the Nantese market, required no farther persuasion to induce them to bring to, than a glance at the old black building behind, and the name of its redoubted master, the lord de Retz.

The reader who has visited the banks of the Erdre must bear in mind that the river has shrunk considerably since the period we refer to. The ruins of the castle now stand at some distance from the brink ; but four centuries ago, the stream washed the base of the ramparts, and a portion of its waters, flowing into the outermost ditch, in- closed the whole fortification in an island. This process of change is supposed to have been going on for a much longer period.

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" We never see on these shores," says a Nantese author, '' the ridges of sand which, in almost all other rivers, are the debateable lines between the empire of the water, and that of vegetation. The green turf approaches with confidence to the veiy edge of the borders, as if aware that these are never undermined by the rebellions of the waves which it is their province to confine. At the same time, if the geologist will remark the inclination of the two banks, and the interval between them, his thoughts will be carried back to a period earlier than history, in which the whole bason was filled by the water which now only covers its bottom." *

The portion of the buildings which we have described as overhanging the river, was strength ened by a thick, and comparatively lofty tower ; which, although intended for defence, was at present the temple of science, the abode of the

■'■ Voyag-e dans le departement de la Loire Inferieure. par M. E. Richer.

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Arabian philosopher, Orosmandel. No one pre- sumed to enter this tower uninvited/ or indeed found it possible to do so without the permission of its tenant. Even the proud baron himself was constrained to ask leave before paying a visit.

The place had been fitted up by foreign artificers employed by the sage ; and from the circumstance of their vanishing utterly from the neighbourhood as soon as the job was finished, it was naturally enough concluded by the peasants that they were no other than a troop of demons who had been summoned by enchantment. But little, however, was seen of their handiwork. From the draperies and other costly articles which had been used, it was presumed that Orosmandel lived surrounded by the luxuries of a person of rank, such as he appeared to be ; but nothing was known with cer- tainty on the subject. That he had company occasionally was not doubted ; for once the sound of laughter had been heard proceeding from the tower at night, and more than once a wild scream

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tVom the same quarter broke the enchanted slum- ber of the Erdre. With the exception of his former assistants, however, his dwarf-page, and a deaf and dumb slave, no one was ever known to have entered the place ; and such sounds there- fore were heard without creating any disposition on the part of the Hstener to inquire into their source.

Besides the interior communication with the rest of the building, a small door opened on the ramparts, for the accommodation of the sage when he wished to take the air without mixing with the household ; and this portion of the ramparts was in some sort considered to be his own private pro- perty. All the lower part of the tower, however, was an impenetrable mystery ; the middle was supposed to be occupied by his private apart- ments ; and at the top was his study, or observa- tory, where alone visitors were admitted — and which is the room we have promised to open to the reader.

On ascending the narrow stair which led to it,

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and entering the door, the first sensation produced on the unaccustomed visitor was faintness^, occa- sioned by a sweet, yet peculiar smell, diffused pro- bably from a lamp burning dimly near the farther end. This solitary lamp seemed to be the only means by which the apartment was lighted, even at noon-day ; for no window, no opening of any kind, appeared either in the walls or roof. A large circular painting, however, exhibiting a plan of the heavens, rendered almost unintelligible by the number of numerals and hieroglyphics, occu- pied nearly the whole of the wall opposite the door; and, by its half luminous appearance, indi- cated that there was a corresponding aperture beyond for the admission of light, perhaps resem- bling the rose-window of a cathedral.

Little, however, could be observed distinctly ; and nothing at all except the lamp, till the eyes of the visitor became accustomed to the gloom. When this was the case, various strange and inde- finite objects came gradually out from the shadow which filled the apartment. Before the painting

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there was a table, covered with a white cloth, on which were placed a large book, with several small vases, and a few papers, and mathematical instruments. At this place the floor was more elevated than elsewhere, and the painting itself was arranged behind somewhat like a modern drop-scene, with ample drapery at the sides ; but, from the convergence of the floor, sides, and roof, as in the Roman theatres — and particularly in Palladio's imitation of one at Verona — it seemed to be much farther off' than it was in re ility. The idea of distance, indeed, was so admirably given, that the room appeared to be at least twice its actual size.

The table, or altar, was surrounded by a circle of variously shaped objects, arranged on the floor, but so small that the eye in vain endeavoured to ascertain what they were. Immediately without this circle hung the lamp, suspended from the roof by an iron chain. The sides of the apartment were hung with black cloth, protruding here and there, as if different objects were behind, and in

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two or three places giving in this manner the re- semblance of a human figure. The roof also was of some dark colour ; but studded with specks of crystal, or bright metal, which, when the flame of the lamp flickered in the wind, on the opening of the door, gleamed like so many faint and dis- tant stars.

On the present occasion, two men stood in the middle of the floor ; and the tiny flame playing fitfully on their figure and countenance, showed that they were Orosmandel, and the lord de Retz. The former maintained his usual deportment, calm, lofty, collected, as well as the remarkable expression of his face ; in which the pitying smile of a superior being seemed to mingle with scorn of the small miseries of human nature. The baron, on the other hand, was strongly agitated, his countenance was flushed, and his whole manner exhibited at once resentment and disdain.

"What think you of it, my father," said he, " an ambassador of the noblest blood in the land ! and gifts that a crowned monarch might well have

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grudged ! By my holy patroness, I could go express to RomC; and pluck the dotard by the beard — Heaven and the saints forgive me for the thought^ and the holy father himself, for he hath the power to bind and to loose ! Yet, is it not enough to make a man forget himself ? A mitre ! It was all I asked ; and for my almoner, from the disservant of my own chapel ! Mine ! Where, out of Rome itself, and the high cathedrals, is service performed more duly, or with more splen- dour? Do not my votive offerings blaze on every altar in Europe? Do I not give away in alms a revenue that would feed an army ? And is there a sinner, a miserable, wretched sinner, — Holy Mother, ora pro mihi ! — who does more to atone for his manifold transgressions ?"

^' My son," replied Orosmandel, " the pope hath done thee wrong ; but even if the bauble which thou art refused had been worth the seeking, methinks a moment so critical as this should leave thee no time to regret it."

" A bauble ! not worth the seeking ! Why,

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what is a crown but a bauble ? What is a sceptre but a metal rod ? You surely do not think that I covet the bit of lace which decks the mitre of a bishop ? These things are but the outward sym- bols of grandeur and dominion, the trappings which address themselves to the imaginations of the multitude, and make them fall down and worship. A king without subjects to acknowledge his sovereignty, is nothing ; and, in like manner, if I attained to the power of moving this terres- trial globe, even as a football, I should feel all to be in vain, unless the worms who inhabit it crouched down before me in wonder and admi- ration. You call it philosophy to despise the incense of the ignorant ; and if it be so, I am some half way a philosopher myself: for I too scorn it, even while acknowledging its necessity to my very existence ! A man is not born to live within himself. Every feeling to which he is subject, has some reference to the crowd of fellow- beings by whom he is surrounded, and amidst whom he lives as in an atmosphere. The very

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planets move in subjection to the systems of which they form a part/'

"Man is not born free," said Orosraandel, **^ and the planets are not spirit, but merely the bodies of spirit. There is a power notwithstanding, in human nature, to elevate itself above its own instincts ; a power, however, which is by no means identical with mere reason, or what is vulgarly called phi- losophy. Man is only an intermediate link in tlie mii verse ; but he hath enough within him of divine essence to raise him far beyond his apparent grade in creation. This motability is visible in all nature. The flower, by culture, may be amended in beauty and perfume, and changed even in form ; the wild beast may be educated into almost human civili- zation ; and man himself, though always clogged by the matter of which his outw^ard form is com- posed, may, by a still loftier instruction, attain, in all respects of power and knowledge, to a class of being infinitely more elevated than his own. Thou, even thou, weighed down as thou art by prejudice, and mingled as are thy noblest aspi-

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rations with the vapours of the earth, thou soarest as high above the mass of thy fellows as thou art lower than the demons. "^

" My father," replied the baron, in an altered tone, " I bow to your correction ; and, reasoning by what I feel within myself, I acknowledge the wisdom of your admonitions. If I am not supe- rior to the sluggish nature by which I am clogged, whence is this longing, and craving, and hunger- ing, and thirsting of my soul? Why have I turned aside from the paths of other men ? — from the pride of rank, the excitement of ambition, the glories of war ? Born among the noblest of the noble, fortune fell upon me, unsought, in a golden shower ; successful in love, a dowry equal to the apanage of a princess was laid at my feet ; tri- umphant alike in the council and on the field, I was overwhelmed with honour and dignities by the

* This word is used throughout in its original sense, spirits or angels, whether good or bad ; and not in the restricted meaning given to it by Christian writers.

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gratitude of a king. Were not these enough ? Why did I turn away from the banquet spread before me, sick with disappointment, faint with the hunger of the soul ? — "

" Because these things," went on Orosmandel, catching the word, while the impetuous baron drew breath, '' because all these are but the aims and attainments of human nature. Thy spirit demanded something higher. Thou didst feel, without comprehending, that there was a yet loftier field for ambition. Thou didst grope in the dark, lamenting and crying out, even like a man who knoweth there is light somewhere, if he can but find it. Knowledge was to thee like a dream which thou hadst forgotten ; even like the dream of the Babylonian of old, whose spirit was vexed unto madness, in seeking to lay hold of that which had fled. Then, like unto that heathen prince, didst thou ask of all nature, what was thy vision. Thou didst question the sea, and the wind, and demand revelations from the stars. Thou didst send forth to summon around thee the wise men —

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the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans of our time. And, behold ! there came at length One — "

" Orosmandel ! — my friend, my father, bear with me ! Your voice was like a voice from heaven to my spirit ; and the energies which before were wasted in vague endeavours, became at once con- centrated in the pursuit of a single glorious aim. Still I am not as you. My soul is yet enthralled by my human nature. Bear with me a little longer. Bear with me, even now, while I ask, Whether the gratification of the passions be as adverse to our advancement in occult knowledge, as it is contrary to the dictates of religion ? "

" The gratification of the passions," replied the philosopher, with a benignant and pitying smile, " is in itself a matter of small moment ; for these have reference only to the body. In so far, how- ever, as it interferes with the task of the mind, it is injurious. If, for instance, thou lavish on osten- tatious grandeur the means that are requisite for thy advancement in science, thou sinnest against

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the spirit. If, in the pursuit of power, or honour, or beauty, thou spend the time which should be devoted to study, thou art a robber of thyself. For mine own part, the human passions have long- been dead within me : still, for such as thou, I hold, with more than one heathen philosopher, that, under the restrictions I have alluded to, the strati- fication of the body is conducive to the tranquillity of the soul."

"It is well!" said the baron. "And for re- ligion— " but this he muttered in soliloquy — *' if alms, if prayers, if vows for the future — " and his voice died away in a deep sigh. He paced through the room in silence for some time, and then turned again to Orosmandel.

" You have observed," said he, " that a moment so critical as this should leave no time for vain regrets. The moment is still more critical than, perhaps, you imagine. The Duke has refused to make the farther purchase I proposed."

" And thou hast tempted him by more favour- able terms. This I know, and I know also that i2

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of which thou art ignorant. The vague rumours which have reached thine ear, touching hostile cabals among thy kindred, are true. The conspi- rators await only the completion of this pending sale ; when the storm will burst in thunder on thy head."

" Let it burst — I fear it not. Leagued with the Duke, I may defy Brittany. But who are they who forge these perilous bolts ? "

"The chief nobles of the land: but Claude Montrichard and his neighbour, assisted by the Gei*man cut-throat, and the English adventurer Beauchamp, have already one foot in the stirrup."

'^ Let them mount. This, then, is not a mere

rumour:

?"

"The meeting was witnessed by one on whose V isdom and courage thou mayest implicitly rely."

" And the new liveries ? What says Houpe- lande ? Does the slave hesitate ?"

" He did hesitate," replied Orosmandel, in a tone approaching to contempt, but whether of the baron or the tailor it was impossible to determine ;

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** my agent, however, succeeded in overcoming his scruples, and he will bring the merchandise hither himself."

" That is well. All goes as I could wish. The duke will buy; the rebellion will burst forth ; and we shall take the field, with a splendour that will be eclipsed only by our victory. Never has my good fortune failed me in war. The spoils of battle with which I shall return, will enable me to do all you command ; and the moment will at length arrive, when my long, long dream shall be- come a reality."

*^ But, if the Duke do not buy ? If thou be .worsted in the fight ?"

"Do you think I shall retract? I, who have lost fortune, fame, peace, occupation, perhaps sal- vation, on the hazard ? By heaven and hell, I will not blench ! My soul is already seared with sin ; these hands are stained with murder. Whither should I return, and for what purpose ? I tell you, I will sign the bond ! But, remember — " and the baron wiped the perspiration from his brow,

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"remember — all, all — honour, obedience, service — I will give all, save that which is myself — my soul ! I ivill have some ray of hope to look to — some hair to grasp at, as I hang shrieking over the abyss. I know you do not believe as I ; but you admit that there are mysteries hidden even from the demons. To this one will I cling. I could not die without it ; I could not fling myself into eternity without a hope. You hear my covenant : enough." Gilles de Retz looked round mechanically for a seat, and finding none, walked totteringly to the wall of the mystic chamber, and leant against it.

Orosmandel continued to gaze at him for some moments; and then replied in his usual tone of voice.

" I have already looked to this ; and, although I do not believe as thou, for such was not the creed of my time and country, I freely concede that it is at least possible thou mayst be right. I pretend not to know more than the angels. The clause, I feel confident, will be admitted. Now, tell me, art thou equally resolved as to the manner of com- pleting the bond ? Thy daughter?'*

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** I am resolved that the bond shall be com- pleted."

" And thy daughter ?"

" Talk not of her," said the baron, hastily, " I have as yet, it is true, failed in obtaining a substi- tute ; but there is hope even till the twelfth hour. It must be done v^^illingly ?"

"WiUingly."

" And by a pure and spotless virgin ?

" Thou say'st it."

*^ Such is Pauline ; and as she resembles me in the better points of my character, and even in those that touch most closely upon what is evil, there is hope, nay, there is certainty of her being brought to consent."

" Then why not at once conclude ?"

" Because, in the first place, there is no imme- diate necessity ; and because, in the second place, I am her father. I have already pleaded guilty to some lingering prejudices, if prejudices they be, of human nature ; and this is one of them. She was a child of love, not of sensual passion ; and

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I often think that her mother is in heaven, inter- ceding with the blessed saints in my behalf. She promised this on her death-bed. Pauhne lay upon her bosom — Bah ! The lamp smells so sickly. What is that ? Away ! Do not come to me here — Catherine, I will not do it, your child shall meet you in heaven !"

A brief pause again ensued ; and Orosmandel recommenced the conference.

"I will not upbraid thee," said he, "with w^hat is evidently more physical weakness than mental relapse. The perfume of this place, and the gloom, in which we appear to each other's eyes like spectres, have affected thy nerves. Tell me, however, for the time presseth, hast thou yet hope of a substitute ?"

" I have. Why else has this Jewish damsel been forced upon me, as it were, in a manner wonderful, nay, awful, both to her and to me. W^e met at the dead of night, among tombs and ruins, at the moment when I was despoihng of a portion of its dust a forgotten grave, and when she was

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flying from me (who had never heard of her) with the speed of a hunted deer! Had I not come forth at the sound of her breathing, for the place was as still as death, she would have entered the vault the next instant, and taken refuge from my- self— in my arms ! At Nantes, too, whither I suffered her to go, in confidence that we were destined to meet again, she was flung in my way by an unconscious crowd. Again she took to flight ; again she escaped ; and yet, by a fatality which it seems impossible to explain, she was the first person I saw on entering my private apart- ments in the hotel de la Suze !"

"Hast thou spoken with her?" inquired the philosopher, with interest. " Doth she listen with understanding ?"

"She is neither startled by the truths of science, nor affrighted by the consequences of error: nevertheless, I have not as yet ventured upon full explanation. She is daring, high- minded, even enthusiastic ; yet, she has a way of trying even the sublimest speculations by the i3

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common analogies of life, which cripples her progress down to the snail-pace of vulgar minds."

*' Is she here of her own free will ?" demanded Orosmandel.

" She is ;" replied the baron ; •' but, as it seems to me, not so much out of love of science, as from some principle of honour, or filial piety. She would prevent her father — you understand me — from being an accomphce in what she conceives to be a third mortal sin. She expected to be here under the protection of my daughter ; and to be able to save from danger the young man you have obtained from the Jew. It is in vain, however, to expect anything from constraint. She must return to Nantes, to the house of her kindred ; and our intercommunication must go on in the natural course."

^^That may not be," said Orosmandel, quickly. "She must remain in your hands, a hostage at once for her father, and lover — for such is the young man she designs to save. Let her be transferred to my private apartments."

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<' How !"

'' Where the foot of woman hath never trod before. There may be some meaning in the apparent coincidences thou describest ; and, till I have leisure to seek counsel thereon, as unerring as mere human reason is fallible, it were unwise to permit her departure."

The baron still hesitated.

" You do not yet know her," said he. " To detain her by violence would frustrate my purpose at once ; for she would distrust the reasonings of an archangel, if she listened to it under compul- sion. She has, indeed, become already suspicious, since she has seen nothing of Pauline."

^' And why not admit her into the Damsel's society ? The same instruction would serve for both."

"She is a Jewess," replied the baron, "and Pauline at least shall hold no communion with the accursed race.''

" Truly a conscientious scruple ! Your fountain of Diana is so pure that it will not mingle with

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wine, yet would you consent to incarnadine its waters with — "

"Hush! hush! that shall not be! We shall obtain treasure enough for all that is necessary — and even if we fail, thc;re is yet time for other means. If Hagar will not consent to peril her soul for me, her body at least shall be mine ; and that is something, for she is passing fair. If she prefer the lighter risk, be it so : there is yet an- other whom I have thought of again and again. Indeed, had she not been a kind of protegee of my daughter, peasant though she be, I should have made the attempt before now."

" Behold her ! " said Orosmandel suddenly ; and at the instant, a portion of the drapeiy which covered the wall of the chamber opened like a curtain ; and the peasant Marie was seen tra- versing a narrow passage beyond. The girl paused, and looked steadily into the room for an instant. She then crossed her bosom, and passed on.

" I foresaw,'* said Orosmandel, before Gilles de

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Retz had recovered from his surprise : ** I foresaw that it would come to this ; and therefore is she here. She is in a bridal dress, thou seest, but is still a virgin, and no wife. Her education has been good, and her natural understanding is better; but the circumstances of her condition will render temptation more easy, and she will listen the more readily that communication vvitli such as thou will be reckoned an honour. Leave Hagar to me, as the more difficult of persuasion." "Well, it shall be as you counsel; but not till I despair of success myself. Yet remember, if she will not be the abettor of my spirit in its exalted aspirations, she shall be the ally of my senses in their lowly pleasures. When your task becomes hopeless, return her to my charge. For the present, farewell ;" and the baron, making a low reverence to Orosmandel, who slightly bent his head in return, left the apartment by the opening in the hangings which Marie had passed.

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CHAPTER VIII.

It was at the moment when the above conversa- tion ended, that David Armstrong was summoned by the dwarf to the study of his new master. He followed his conductor in silence, marvelUng as he went at the grotesque agility with which the elf-like shape sprang up the steep stair ; and not a little startled by the grin, half of exultation^ half of mockery, with which he turned round every now and then to regard him. When they gained the landing-place, however, the equivocal creature paused suddenly, and crept towards the door, as if in terror. When David reached him, he saw that he shook, as in an ague fit ; and his voice was scarcely intelligible, when he said

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in a whisper, pointing with an expression of solemn meaning to the entrance, *' He is there. In with thee, for thou canst not choose. Behold, it is written!"

David went in as he was bidden, treading softly in unconscious imitation ; and he felt that the door closed itself, behind him, as noiselessly as snow falls upon the ground. Startled by the sudden and mysterious gloom, by the solitary Hght, gleam- ing like a lamp in a burying vault, and by the strange objects it disclosed with the indistinctness of a dream, he hung back; but almost at the instant of his entrance, the curtain unclosed, and he saw a figure at once elegant and soldier-like enter the apartment.

" Pardon me, my father," said the lord de Retz, " one other word," — and the speaker paused abruptly, and stood still. David now observed the tall, dim form of Orosmandel, erect and motionless, within the circle which surrounded the table. His back was turned to his visitors, and his eyes fixed, as it appeared from his attitude,

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upon the half luminous plan of the heavens. A deep silence prevailed for some minutes ; during which the scholar, standing against the black wall and beyond the reach of the feeble rays of the lamp, had opportunity to see without being seen, and to accustom his eyes to the spectral gloom of the place. Gilles de Retz, in the meantime, with his hands crossed upon his bosom, and his head bent, remained without motion, watching the moment of his preceptor's return to sublunary things.

At length it appeared as if a shadow passed across the picture, or that the paintings themselves moved upon its surface ; a sudden stream of air entered the apartment ; the flame of the lamp flashed, and flickered ; the dark hangings of the walls moved; and a hollow sound, articulate like a human voice, though unintelligible, was heard sounding at an immense distance, yet seeming to stir with its breath the whole atmosphere of the room. Then all was silent as before. Orosmandel turned round.

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^' Baron de Retz," said he, coming forward, but in a tone of more solemnity than sternness, *' I warn thee that I will brook no intrusion. Look to it."

*' I crave your pardon most humbly," said the baron, " but I had hardly reached the end of the corridor, when I bethought me of something I had forgotten ; and conceiving that you had not had time to forsake the thoughts of the world — "

*' Enough. Say on."

'• It was of your relation, or protoge, I would have spoken ; he whom you banished from your presence, and who sailed away upon unknown seas, and there perished. Pauline avers, and holds to it obstinately, that she saw him, either in body or spirit, in Paris."

"Not alive!"

" Moving and breathing like another man. But what is stranger still — for this I should else have set down as a young maid's fancy — the same idea has possessed itself of the cooler if not stronger mind of Hagar." At this name David's heart

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leaped within him; but, repressing his emotion, he scarcely permitted himself to breathe.

'^ Even casual resemblances," replied the sage, after a pause, "are deceitful; but there be also those that are produced of purpose. I shall in- quire into this ; and on some early night, which I shall hereafter name, if the Damsel will honour me with a visit at the mid hour, she shall know all — even to the number of fathoms of salt-water which cover the bones of Prelati." " Are you certain of his death ?" ** Certain : yet will I furnish proof to her." '* It is well. In the matter of Hagar, on farther thought, your counsel is wise. It