eur the Viscount, as he listened to Antoine's account of the Cure's
imprisonment. What had astonished and overpowered his own undisciplined
nature had not disturbed Monsieur the Preceptor. He had prayed in the
chateau--he prayed in the prison. He had often spoken in the chateau of
the softening and comforting influences of communion with the lower
animals and with nature, and in the uncertainty of imprisonment he had
tamed a toad. "None of these things had moved him," and in a storm of
grief and admiration, Monsieur the Viscount bewailed the memory of his
tutor.

"If he had only lived to teach me!"

But he was dead, and there was nothing for Monsieur the Viscount but to
make the most of his example. This was not so easy to follow as he
imagined. Things seemed to be different with him to what they had been
with Monsieur the Preceptor. He had no lofty meditations, no ardent
prayers, and calm and peace seemed more distant than ever. Monsieur the
Viscount met, in short, with all those difficulties that the soul must
meet with, which, in a moment of enthusiasm, has resolved upon a higher
and a better way of life, and in moments of depression is perpetually
tempted to forego that resolution. His prison life was, however, a
pretty severe discipline, and he held on with struggles and prayers; and
so, little by little, and day by day, as the time of his imprisonment
went by, the consolations of religion became a daily strength against
the fretfulness of imperious temper, the sickness of hope deferred, and
the dark suggestions of despair.

The term of his imprisonment was a long one. Many prisoners came and
went within the walls of the Abbaye, but Monsieur the Viscount still
remained in his cell: indeed, he would have gained little by leaving it
if he could have done so, as he would almost certainly have been
retaken. As it was, Antoine on more than one occasion concealed him
behind the bundles of firewood, and once or twice he narrowly escaped
detection by less friendly officials. There were times when the
guillotine seemed to him almost better than this long suspense: but
while other heads passed to the block, his remained on his shoulders;
and so weeks and even months went by. And during all this time, sleeping
or waking, whenever he lay down upon his pallet, the toad crept up on to
the stone, and kept watch over him with lustrous eyes.

Monsieur the Viscount hardly acknowledged to himself the affection with
which he came