oung child; though still her pride would not bend again to seek the
counsel that she had so much detested, nor to ask for the instruction
that was to make her 'believe like her husband.' If she might not fight
for the Reformed, it seemed as if she would none of their doctrine!

But, true lady that she was, she sunk the differences in her intercourse
with him. She was always prettily and affectionately grateful for every
service that he rendered her, and as graciously polite as though she had
been keeping house in the halls of Ribaumont. Then her intense love
for her child was so beautiful, and there was so much sweetness in
the cheerful patience with which she endured the many hardships of
her situation, that he could not help being strongly interested in the
willful, spirited little being.

And thus time passed, until one night, when Martin ventured over the
farm with a report so serious that Rotrou, at all risks, brought him
up to communicate his own tidings. Some one had given information,
Veronique he suspected, and the two Chevaliers were certainly coming
the next day to search with fire the old buildings of the temple. It was
already dawning towards morning, and it would be impossible to do more
at present than to let Rotrou build up the lady in a vault, some little
way off, whence, after the search was over, she could be released, and
join her vassals the next night according to the original design. As
to the child, her presence in the vault was impossible, and Martin had
actually brought her intended nurse, Simonette, to Rotrou's cottage to
receive her.

'Never!' was all Eustacie answered. 'Save both of us, or neither.'

'Lady,' said M. Gardon as she looked towards him, 'I go my way with my
staff.'

'And you--you more faithful than her vassals--will let me take her?'

'Assuredly.'

'Then, sir, even to the world's end will I go with you'

Martin would have argued, have asked, but she would not listen to him.
It was Maitre Gardon who made him understand the project. There was
what in later times has been termed an underground railway amid the
persecuted Calvinists, and M. Gardon knew his ground well enough to have
little doubt of being able to conduct the lady safely to some town
on the coast, whence she might reach her friends in England. The plan
highly satisfied Martin. It relieved him and his neighbours from the
necessity of provoking perilous wrath, and it was far safer for her
herself than endeavoui