nths nearly since M. Rodolph placed me at a farm, which
is situated four or five leagues from Paris--"

"Did M. Rodolph take you there himself?"

"Yes, madame, and confided me to the charge of a worthy lady, as good as
she was venerable; and I loved her like my mother. She and the cure of
the village, at the request of M. Rodolph, took charge of my education."

"And M.--Rodolph,--did he often come to the farm?"

"No, madame, he only came three times during the whole time I was
there."

Clemence's heart throbbed with joy.

"And when he came to see you that made you very happy, did it not?"

"Oh, yes, madame! It was more than happiness to me; it was a feeling
mingled with gratitude, respect, adoration, and even a degree of fear."

"Of fear?"

"Between him and me, between him and others, the distance is so great!"

"But what, then, was his rank?"

"I do not know that he had any rank, madame."

"Yet you allude to the distance which exists between him and others."

"Oh, madame, what places him above all the rest of the world is the
elevation of his character, his inexhaustible generosity towards those
who suffer, the enthusiasm which he inspires in every one. The wicked,
even, cannot hear his name without trembling, and respect as much as
they dread him! But forgive me, madame, for still speaking of him. I
ought to be silent, for I seek to give you an adequate idea of him who
ought to be adored in silence. I might as well try to express by words
the goodness of Heaven!"

"This comparison--"

"Is, perhaps, sacrilegious, madame; but will it offend the good God to
compare to him one who has given me the consciousness of good and evil,
one who has snatched me from the abyss, one, in fact, to whom I owe a
new existence?"

"I do not blame you, my child; I can understand all your noble
exaggerations. But how was it that you abandoned this farm, where you
must have been so happy?"

"Alas, not voluntarily, madame!"

"Who, then, forced you away?"

"One evening, some days since," said Fleur-de-Marie, trembling even as
she spoke, "I was going towards the parsonage-house in the village, when
a wicked woman, who had used me very cruelly during my infancy, and a
man, her accomplice, who had concealed themselves in a ravine, threw
themselves upon me, and, after having gagged me, carried me off in a
hackney-coach."

"For what purpose?"

"I know not, madame. My ravishers, as I think, were acting in conformity
to or