n mind that there was an English ship in sight.
Alas! that consolation was soon lost, for a dense gray mist was slowly
creeping in from the sea, and blotted out the vessel, then gathered in
closer, and obliterated all landmarks. Gradually it turned to a heavy
rain, and about the same time the ground on which they walked became no
longer loose sand-hills, but smooth and level. It was harder likewise
from the wet, and this afforded better walking, but there lay upon it
fragments of weed and shell, as though it were liable to be covered by
the sea, and there was a low, languid plash of the tide, which could
not be seen. Twilight began to deepen the mist. The guide was evidently
uneasy; he sidled up to Philip, and began to ask what he--hitherto
obstinately deaf and contemptuous to French--was very slow to
comprehend. At last he found it was a question how near it was to
All Soul's day; and then came an equally amazing query whether the
gentlemen's babe had been baptized; for it appeared that on All Soul's
day the spirits of unchristened infants had the power of rising from the
sands in a bewildering mist, and leading wayfarers into the sea. And
the poor guide, white and drenched, vowed he never would have undertaken
this walk if he had only thought of this. These slaughters of heretics
must so much have augmented the number of the poor little spirits;
and no doubt Monsieur would be specially bewildered by one so nearly
concerned with him. Philip, half frightened, could not help stepping
forward and pulling Berenger by the cloak to make him aware of this
strange peril; but he did not get much comfort. 'Baptized? Yes; you
know she was, by the old nurse. Let me alone, I say. I would follow her
wherever she called me, the innocent, and glad--the sooner the better.'

And he shook his brother off with a sadness and impatience so utterly
unapproachable, that Philip, poor boy, could only watch his tall figure
in the wide cloak and slouched hat, stalking on ever more indistinct in
the gloom, while his much confused mind tried to settle the theological
point whether the old nurse's baptism were valid enough to prevent poor
little Berangere from becoming one of these mischievous deluders; and
all this was varied by the notion of Captain Hobbs picking up their
corpses on the beach, and of Sir Marmaduke bewailing his only son.

At last a strange muffled sound made him start in the dead silence, but
the guide hailed the sound with a joyf