began to get his estate in order. Elizabeth besought him to
take her back to court where she had been a great favorite, but he
feared that the life of gaiety would undermine her not too strenuous
piety, and refused.

"The Huguenots were seemingly in great favor with Catherine de Medicis,
who was preparing for her great coup, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
The d'Ochtes were not overlooked by the cruel queen, but a guard was
sent to _Roche Craie_ headed by a zealous Jesuit. Jean was murdered in
his bed but Elizabeth escaped with her little son Henri to the chapel.
She shut the great iron door and managed to place the heavy bar so that
the soldiers could not open it, but the artful Jesuit came up into this
field and made the soldiers tear down the steeple and then he lowered
himself into the chapel with a rope. It was raining in torrents and as
the steeple was removed the floor was deluged. Elizabeth hid her little
son behind the altar and ran to the door hoping, it is supposed, to
divert the attention of the furious priest from her son to herself. She
shrieked, and the soldiers in the field above heard her agonizing cry,
'God help me, God help me!'

"There was a tremendous clap of thunder and a blinding flash of
lightning. The Jesuit lunged forward with his dagger raised, but the
lightning struck before he could, and he and the Lady Elizabeth met
death at the same moment. Strange to say, the little Henri, hiding
behind the altar, was unharmed. The bolt from heaven had come straight
through the aperture made by tearing down this steeple, not touching the
soldiers in the field above or the frightened child below. It is said
that the bodies of the lady and the priest were both entirely consumed.
The soldiers, taking it as a sign from heaven, spared the young heir of
_Roche Craie_; otherwise, the race would have been exterminated on that
dreadful day.

"And now for the ghost story after my long narrative, which I am afraid
must have bored you sadly."

"Oh, don't think it! I have been thrilled by it. Please go on,"
exclaimed Molly.

"You are very kind to find it interesting. It always excites me,
especially when I think how close little Henri was to being killed; and
had he not been spared, I myself could never have come into existence."

"That would have been a calamity, indeed," laughed Molly.

"Would it have made any difference to you, Cousin Molly? I should like
to think it would have made some difference to you,