r knew before. He gradually became weaker through more
suffering, and was absolutely incapable of removal, when an attack
by the Guisards was threatened. Eustacie might have been sent back to
Quinet; but she would not hear of leaving him; and this first had been
a mere slight attack, as if a mere experiment on the strength of the
place. She had, however, then had to take the lead in controlling the
women, and teaching them to act as nurses, and to carry out provisions;
and she must then have been seen by some one, who reported her presence
there to Narcisse--perhaps by the Italian pedlar. Indeed Humfrey, who
came in for a moment to receive his master's orders, report his watch,
and greet his lady, narrated, on the authority of the lately enlisted
men-at-arms, that M. de Nid de Merle had promised twenty crowns to any
one who might shoot down the heretics' little white _diablesse_.

About six weeks had elapsed since the first attack on Pont de Dronne,
and in that time Gardon had sunk rapidly. He died as he lived, a gentle,
patient man, not a characteristic Calvinist, though his lot had been
thrown with that party in his perplexed life of truth-seeking and
disappointment in the aspirations and hopes of early youth. He had been,
however, full of peace and trust that he should open his eyes where the
light was clear, and no cloud on either side would mar his perception;
and his thankfulness had been great for the blessing that his almost
heaven-sent daughter had been to him in his loneliness, bereavement,
and decay. Much as he loved her, he did not show himself grieved or
distressed on her account; but, as he told her, he took the summons to
leave her as a sign that his task was done, and the term of her trials
ended. 'I trust as fully,' he said, 'that thou wilt soon be in safe and
loving hands, as though I could commit thee to them.'

And so he died in her arms, leaving her a far fuller measure of blessing
and of love than ever she had derived from her own father; and as the
enemy's trumpets were already sounding on the hills, she had feared
insult to his remains, and had procured his almost immediate burial in
the cloister, bidding the assistants sing, as his farewell, that evening
psalm which had first brought soothing to her hunted spirit.

There, while unable, after hours of weeping, to tear herself from the
grave of her father and protector, had she in her utter desolation been
startled by the summons, not only to att