to unfurl the scroll, and
from it hurl lightning upon those whom he pursued with looks of fiery
indignation--three Capuchins and a Franciscan, who had just passed.

"Pere Guillaume," pursued M. du Lude, "how is it you have brought with
you only your sons, and they armed with their staves?"

"Faith, Monsieur, I have no desire that our girls should learn to dance
of the nuns; and, moreover, just now the lads with their staves may
bestir themselves to better purpose than their sisters would."

"Take my advice, my old friend," said the Count, "and don't bestir
yourselves at all; rather stand quietly aside to view the procession
which you see approaching, and remember that you are seventy years old."

"Ah!" murmured the old man, drawing up his twelve sons in double military
rank, "I fought under good King Henriot, and can play at sword and pistol
as well as the worthy 'ligueurs';" and shaking his head he leaned against
a post, his knotty staff between his crossed legs, his hands clasped on
its thick butt-end, and his white, bearded chin resting on his hands.
Then, half closing his eyes, he appeared lost in recollections of his
youth.

The bystanders observed with interest his dress, slashed in the fashion
of Henri IV, and his resemblance to the Bearnese monarch in the latter
years of his life, though the King's hair had been prevented by the
assassin's blade from acquiring the whiteness which that of the old
peasant had peacefully attained. A furious pealing of the bells, however,
attracted the general attention to the end of the great street, down
which was seen filing a long procession, whose banners and glittering
pikes rose above the heads of the crowd, which successively and in
silence opened a way for the at once absurd and terrible train.

First, two and two, came a body of archers, with pointed beards and large
plumed hats, armed with long halberds, who, ranging in a single file on
each side of the middle of the street, formed an avenue along which
marched in solemn order a procession of Gray Penitents--men attired in
long, gray robes, the hoods of which entirely covered their heads; masks
of the same stuff terminated below their chins in points, like beards,
each having three holes for the eyes and nose. Even at the present day we
see these costumes at funerals, more especially in the Pyrenees. The
Penitents of Loudun carried enormous wax candles, and their slow, uniform
movement, and their eyes, which seemed