to confirm the chill of
horror with which he was met by hapless children that sighed over the
loss of filial love. His late returns from the lodge, and occasionally
those sad ebullitions of intemperance, continued to be their deep
affliction.

In proportion as love twines itself around the heart it absorbs all
other feelings, it draws the passions like lentils around itself; so
the contrary feeling of hatred, when permitted to enter the sanctuary
of the heart, assumes at once a tyrannical sway, whose wicked demands
of gratification become more and more imperious and exacting day by
day, and rears a throne that becomes impregnable in proportion as the
sun is allowed to set on its possessions. Even filial love has
withered under the shadow of Cassier's worthlessness.

In lonely walks along the lake, in conversations, and in tears the two
girls lamented their fate. The beauty of virtue withered within their
bosoms. The resembled two beautiful flowers torn from their bed, and
cast with the weeds of the garden to taint in their decay the breezes
they would sweeten if left on their stem. They longed for the pleasures
that pleased in the day of prosperity; the dance, the banquet, and
those visits that won the momentary gratification of flattery and
admiration were sighed for. So irksome was the monotony and so
uncongenial the role forced upon them by disguise, they hailed with
joy the least circumstance that might be the harbinger of a change.

It is at hand. Once more the excitement of chase! The vigilance of
their astute father has placed them again in the caleche, and spirited
horses are galloping from the Swiss capital.

News from Paris has arrived; the failure, the flight, the reward, are
passed around in a sensational romance, and the disappearance of two
police officers lends the charms of mystery to the embellished rumor.
Cassier--the hero of the tale, the unsuspected guilty one--went around
and told the news with all the sanctimonious whining and eye-uplifting
of a ranting preacher. In the meantime he matured his plans, and
before suspicion could point her finger at him he fled to another
retreat to elude for a while the justice of man to meet his awful
doom from the hands of God.

During the night Cassier and his children ascend the terrific pass of
the Tete Noir; he proposes to hide from the threatened storm in the
cloister of Martigny. This is a venerable Benedictine monastery,
erected in the eleven