back, lay the valley and the town;
and all around us a vast sweep of country, rising up to the low floor of
clouds from which the bright dome of the sky was springing.

We strolled on as if we were walking on air, and could feel no fatigue;
Minima with a flush upon her pale cheeks, and chattering incessantly
about the boys, whose memories were her constant companions. I too had
my companions; faces and voices were about me, which no eye or ear but
mine could perceive.

During the night, while my brain had been between waking and sleeping, I
had been busy with the new idea that had taken possession of it. The
more I pondered upon the subject, the more impossible it appeared that
the laws of any Christian country should doom me, and deliver me up
against my will, to a bondage more degrading and more cruel than slavery
itself. If every man, I had said to myself, were proved to be good and
chivalrous, of high and steadfast honor, it might be possible to place
another soul, more frail and less wise, into his charge unchallenged.
But the law is made for evil men, not for good. I began to believe it
incredible that it should subject me to the tyranny of a husband who
made my home a hell, and gave me no companionship but that of the
vicious. Should the law make me forfeit all else, it would at least
recognize my right to myself. Once free from the necessity of hiding, I
did not fear to face any difficulty. Surely he had been deceiving me,
and playing upon my ignorance, when he told me I belonged to him as a
chattel!

Every step which carried us nearer to Granville brought new hope to me.
The face of Martin's mother came often to my mind, looking at me, as she
had done in Sark, with a mournful yet tender smile--a smile behind which
lay many tears. If I could but lay my head upon her lap, and tell her
all, all which I had never breathed into any ear, I should feel secure
and happy. "Courage!" I said to myself; "every hour brings you nearer to
her."

Now and then, whenever we came to a pleasant place, where a fallen tree,
or the step under a cross, offered us a resting-place by the roadside,
we sat down, scarcely from weariness, but rather for enjoyment. I had
full directions as to our route, and I carried a letter from Rosalie to
a cousin of hers, who lived in a convent about twelve miles from
Noirean; where, she assured me, they would take us in gladly for a
night, and perhaps send us on part of our way in their conveyance,