cousin the Vicomte de Mauleon?"

"Yes. Not so well as I ought, for Enguerrand liked him."

"Well enough, at all events, to call on him with a request which I am
commissioned to make, but it might come better from you as a kinsman.
I am a stranger to him, and I know not whether a man of that sort would
not regard as an officious intermeddling any communication made to him
by a priest. The matter, however, is a very simple one. At the convent
of ------- there is a poor nun who is, I fear, dying. She has an intense
desire to see M. de Mauleon, whom she declares to be her uncle, and her
only surviving relative. The laws of the convent are not too austere to
prevent the interview she seeks in such a case. I should add that I am
not acquainted with her previous history. I am not the confessor of the
sisterhood; he, poor man, was badly wounded by a chance ball a few
days ago when attached to an ambulance on the ramparts. As soon as the
surgeon would allow him to see any one, he sent for me, and bade me go
to the nun I speak of--Sister Ursula. It seems that he had informed
her that M. de Mauleon was at Paris, and had promised to ascertain his
address. His wound had prevented his doing so, but he trusted to me to
procure the information. I am well acquainted with the Superieure of
the convent, and I flatter myself that she holds me in esteem. I had
therefore no difficulty to obtain her permission to see this poor nun,
which I did this evening. She implored me for the peace of her soul to
lose no time in finding out M. de Mauleon's address, and entreating him
to visit her. Lest he should demur, I was to give him the name by which
he had known her in the world--Louise Duval. Of course I obeyed. The
address of a man who has so distinguished himself in this unhappy
siege I very easily obtained, and repaired at once to M. de Mauleon's
apartment. I there learned that he was from home, and it was uncertain
whether he would not spend the night on the ramparts."

"I will not fail to see him early in the morning," said Raoul, "and
execute your commission."

CHAPTER IV.

M. Mauleon was somewhat surprised by Raoul's visit the next morning. He
had no great liking for a kinsman whose politely distant reserve towards
him, in contrast to poor Euguerrand's genial heartiness, had much
wounded his sensitive self-respect; nor could he comprehend the
religious scruples which forbade Raoul to take a soldier's share in the
battle-field, tho