nake, he muttered a curse between his
teeth, and convulsively clutched the silken coverlet.

"You seem to know him," the maiden continued, "and I know him too.
About two years ago a hunting-party came to Mont Salvair, a great
gathering of knights and fair dames. They all sat themselves down to
feast in the wood that bordered the convent garden, and we from
our shrubbery could see what was going on; the drinking, the
banqueting; and could hear the songs that the Count's mistress--a tall,
proud-looking woman--sang to her lute. Oh cousin, what dreadful human
beings there are! Even then I felt a terror come over me, and was glad
when the abbess came to drive us out of the garden, and set us down in
the refectory to our spinning-wheels. There nothing was heard but the
whispering of the nuns, every one of whom knew something of the
wildness and godlessness of the Count de Gaillac. For they know
everything in the convent, know all about the outer world and its ways,
otherwise they would die of tedium. Then the abbess came in, told me
that the Count was standing at the grating, and desired to see me, as
he was the bearer of a message from my father. I do not know how I had
strength enough to rise, and walk across the long hall to her; then,
however, she took my hand in her mother-like clasp, and whispered,
'Remember that thou art here in a consecrated place; here the evil one
himself could have no power over thee.' So saying she led me to where
the godless man with his hawk's eyes in his wolf's face, was waiting
behind the grating, the handsome, bold-looking woman by his side. They
were laughing loud when we appeared, but suddenly grew silent. I heard
the Count say something in Italian to the lady that I perfectly
understood, but could not contradict. What his message to me was I
never knew, but it cut me to the heart to hear him name my father, and
call him his best friend. A cloud darkened my eyes,--when I came to
myself again, they were gone. The abbess never alluded to this visit,
and forbade the nuns ever to name Pierre de Gaillac before me. Thus I
never heard of him again, till to-day, when my own father has told me
that on one wretched night, after gambling away the remnant of his
possessions to this man, he had staked the hand of his daughter upon
the last throw of the dice, and lost that too."

A sound forced its way from the young man's breast, a hollow cry of
horror and of rage, but his limbs seemed paralysed, and h