ted, and he forbore me! Ay, and
who spared not once or twice him for whom he must now--he must now--" And
unable to finish the sentence she beat her hands again and passionately
on the stones.

"Heaven knows, Madame," the minister cried vehemently, "Heaven knows, I
would advise you if I could."

"Why did he wear his corselet?" she wailed, as if she had not heard him.
"Was there no spear could reach his breast, that he must come to this? No
foe so gentle he would spare him this? Or why did _he_ not die with me
in Paris when we waited? In another minute death might have come and
saved us this."

With the tears running down his face he tried to comfort her.

"Man that is a shadow," he said, "passeth away--what matter how? A
little while, a very little while, and we shall pass!"

"With his curse upon us!" she cried. And, shuddering, she pressed her
hands to her eyes to shut out the sight her fancy pictured.

He left her for a while, hoping that in solitude she might regain control
of herself. When he returned he found her seated, and outwardly more
composed; her arms resting on the parapet-wall, her eyes bent steadily on
the long stretch of hard sand which ran northward from the village. By
that route her lover had many a time come to her; there she had ridden
with him in the early days; and that way they had started for Paris on
such a morning and at such an hour as this, with sunshine about them, and
larks singing hope above the sand-dunes, and with wavelets creaming to
the horses' hoofs!

Of all which La Tribe, a stranger, knew nothing. The rapt gaze, the
unchanging attitude only confirmed his opinion of the course she would
adopt. He was thankful to find her more composed; and in fear of such a
scene as had already passed between them, he stole away again. He
returned by-and-by, but with the greatest reluctance, and only because
Carlat's urgency would take no refusal.

He came this time to crave the key of the wicket, explaining that--rather
to satisfy his own conscience and the men than with any hope of
success--he proposed to go halfway along the causeway, and thence by
signs invite a conference.

"It is just possible," he added, hesitating--he feared nothing so much as
to raise hopes in her--"that by the offer of a money ransom, Madame--"

"Go," she said, without turning her head. "Offer what you please.
But"--bitterly--"have a care of them! Montsoreau is very like Montereau!
Beware of the b