ot a couple of pages off. After the
fight Tristan goes out of the tomb to rest himself; and meets the herald
Bretagne, whom he had saved from the wolves in the overture. Bretagne
tells him what has happened since the Maid's death, including the fate
of his half-brother on the father's side, Gilles de Retz, who, like
himself, has repented in time to save his soul, if not his life. Having
also seen afar off a cavalcade in which are Olivier and Alix, now
married and rapturous, Tristan retires into the tomb, which closes over
him. His horse "Baal" and his dogs, the "Celtically" (in the latter case
we may say _Piratically_) named Thor and Brinda, are petrified round its
entrance.

[367] Crusading times, and Jof or Edessa for Rouen and Poitiers as
places, might seem preferable. But the fifteenth century did a lot of
_diablerie_ in the West.

[368] A curious variant of this fancy of his will be noticed later. What
is more curious still need, perhaps, hardly be indicated for any
intelligent reader--the "sicklying over" of Paul-de-Kockery with a "cast
of thought"--"pale," or "dry," or up to "Old Brown" in strength and
character as it may seem to different people.

[369] As I have received complaints, mild and other, of the frequency of
my unexplained allusions, I may here refer explicitly to Mr. Traill's
_Recaptured Rhymes_; and if anybody, after looking up the book, is not
grateful to me, I am sorry for him. For the commoner practice here I can
only plead that I follow the Golden Rule. Nothing pleases _me_ so much
as an allusion that I understand--except one that I don't and have to
hunt up.

[370] _Rather_ too big a title for an adventurer to meddle with, surely?

[371] He has found out a secret about her. When she learns his crimes
and his fate, she puts an end to herself in a way which I fear Octave
Feuillet borrowed, rather unceremoniously, though he certainly improved
it, in _Julia de Trecoeur_ (_v. inf._). I did not read _Trois Hommes
Forts_ till many years after I had read and praised Feuillet's work.
Also, is it absolutely blasphemous to suggest that the beginning of the
book has a faint likeness to that of _Les Miserables_ much later?

[372] _V. sup._ last chapter, _passim_.

[373] One remembers, as so often, Dr. Johnson to Boswell: "This lady of
yours, Sir, is very fit for," etc.

[374] This is, I think, the best of his short stories. _Therese_ is
rather a sermon on the somewhat unsavoury text of morbid appet