peak privately with Brother Stephen. This the Abbot
granted, though he was very anxious to know the messenger's errand; for
he could think of no reason for it, unless there had been something
wrong with King Louis's book. So he was quite uneasy as he saw the
messenger enter Brother Stephen's cell and close the door.

Brother Stephen, too, was at first much surprised when his visitor told
him he had come from King Louis to inquire about a peasant boy by the
name of Gabriel Viaud; though in a moment it flashed through his mind
that Gabriel's prayer had found its way to the palace, and that the
answer was coming.

He said nothing of this, however, but when the messenger asked if he had
had such a boy for colour-grinder, he eagerly answered:

"Yes, and there lives no manlier and sweeter-spirited lad in all
France!"

"Is it true," continued the messenger, "that Count Pierre de Bouchage
hath imprisoned his father for failure to pay a tax, and that the family
are now in sore distress?"

"Yes, that also is true," replied the monk very sadly. And then he said
beseechingly: "But surely King Louis will help them? Surely our
gracious sovereign will not allow such injustice and cruelty?"

Here the messenger answered:

"Nay, our sovereign is indeed a generous monarch! Else had he not been
touched by the little prayer which the peasant lad placed in the book
thou madest for the Lady Anne. Though I dare say thou knewest naught of
it" (here Brother Stephen smiled gently, but said nothing), "yet so the
lad did. And 'twas because of that scrap of parchment falling under the
eyes of King Louis, that I have journeyed all the way from Paris. And,"
he added, as he remembered the heavy snow through which he had ridden,
"it takes a stout heart and a stouter horse to brave thy Norman roads
in December!"

Then he asked Brother Stephen a great many more questions, and inquired
what road to take in order to find Count Pierre's castle, and also the
Viaud cottage. And then when he had satisfied himself about all these
matters, he went back to the great hall of the Abbey, where the Abbot
was slowly pacing the floor, telling his beads as he walked.

The Abbot, though very curious as to the reason of the messenger's
visit, asked him no questions other than if the book for Lady Anne had
been entirely satisfactory; and he felt relieved when the messenger
assured him that so far as he knew both the king and Lady Anne had been
greatly delighted w