ey
would otherwise have done, that his ambition was inordinate. The young
lawyer, who had lain helpless for months on the bed which his family
made up for him in the old hall, was now, for the last week, able to
rise and move about by the aid of crutches. Babette's love and his
mother's tenderness had deeply touched his heart; and they, while they
had him helpless in their hands, lectured him severely on religion.
President de Thou paid his godson a visit during which he showed himself
most fatherly. Christophe, being now a solicitor of the Parliament, must
of course, he said, be Catholic; his oath would bind him to that; and
the president, who assumed not to doubt of his godson's orthodoxy, ended
his remarks by saying with great earnestness:

"My son, you have been cruelly tried. I am myself ignorant of the
reasons which made the Messieurs de Guise treat you thus; but I advise
you in future to live peacefully, without entering into the troubles of
the times; for the favor of the king and queen will not be shown to the
makers of revolt. You are not important enough to play fast and loose
with the king as the Guises do. If you wish to be some day counsellor to
the Parliament remember that you cannot obtain that noble office unless
by a real and serious attachment to the royal cause."

Nevertheless, neither President de Thou's visit, nor the seductions of
Babette, nor the urgency of his mother, were sufficient to shake the
constancy of the martyr of the Reformation. Christophe held to his
religion all the more because he had suffered for it.

"My father will never let me marry a heretic," whispered Babette in his
ear.

Christophe answered only by tears, which made the young girl silent and
thoughtful.

Old Lecamus maintained his paternal and magisterial dignity; he observed
his son and said little. The stern old man, after recovering his dear
Christophe, was dissatisfied with himself; he repented the tenderness he
had shown for this only son; but he admired him secretly. At no period
of his life did the syndic pull more wires to reach his ends, for he
saw the field ripe for the harvest so painfully sown, and he wanted to
gather the whole of it. Some days before the morning of which we write,
he had had, being alone with Christophe, a long conversation with him
in which he endeavored to discover the secret reason of the young man's
resistance. Christophe, who was not without ambition, betrayed his faith
in the Prince