their hands."

"Unfortunate youth," said Dagobert; "without arms then? You had not a
sufficient escort for your protection?"

"It is not for such as me to carry arms." said Gabriel, sweetly smiling;
"and we are never accompanied by any escort."

"Well, but your companions, those who were along with you, how came it
that they did not defend you?" impetuously asked Agricola.

"I was alone, my dear brother."

"Alone!"

"Yes, alone; without even a guide."

"You alone! unarmed! in a barbarous country!" exclaimed Dagobert,
scarcely crediting a step so unmilitary, and almost distrusting his own
sense of hearing.

"It was sublime!" said the young blacksmith and poet.

"The Christian faith," said Gabriel, with mild simplicity, "cannot be
implanted by force or violence. It is only by the power of persuasion
that the gospel can be spread amongst poor savages."

"But when persuasions fail!" said Agricola.

"Why, then, dear brother, one has but to die for the belief that is
in him, pitying those who have rejected it, and who have refused the
blessings it offers to mankind."

There was a period of profound silence after the reply of Gabriel, which
was uttered with simple and touching pathos.

Dagobert was in his own nature too courageous not to comprehend a
heroism thus calm and resigned; and the old soldier, as well as his
son, now contemplated Gabriel with the most earnest feelings of mingled
admiration and respect.

Gabriel, entirely free from the affection of false modesty, seemed quite
unconscious of the emotions which he had excited in the breasts of his
two friends; and he therefore said to Dagobert, "What ails you?"

"What ails me!" exclaimed the brave old soldier, with great emotion:
"After having been for thirty years in the wars, I had imagined myself
to be about as courageous as any man. And now I find I have a master!
And that master is yourself!"

"I!" said Gabriel; "what do you mean? What have I done?"

"Thunder, don't you know that the brave wounds there" (the veteran
took with transport both of Gabriel's hands), "that these wounds are
as glorious--are more glorious than our--than all ours, as warriors by
profession!"

"Yes! yes, my father speaks truth!" exclaimed Agricola; and he added,
with enthusiasm, "Oh, for such priests! How I love them! How I
venerate them! How I am elevated by their charity, their courage, their
resignation!"

"I entreat you not to extol me thus," said Gabriel with em