e you are safe in one of your nunneries;' and as she only wept
the more, he added, with a sudden thought, 'You would not go there; you
would embrace the Protestant faith?'

'I would embrace whatever was his.'

Philip muttered something about seeing what could be done. They were
already at the entrance of the village, and Berenger had come out to
meet them, and, springing towards him, Philip exclaimed, in a low voice,
'Berry, she would abjure her Popish errors! You can't give her up to a
priest.'

'Foolery, Philip,' answered Berenger, sternly.

'If she would be a convert!'

'Let her be a modest woman first;' and Berenger, taking her bridle, led
her to the priest's house.

He found that Pere Colombeau was preaching a Lent sermon, and that
nobody was at home but the housekeeper, to whom he had explained briefly
that the lady with him had been forced to escape in disguise, had been
nearly drowned, and was in need of refreshment and female clothing.
Jacinthe did not like the sound, but drenched clothes were such a
passport to her master's house, that she durst not refuse. Berenger
carried off his other companions to the cabaret, and when he had dried
himself, went to wait for the priest at the church door, sitting in
the porch where more than one echo of the exhortation to repentance and
purity rang in his ears, and enforced his conviction that here he must
be cruel if he would be merciful.

It was long before Pere Colombeau came out, and then, if the scar had
not blushed for all the rest of his face, the sickly, lanky lad of three
years since would hardly have been recognized to the good cure. But the
priest's aspect was less benignant when Berenger tried to set before him
his predicament; he coldly asked where the unhappy lady was; and when
Berenger expressed his intention of coming the next morning to ask his
counsel, he only bowed. He did not ask the brothers to supper, nor show
any civility; and Berenger, as he walked back to the cabaret, perceived
that his story was but half believed, and that, if Diane's passion were
still stronger than her truth or generosity, she would be able to make
out a terrible case against him, and to willing ears, naturally disposed
against a young cavalier and a heretic.

He sat much dispirited by the fire of the little wine shop, thinking
that his forbearance had been well-nigh thrown away, and that his
character would never be cleared in Eustacie's eyes, attaching, indeed,
more i