body of their retainers corresponding to the rank of the individual. These armed retinues followed the main body, while their commanders rode in front near the litter of Mademoiselle de Laval; and as, one by one, on arriving at the avenues which led to their own châteaux, they detached themselves from the mass, it was not uninteresting to see the whole line halt during the ceremony of leavetaking, and to watch the glittering of their armour, and the dancing of their plumes, as they spurred haughtily along the wooded paths, and at length disappeared among the trees. Sometimes, when the château was near, its lord prevailed upon the principal travellers to ride up to the gate, and drink a cup of wine without dismounting, and on such occasions the ladies of the family came out to salute the damsel as she passed. All these incidents contributed, and had done so from the first, to render the progress of the cavalcade extremely slow; for in reality, a vigorous traveller, even without the assistance of his horse, might have performed the distance from Angers to Nantes in two days.

There was one thing, however, which gave a very peculiar character to the procession, as it might be called. This was the absence, even in well-peopled districts, of that noisy crowd which usually fawns upon the progress of the great. The peasants got out of the way altogether, or else stood still, either gazing on the show in absolute silence, or with their eyes fixed upon the ground. All, however, had their heads uncovered and their bodies bent. Groups of meaner travellers, instead of attaching themselves for protection to the great body, melted away as it approached, and disappeared among the trees; and thus the procession, instead of uniting to itself, as usual, everybody whom leisure permitted or business required to travel the same way, rolled silently along, the uniformity of its march only broken by such incidents as we have mentioned.

Among the chiefs who surrounded the litter, although at as great a distance as the breadth of the road permitted, the most conspicuous was Roger de Briqueville, a relation of the family of Laval, and in some sort a dependant upon his kinsman, the Lord de Retz. To him was intrusted, on this occasion, the command of the men-at-arms; but his ordinary office was that of captain of the body-guard of his master. He was low in stature, square-built, and long-armed; and his coarse, weather-beaten, pock-pitted face, without a single gleam of what is properly termed intellect, disclosed, notwithstanding, the keenness of a practised soldier, and the instinctive fidelity of a mastiff dog.

Close by the litter rode Orosmandel, a man whose extraordinary dignity of deportment awed the rude soldiers around him, as much as the benignity of his countenance interested them. To look at him behind, you would have supposed that he was some sovereign prince, of that by-gone time when the attributes of royalty were not merely its crown and sceptre, but grace, majesty, personal strength, and beauty of manly form. In front, his beard, as white as the driven snow, his calm deep eyes, his pale face moulded by habit into an expression of lofty contemplation mingled both with sweetness and sadness, gave the idea at once of an apostle and a philosopher; and few travellers there were who looked upon him, who did not step aside out of his path, and hold their breath while he passed by.

His benign expression, however, had not the usual effect of leading on to familiarity and confidence. The persons on his side of the litter sat their horses with an air of constraint; they gave him, as the sailors say, a wide berth; and when they conversed at all with each other, it was in a whisper.

Behind the litter was Hagar, mounted on a mule, her hood drawn over her face, and her whole form enveloped in her cloak. From time to time, she quickened her pace, to reply to the questions of the damsel, who, in the absence of other female society than that of her waiting-woman, desired occasionally to converse with the stranger. Hitherto they had hardly exchanged words, except at the moment when the Jewess presented the note from Sir Archibald Douglas; but at this point of the journey, when they might be said to be almost in the heart of Gilles de Retz' personal domain, all the chiefs who had joined the procession on the route had taken their leave, and Mademoiselle de Laval had time to think of her protégée.

"Tell me, maiden," said she, "you whose dark eyes speak of warmer suns than ours, what is your parentage and country?"

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My father, lady, is a merchant from the east, who liveth by trafficking in goods and monies; and for me, I have no country, being as one born in the desert and by the wayside."

"Poor girl! and you know not even the land wherein you saw the light! Speak, is your father wealthy?"

"Of a merchant it cannot be said, He is wealthy; for his substance is always in peril. Nevertheless, the Lord hath dealt bountifully with our house, and we have wherewithal to live."

“Nay.”

"Then with whom didst thou part?" interposed Orosmandel, fixing his penetrating eye upon her. "I can read the signs of the human affections, and I know what belongeth to love and what to kindred."

Hagar stood silent and interdicted; for she had not lied boldly, like one who would save her father at the expense of a harmless falsehood; but had cheated her conscience with the quibble contained in her words: for the Jew was not in Paris, but under it.

"To whom go you at Nantes?" demanded Pauline, goodnaturedly, in order to screen the young woman's confusion.

"To the kinsfolk of our house, who are also traffickers like my father."

"And the knight," added Pauline, in a lower tone, after glancing furtively at Orosmandel, who had relapsed into his usual abstraction,-"he whose missive you delivered to me-how did you" She coloured deeply while she spoke, and then added, with an effort at indifference, "Have you known him long?"

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'I never saw him before that night,” replied Hagar. "Indeed! And where did you see him then? You were, no doubt, strongly recommended."

"I was I met him at a hostelrie called the Pommedu-Pin." There was a peculiarity in Hagar's voice as she spoke, which induced the damsel to look up at her face, which was partly concealed by her hood; and she saw that her usually colourless complexion was suffused with a bright glow. Pauline was silent for some moments.

"Did you say by whom you were recommended?" said she at last carelessly.

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'By an intimate friend and blood-relation of the knight.” Minion!" said the damsel suddenly, and in a tone of haughty displeasure; "he has nor friend nor kinsman in the whole realm of France."

"Of a surety, madam, I have spoken the truth; and the meeting was appointed by the knight himself." Having so spoken, Hagar suffered her mule to fall gradually behind; aware she had given offence, she could not conceive of what nature, to her powerful protectress; yet desirous of discontinuing, at all risks, a conversation which might tend to the discovery of more of her affairs than might be consistent with her father's safety.

The cavalcade at length reached a side path which, diverg

ing from the great highway to Nantes, led across the country to La Verrière, the residence of the Lord de Retz. This was not their route, however, for it was intended to go straight on to the city; and Pauline, after pausing for a moment to gaze up the avenue, and to whisper a prayer before a crucifix which marked its entrance, directed her litter to proceed. But Orosmandel stood still; and she paused again out of respect. No one would presume to pass the philosopher, who appeared to be plunged in the deepest abstraction; and thus a silent and unbidden halt took place along the whole line.

A peasant woman was kneeling at the foot of the crucifix, completely wrapped in her cloak, and apparently absorbed in religious meditation; but the caution or timidity, whichever it might be, that had seemed to affect the whole of her class, was lost in curiosity when the procession stopped, and she turned her head to see what was the matter. She proved to be the same young woman who had given the warning to Sir Archibald Douglas; and the damsel, observing her, made a sign that she should approach when she had finished her devotions.

"How is it with you, Marie?" said she in a low voice; "Are you quite recovered?"

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Yes, Madam: thanks to your ladyship, St. Julian, and the Holy Virgin."

"Where have you been?"

"To see a relation of my late uncle."

"And you are now going back to your village?"

"Yes, Madam; to be married, if you please."

"You met with no mishaps or adventures this time, I hope," said the damsel, smiling, as she put a piece of money into the girl's hand and waved an adieu.

ces,

"Yes, Madame," replied Marie, taking care that no one else should hear, yet avoiding any look or tone of significance; "I fell in with a knight under unusual circumstanwith a bloody heart emblazoned on his coat of arms." "Under what circumstances?" demanded Pauline quickly. "A report had got abroad among the peasants that you were in danger. The knight perilled his life on a desperate chance to find out the truth; and I have not seen or heard of him since."

At this moment, Orosmandel, awaking from his reverie, commanded De Briqueville to take the path to La Verrière. "To La Verrière!” repeated the latter in surprise, but with submissive respect; "to-morrow my lord gives a mystery to the people at Nantes, and I understood, from his

own letters and your directions, that he would expect us at the Hôtel de la Suze."

"He did he does not," replied the sage mildly, "proceed." Pauline de Laval, who was by this time well nigh tired of shows and cities, and too much accustomed to Orosmandel even to wonder at his apparently supernatural intelligence, consented readily to the change of route. She was, besides, desirous of obtaining more leisure than Nantes would afford for those metaphysical meditations which are so important to a girl of seventeen; and desiring Marie to walk near the litter so far as her village, the cavalcade was once more in motion.

Hagar, in the mean time, in whose mind the ideas of death and dishonour were inseparably connected with the abode of Prelati, was uncertain for a moment how to act. Her heart impelled her to thank Mademoiselle de Laval for her protection and take open leave; but she remembered the offence she had unconsciously given, and the flash of haughty anger which had lightened for a moment in the damsel's eyes; and the habitual caution of the oppressed and persecuted-which the oppressors and persecutors term meanness of spirit-prevailed. Amidst the confusion of turning into so narrow a path, she suffered her mule to fall behind, edging herself gradually out of the mass, and hoping that, if once clear of the leaders of the cavalcade, the others would conclude that she had permission to pursue her own way.

In this manner she found herself completely extricated from the line; and switching her mule with good-will, she rode as quickly along the highway as she could venture to do without running a risk of exciting suspicion. Having gained a certain short distance, she could not resist a desire which beset her to look round; and, turning her head as if by fascination, she saw Sir Roger de Briqueville standing in his stirrups, and looking after her. The knight waved his hand for her to return; and she was near enough to observe a grim smile upon his countenance. Hagar at first, without stopping, merely pointed along the road, as if to say that Nantes was her destination; but a more impatient gesture from Briqueville convinced her that he was in earnest, and with a quaking heart she rode back.

"Sir Knight," said she, "the term of my journey is not La Verrière but the city of Nantes; and I pray thee humbly that thou wilt accept of the thanks of thy handmaid, and convey them also to the damsel of Laval, for the protection vouchsafed to me thus far."