corner, with
a fine young horse leaping up at the steps.

"They waited for him, long and long; but he never came again; and within
a week, his mangled body lay in a little chapel-yard; and if the priests
only said a quarter of the prayers they took the money for, God knows
they can have no throats left; only a relaxation.

"My lady dwelled for six months more--it is a melancholy tale (what true
tale is not so?)--scarcely able to believe that all her fright was not a
dream. She would not wear a piece or shape of any mourning-clothes;
she would not have a person cry, or any sorrow among us. She simply
disbelieved the thing, and trusted God to right it. The Protestants, who
have no faith, cannot understand this feeling. Enough that so it was;
and so my Lady went to heaven.

"For when the snow came down in autumn on the roots of the Pyrenees, and
the chapel-yard was white with it, many people told the lady that it was
time for her to go. And the strongest plea of all was this, that now she
bore another hope of repeating her husband's virtues. So at the end of
October, when wolves came down to the farm-lands, the little English
family went home towards their England.

"They landed somewhere on the Devonshire coast, ten or eleven years
agone, and stayed some days at Exeter; and set out thence in a hired
coach, without any proper attendance, for Watchett, in the north of
Somerset. For the lady owned a quiet mansion in the neighbourhood of
that town, and her one desire was to find refuge there, and to meet her
lord, who was sure to come (she said) when he heard of his new infant.
Therefore with only two serving-men and two maids (including Benita),
the party set forth from Exeter, and lay the first night at Bampton.

"On the following morn they started bravely, with earnest hope of
arriving at their journey's end by daylight. But the roads were soft and
very deep, and the sloughs were out in places; and the heavy coach broke
down in the axle, and needed mending at Dulverton; and so they lost
three hours or more, and would have been wiser to sleep there. But her
ladyship would not hear of it; she must be home that night, she said,
and her husband would be waiting. How could she keep him waiting now,
after such a long, long time?

"Therefore, although it was afternoon, and the year now come to
December, the horses were put to again, and the heavy coach went up the
hill, with the lady and her two children, and Benita, sittin