I may easily have been deceived,
for as I looked again, her features were calm and unmoved.

"The Pere," resumed Ursule, "was superintendent of the 'Chaise Dieu,'
and removed to be a Professor at Namur. He is a man of high acquirements
and sincere piety, but his great characteristic is his humility. With a
tenth of the ambition that others possess, he had been a Prince of the
Church."

Margot's eyes were downcast as this was spoken, so that I could not
detect how the speech affected her; but again it struck me that her
mouth was moved with an expression of scorn.

"There! I hear the horn of the postilion; you have n't a moment to
lose!" cried Ursule.

A fond, close embrace with each in turn, and a whispered word from
Margot which I tried in vain to catch, and I was gone! I buried my head
between my hands in shame, for I was crying bitterly, and never looked
up till we were far away from the village, and traversing a wide,
open country, with great undulating fields of corn, and few traces of
habitation.

"Come, come, be a man," broke in the _conducteur_, with a rough
good-humor. "You 're not the first who had to leave his home for the
conscription, and some have gone back _chefs-d' escadron_, afterwards."

I accepted the part he thus erringly assigned me, and let him run on
about all the fortunes and chances of a soldier's life.

If his conversation did not divert my thoughts, it at least suffered me
to pursue them unmolested; and so I travelled along through the whole
of that night and the following day, seldom speaking, or only in half
mechanical assent to some remark of my companion.

"They 'll want to see your passport here, citizen," said he, as we
approached the gate of a fortified town; "so get it ready, and don't
delay the authorities."

A few minutes more brought us to the outworks of a fortification,
passing through which, we crossed a drawbridge, over a deep moat,
and entered a long, dark archway. Here the diligence drew up, and the
passengers were ordered to descend. I overheard the _conducteur_ say the
word "conscript," and began to fear that he used it in relation to me,
when suddenly the official, opening my passport, called out:

"Which of you is the citizen Bernard?"

I at once remembered that it was the name I had recruited under, and
answered, "It is I."

"Step inside here," said he, civilly; "I have some directions with
respect to you."

I walked into a small chamber off the public ro