ave often
told me that there is in me something mysterious which frightens you."

"Yes," cried Bathilde; "it is the only torment of my life; my only fear
for the future."

"And you are right; for before I knew you, Bathilde, I had abandoned a
part of my free-will; this portion of myself no longer belongs to me,
but submits to a supreme law, and to unforeseen events. It is a black
point in a clear sky. According to the way the wind blows, it may
disappear as a vapor or increase into a storm. The hand which holds and
guides mine may lead me to the highest favor or to the most complete
disgrace. Tell me, Bathilde, are you disposed to share my good and evil
fortune; the calm and the tempest?"

"Everything with you, Raoul."

"Think of what you are undertaking, Bathilde. It may be a happy and a
brilliant life which is reserved for you; it may be exile; it may be
captivity; it may be that you will be a widow before you are a wife."

Bathilde turned so pale that Raoul thought she would fall; but she
quickly regained her self-command, and, holding out her hand to
D'Harmental--

"Raoul," said she, "have I not already told you that I love you; that I
never have and never can love any other? It seems to me that all these
promises you ask are included in those words; but since you wish them
renewed, I do so. Your life shall be my life, and your death my death;
both are in the hands of God."

"And I, Bathilde," said D'Harmental, leading her before the crucifix, "I
swear that from this moment you are my wife before God and before men;
and since the events which may dispose of my life leave me nothing but
my love to offer to you, that love is yours--profound, unalterable,
eternal;" and the young people exchanged their first kiss with the
renewal of their vows.

When D'Harmental left Bathilde, Buvat had not returned.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

DAVID AND GOLIATH.

Toward ten o'clock in the morning the Abbe Brigaud entered D'Harmental's
room; he brought him 20,000 francs, partly in gold, partly in Spanish
paper. The duchess had passed the night at the Comtesse de Chavigny's,
in the Rue du Mail. The plans of the preceding day were in no degree
changed, and they had ascertained that the regent would pay his
accustomed visit to Chelles. At ten o'clock Brigaud and D'Harmental went
down, Brigaud to join Pompadour and Valef on the Boulevard du Temple,
and D'Harmental to visit Bathilde.

Uneasiness was at its height in the little h