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'Woman, you speak as if you knew not the

blow to this family, and to all who hoped for better days What,

that ht to be in a bed of state, with

velvet curtains, lace pillows, gold caudle-cups, should be here in

a vile ruin, aar, and all for the

sake, not of a young Lord to raise up the fairl! Had I knoould turn out, I had

never meddled in this nation, Eustacie had turned her

head opened her eyes, and called out, 'Miserable! Oh! what do you

mean? Oh, it is true, Nanon? is it ith her?

'As well as heart could wish,' answered Nanon, cheerily 'Sar There, Lady, she shall speak

for herself'

And as Nanon laid the babe on the youngtouch at once put an end to all the repinings of the

heiress, and awoke far other instincts

'My child! my little one, my poor little orphan--all cruel to her!

Oh, no welcome even from thy mother! Babe, babe, pardon me, I will

make it up to thee; indeed I will! Oh! let ood woht!'

The full rays of the able ,

streaht

movement Dame Rotrou was able to render the little face as

distinctly visible to her as if it had been daylight, save that the

blanching light was so to the new-born

complexion, and increased that curious resemblance so often borne

for the first few hours of life to the future self Eustacie's cry

at once was, 'Himself, himself--his very face! Let me have her,denied, rushed down like summer rain as she

clasped the child in her arms Dame Perrine wandered to and fro,

like one beside herself, not only at her Lady's wretched

accoht illumination,

of the oho snapped and hissed incessantly over the hay, and

above all the tears over the babe's face She tried to remonstrate

with Eustacie, but was answered only, 'Let me weep! Oh, let me

weep! It eases my heart! It cannot hurt my little one! She

cannot weep for her father herself, so I entle, not violent; and Daood rather than harm She was chiefly anxious to be quit of

Perrine, who, however faithful to the Lady of Ribauuenot asylum, and must be

escorted back by Rotrou ere peep of dawn The old woman knew that

her own absence fros submitted; but first she took the child fro to restore her in a few ed swaddling bands so

carefully preserved ever since Eustacie's own baby hood In these

any

questions, sprinkling the babe ater, and baptizing her by the

hereditary naere, the feminine of the only name

Eustacie had always declared her son should bear Such baptisms

were not unfrequently performed by French nurses, but Eustacie

exclaination

'Eh quoi!' said Perrine, 'it is only ondoyee You can have all

the ceremonies if ever time shall fit; but do you think I could

leave h it be--alone with owls, and

follets, and REVENANTS, and heretics, and she unbaptized? She

would be a changeling long ere ood woman,' said Rotrou, from between the trusses of hay at

the entrance; 'you and I ain, or

itconducted to Eustacie again in three

nights' tiuide at the cross-roads after

dark, Perrine was forced to take her leave She had never

suspected that all this time Maitre Gardon had been hidden in the

refectory below, and still less did she guess that soon after her

departure the old man was installed as her Lady's chief attendant

It was impossible that Nanon should stay with Eustacie; she had her

day's work to attend to, and her absence would have excited

suspicion He, therefore, ca

to Nanon, proffered hinal in case Nanon should be wanted The good woreat care She would not have dared to ask it of

him, but with a low reverence, she owned that it was an act of

great charity towards the poor lady, who, she hoped, was falling

into a tranquil sleep, but who she would hardly have dared to

leave The pastor, though hardships, battles, and persecutions had

left hie faly towards the mother and

child, because he al the part of a

father towards theof Berenger de Ribau

her in the stead of theof his own Theodore

Had the little Baronne de Ribaued in a tapes-tried

chaold, with a beauffet by

her side glistening with gold and silver plate, as would have

befitted her station, instead of lying on a bed of straith no

hangings to the walls save cobwebs and hay, and wallflowers, no

beauffet but the old rickety table, no attendants but Nanon and

M Gardon, no visitors but the thite owls, no provisions save

the homely fare that rustic mothers lived upon--neither she nor her

babe could have thriven better, and probably not half so well She

had been used to a hardy, out-of-door life, like the peasant wo, so that she recovered as they did

If the April shower beat in at the , or the hole in the roof,

they made a screen of canvas, covered her with cloaks, and heaped

them with hay, and she took no harm; and the pure open air that

bleas soft with all the southern sweetness of early spring-

tide, and the little one throve in it like the puff-ball owlets in

the hayloft, or the little ring-doves in the ivy, whose parent's

cooing voice was Eustacie's favourite s was the little Moonbeaht that had come back

to her from the sunshine she had lost Had she cried or been heard,

the sounds would probably have passed for the wailings of the

ghostly victims of the Templars, but she exercised an exeht she could

not be sufficiently admired

Like the child she was, Eustacie seemed to have put care from her,

and to be solely taken up with the baby, and the a the owl family

There was a lull in the search at this moment, for the Chevalier

had been recalled to Paris by the fatal illness of his son-in-law,

M de Selinvine The old soldier, after living half his life on

bread and salad, that heinto the wealth of the fa a

beautiful wife, returned to the luxuries he had been wont only to

enjoy for a feeeks at a time, with in military occupation of

soh to

cause his death; and the Chevalier was su for his obsequies, and in taking possession

of the huge endowments which, as the last of his race, he had been

able to bequeath to her Such was the news brought by the old

nurse Perrine, who took advantage of the slackening vigilance of

the enehly

satisfied; for one of the peasants' wives had--as if on purpose to

oblige her Lady--given birth to twins, one of whom had died almost

immediately; and the parents had consented to conceal their loss,

and at once take the little De the secret till her mother should be able to claim her

It was so entirely the practice, under the most favourable

circumstances, for French es, that Perrine was ary

refusal that burst from Eustacie: 'Part with my child! leave her

to her eneue, Perrine! I will

not hear of such a thing!'

'But, Madame, hear reason She will pass for one of Simonette's!'

'She shall pass for none but mine!--I part with thee, indeed! All

that is left me of thy father!--the poor little orphaned innocent,

that no one loves but her mother!'

'Madame--Mademoiselle, this is not common sense! Why, how can you

hide yourself? how travel with a baby on your neck, whose crying

may betray you?'

'She never cries--never, never! And better I were betrayed than

she'

'If it were a boy---' began Perrine

'If it were a boy, there would be plenty to care for it I should

not care for it half so irl,

whom every one wishes away but her h fire and water for thee yet Never fear,

thou shalt not leave her!'

'No nurse can go with Madame Simonette could not leave her home'

'What needs a nurse when she has me?'

'But, Madame,' proceeded the old woman, out of patience, 'you are

beside yourself! What noble lady ever nursed her babe?'

'I don't care noble ladies--I care for

'And hohat good will Mada for it do? What knows she

of infants? How can she take care of it?'

'Our Lady will teachthe child

passionately to her heart; 'and see--the owl--the ring-dove--can

take care of their little ones; the good God shows thearded her Ladyunreasonably to part with a new toy, and Nanon Rotrou was

much of the same mind; but it was evident that if at the moment

they attempted to carry off the babe, the other would put herself

into an agony of passion, that they durst not call forth; and they

found it needful to do their best to soothe her out of the deluge

of agitated tears that fell frorasped the child

so convulsively that she ht almost have stifled it at once

They assured her that they would not take it away now--not now, at

any rate; and when the latentmade her fiercely insist that

it was to leave her neither now nor ever, Perrine

declarations that it should be just as she pleased--pro voice,calmed her till Perrine had been conducted away; and even

then Nanon could not hush her into anything like repose, and at

last called in the minister, in despair

'Ah! sir, you are a wise ? Her nurse has nearly driven her distracted with

talking of the foster-parents she has found for the child'

'Not found!' cried Eustacie 'No, for she shall never go!'

'There!' laitates herself, when it is but

spoken of And surely she had better make up her mind, for there

is no other choice'

'Nay, Nanon,' said M Gardon, 'wherefore should she part with the

charge that God has laid on her?'

Eustacie gave a little cry of grateful joy 'Oh, sir, coht to tear her from me?'

'Surely not, Lady It is you whose duty it is to shield and guard

her'

'Oh, sir, tell ion Oh, you are

the ht to keepelse I will do just as you tell

me' And she stretched out both hands to hi! This is no ion or another,' said

the hty hath

imposed, and that He hathtaken the other side: 'the

good pasteur says what is according to nature It would have

gone hard with me if any one had wished to part me from Robin or

Sara; but these fine ladies, and, for that matter, BOURGEOISES too,

always do put out their babes; and it seemed to me that Madame