r fulfillment of the conditions, he would be
released with you.'

'So,' said Philip, when the old knight had quitted the room, 'of course
you cannot marry while Eustacie lives; but if---'

'Not another word, profane boy!' angrily cried Berenger.

'I was only going to say, it is a pity of one so goodly not to bring her
over to the true faith, and take her to England.'

'Much would she be beholden to you!' said Berenger. 'So!' he added,
sighing, 'I had little hope but that it would be thus. I believe it is
all a web of this old plotter's weaving, and that the Queen-mother acts
in it at his request. He wants only to buy me off with his daughter's
estates from asserting my claim to this castle and lands; and I trow he
will never rise up here till--till---'

'Till when, Berry?'

'Till mayhap my grandfather can move the Queen to do something for
us; or till Madame de Selinville sees a face she likes better than her
brother's carving; or, what can I tell? till malice is tired out, and
Heaven's will sets us free. May Eustacie only have reached home! But I'm
sorry for you, my poor Phil.'

'Never heed, brother,' said Philip; 'what is prison to me, so that I can
now and then see those lovely eyes?'

And the languishing air of the clumsy lad was so comical as to beguile
Berenger into a laugh. Yet Berenger's own feeling would go back to his
first meeting with Diane; and as he thought of the eyes then fixed on
him, he felt that he was under a trial that might become more severe.

CHAPTER XXXI. THE DARK POOL OF THE FUTURE

Triumph, triumph, only she
That knit his bonds can set him free.
--SOUTHEY

No change was made in the life of the captives of Nid de Merle after
the answer from Paris, except that Pere Bonami, who had already once
or twice dined at the Chevalier's table, was requested to make formal
exposition of the errors of the Reformers and of the tenets of his own
Church to the Baron de Ribaumont.

Philip took such good care not to be deluded that, though he sat by to
see fair play, yet it was always with his elbows on the table and
his fingers in his ears, regardless of appearing to the priest in the
character of the deaf adder. After all, he was not the object, and good
Pere Bonami at first thought the day his own, when he found that
almost all his arguments against Calvinism were equally impressed upon
Berenger's mind, but the differences soon revealed them