ke to him, after a long while, he
did not answer her. She supposed he had fallen asleep, as he had said,
but she could not help crying and calling to him again and again. The
sea-gulls flew past her screaming, but there was no sound of any voice
to speak to her. In spite of what he had said to her beforehand she grew
frightened, and thought it was because she had been unkind to Michel _le
diable_ that she was left there alone, with the sea swirling to and fro
beneath her.

It was not for more than two or three hours that Delphine hung cradled
in Michel's net, for the tide does not lie long round the Mont St.
Michel, and flows out again as swiftly as it comes in. The people
followed it out, scattering over the sands in the forlorn hope of
finding the dead bodies of Michel Lorio and the child, for they had no
expectation of meeting with either of them alive. At last two or three
of them heard the voice of Delphine, who saw the glimmer of their
lanterns upon the sands, and called shrilly and loudly for succour.

They found her swinging safely in her net, untouched by the water. But
Michel had sunk down upon his knees, though his arms were still fastened
about the stake. His head had fallen forward upon his breast, and his
thick wet hair covered his face. They lifted him without a word spoken.
He had saved Delphine's life at the cost of his own.

All the townspeople were down at the gate, waiting for the return of
those who had gone out to seek for the dead. The moon had risen above
the fog, and shone clearly down upon them. Delphine's mother, with her
younger children about her, sat on the stone where she had been sitting
when Michel set out on his perilous quest. She and the other women could
see a crowd of the men coming back, carrying some burden among them. But
as they drew near to the gate, Delphine sprang forward from among them
and ran and threw herself into her mother's arms. "A miracle!" cried
some voices amid the crowd; a miracle wrought by their patron St.
Michel. If Michel Lorio were safe, surely he would become again a good
Christian, and return to his ancient faith. But Michel Lorio was dead,
and all that could be done for him was to carry his dead body home to
his paralytic mother, and lay it upon his bed in the little loft where
he had spent so many hours of sorrowful loneliness.

It was a perplexing problem to the simple people. Some said that Michel
had been permitted to save the child by a diabolic ag