with a solemn care they left their child. The priest of
Domremy, and none beside him, knew the weight of this burden. How had he
helped her bear it? since it is the _business_ of the shepherd to look
after the younglings of the flock. Her hard earnings paid him for
the prayers he offered for the deliverance of her father from his
purgatorial woes. Burdened with a dire debt of filial love, the priest
had let her depart from Domremy; his influence followed her as an
oppression and a care,--a degradation also.

Her life of labor was a slavish life. All she did, and all she left
undone, she looked at with sad-hearted reference to the great object of
her life. Far away she put all allurement to tempting, youthful joy.
What had she to do with merriment and jollity, while a sin remained
unexpiated, or a moment of her father's suffering and sorrow could be
anticipated?

How, probably, would these new doctrines, held fast by some through
persecution and danger, these doctrines which brought liberty to light,
be received by one so fast a prisoner of Hope as she? She had pledged
herself, with solemn vows had promised, to complete the work her mother
left unfinished when she died.

Some of the laborers in the field, Elsie among them, had hoped, they
said, that the wool-comber would retract from his dangerous position.
Recalling their words, Jacqueline asked herself would she choose to have
him retract? She reminded herself of the only martyr whose memory she
loved, the glorious girl from Domremy, and a lofty and stern spirit
seemed to rouse within her as she answered that question. She believed
that John had found and taught the truth; and was Truth to be sacrificed
to Power that hated it? Not by a suicidal act, at least.

She took the tracts, so judging, from underneath the stone, wistfully
looked them over, and, as she did so, recalled these words: "You cannot
buy your pardon of a priest; he has no power to sell it; he cannot even
give it. Ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, upbraiding not.
'If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more shall your Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that
ask him!'"

She could never forget these words. She could never forget the
preacher's look when he used them; nor the solemnity of the assenting
faith, as attested by the countenances of those around her in that
"upper room."

But her father! What would this faith do for the departed?