erthrew all sacred institutions.
Religious ceremonies then had the savor of the mysteries. Children were
baptized in the chambers where the mothers were still groaning from
their labor. As in the olden time, the Saviour went, poor and lowly,
to console the dying. Young girls received their first communion in the
home where they had played since infancy. The marriage of the marquis
and Mademoiselle de Verneuil was now solemnized, like many other unions,
by a service contrary to the recent legal enactments. In after
years these marriages, mostly celebrated at the foot of oaks, were
scrupulously recognized and considered legal. The priest who thus
preserved the ancient usages was one of those men who hold to their
principles in the height of the storm. His voice, which never made the
oath exacted by the Republic, uttered no word throughout the tempest
that did not make for peace. He never incited, like the Abbe Gudin, to
fire and sword; but like many others, he devoted himself to the still
more dangerous mission of performing his priestly functions for the
souls of faithful Catholics. To accomplish this perilous ministry he
used all the pious deceptions necessitated by persecution, and the
marquis, when he sought his services on this occasion, had found him in
one of those excavated caverns which are known, even to the present day,
by the name of "the priest's hiding-place." The mere sight of that pale
and suffering face was enough to give this worldly room a holy aspect.

All was now ready for the act of misery and of joy. Before beginning the
ceremony the priest asked, in the dead silence, the names of the bride.

"Marie-Nathalie, daughter of Mademoiselle Blanche de Casteran, abbess,
deceased, of Notre-Dame de Seez, and Victor-Amedee, Duc de Verneuil."

"Where born?"

"At La Chasterie, near Alencon."

"I never supposed," said the baron in a low voice to the count, "that
Montauran would have the folly to marry her. The natural daughter of a
duke!--horrid!"

"If it were of the king, well and good," replied the Comte de Bauvan,
smiling. "However, it is not for me to blame him; I like Charette's
mistress full as well; and I shall transfer the war to her--though she's
not one to bill and coo."

The names of the marquis had been filled in previously, and the two
lovers now signed the document with their witnesses. The ceremony then
began. At that instant Marie, and she alone, heard the sound of muskets
and the heavy tr