ode in the direction of the Porte de Rive;
but they stopped their horses suddenly on catching sight of a man, about
fifty years of age, leaning on the arm of a servant-woman, and walking
slowly toward the town. This man, who was rather stout, walked with
difficulty, putting one foot after the other with pain apparently, for
he wore round shoes of black velvet, laced in front.

"It is he!" said Chaudieu to the other horseman, who immediately
dismounted, threw the reins to his companion, and went forward, opening
wide his arms to the man on foot.

The man, who was Jean Calvin, drew back to avoid the embrace, casting
a stern look at his disciple. At fifty years of age Calvin looked as
though he were sixty. Stout and stocky in figure, he seemed shorter
still because the horrible sufferings of stone in the bladder obliged
him to bend almost double as he walked. These pains were complicated by
attacks of gout of the worst kind. Every one trembled before that face,
almost as broad as it was long, on which, in spite of its roundness,
there was as little human-kindness as on that of Henry the Eighth, whom
Calvin greatly resembled. Sufferings which gave him no respite were
manifest in the deep-cut lines starting from each side of the nose and
following the curve of the moustache till they were lost in the thick
gray beard. This face, though red and inflamed like that of a heavy
drinker, showed spots where the skin was yellow. In spite of the velvet
cap, which covered the huge square head, a vast forehead of noble shape
could be seen and admired; beneath it shone two dark eyes, which must
have flashed forth flame in moments of anger. Whether by reason of his
obesity, or because of his thick, short neck, or in consequence of his
vigils and his constant labors, Calvin's head was sunk between his
broad shoulders, which obliged him to wear a fluted ruff of very small
dimensions, on which his face seemed to lie like the head of John the
Baptist on a charger. Between his moustache and his beard could be seen,
like a rose, his small and fresh and eloquent little mouth, shaped in
perfection. The face was divided by a square nose, remarkable for the
flexibility of its entire length, the tip of which was significantly
flat, seeming the more in harmony with the prodigious power expressed by
the form of that imperial head. Though it might have been difficult
to discover on his features any trace of the weekly headaches which
tormented Calvin