ind the matter as he has announced it; the Lord of
Basville had through kindness for the wretched man, taken him into his
service as gamekeeper; and whether it is, that he has not been able to
conquer his old attachment to the rebels, or that he himself did not
know all precisely: the rebel leaders with a numerous troop have
escaped us again, and Cavalier has, as I have just learned from a
courier, defeated a considerable body of our people in the mountains
not far from St. Hypolite."

"I know Favart," said Christine, "he was in our service for a long
while; a wild but otherwise good man; I am only surprised that he could
have again abandoned his sect. But is this the misfortune that you
bewail so much, Marshal?" "No, beauteous lady," said the Lord of
Montrevel, "such things which are mere trifles to a real soldier cannot
disconcert me, I should blush for myself, if the common accidents of
the field or of life could ruffle my temper."

"Your beloved then is become faithless? console yourself, there still
remain enough for you," said the young lady drily.

"Ah, sly one!" said the Marshal, holding up his finger threateningly;
"yes, enchantress, if you feel and return my flame, if you only believe
in it, then would I consider this gloomy day as the happiest of my
life, and to me all the rest of womankind on earth would be as
nothing." He declined all the refreshments presented to him by the
servants: "This is a fast day for me," he continued, "and I have not
yet been permitted to dine to-day."

"You are too severe," said Christine, "too orthodox, too devout;
moreover, I do not recollect that this is a fast day."

"It is not that," said the general solemnly; "for, at times, one may
break this fast without any great qualms of conscience; but there are
things which are not really connected with the church or her
ordinances, but which lie in nature, and on that account are more
deeply engraven on our hearts; things which many philosophers, as well
as ecclesiastics censure as prejudice and superstition, and which
nevertheless have, through the implicit faith of millions, been
transmitted to us from the remotest times, and from that very
circumstance possess, yes, I may so express myself, a revered, a holy
authority. These signs and tokens of a dark futurity, the immediate
voice, as it were, of fate, speaks so much the more thrillingly to us
as they appear to the dull eye only ridiculous or, at least,
insignificant, and as