had wished to see Anne Marie again, to combat | and triumph before her eyes, to kneel publicly at her feet, to receive from her the reward of victory, and to embrace her once, were it in dying! For this purpose he had borrowed the most brilliant costume of the country, and the dream of his love had been, in fact, realized.

Handsomer than ever in this charming costume of Faouet, he was at the feet of Anne Marie, trembling, confused, overwhelmed, She passed around his neck the chain of the gold watch; and his soul placed itself with his lips on the rosy cheek of the maiden.

* Samson, exhausted," said one, "had turned towards this last refuge. The souleurs alone had followed him, but resolved to kill him like a dɔg.” At these words we hurried on, trembling lest we should arrive too late. We leaped the fences, broke through enclosures, braved the thorns, forced every obstacle. Guided at last by sinister cries, broken limbs, torn clothes, bloody hands, we reached the cabin.

The souleurs, breathless, haggard, exhausted, covered with sweat, dust, and blood, were all at the door. The venerated arm of the prophetess had nailed them there by a gesture. She had Alas! this happiness was not to last long. said to them, as God said to the tumultuous sea : The first stupefaction passed, a violent re-action"No farther shalt thon go!" and the feet of the took place with the peasants, and especially with the vanquished combatants. There were, at first, dull murmurs; then, increasing menaces; then, a general clamor.

"The combat is null! This man is not a Breton! He has some talisman! He is a sorcerer, a vagabond!"

"He has not made the sign of the cross," added an old souleur. "I will wage that he is an unbaptized Pagan! We must take from him the soule and the watch, purify them with the holy water, and renew the conflict."

"Yes! yes! down with the rope-dancer! the gipsy! Down with him! Down with him!"

And twenty young men, doubling their fists at Samson, summoned him to surrender the soule and the watch. They might as well have demanded his life.

"Come and take them, if you dare!" said he, pressing them to his breast.

We vainly interposed; Anne Marie turned her head, and all fell upon the rope-dancer. This combat was frightful, indescribable, inhuman. During several minutes we no longer saw Samson, and we thought him stifled. But such was his strength, doubled at this moment, that he burst from this crushing mass, and darted off like a bomb from a mortar.

He was safe and sound, and still held the soule and the watch.

This species of miracle disarmed a part of his enemies. "God is for this man," murmured the superstitious. But a hundred madmen fell upon him again, foaming with rage. He would have been lost had he not fled.

most infuriated had stopped on the threshold, as the foaming wave on the shore.

But where was Samson? Had they assassinated him, or was he yet alive?

No person replied to our questions, and we had lost all hope,-when the cottage door opened to us alone.

We entered, trembling with emotion, and I shall never forget the picture which struck our eyes.

We were confounded, not knowing where to find the key to this mystery!

"Ask him," said the prophetess in a faltering tone; "you are his friends; it was he who recognized your voices, and told me to open to you. He will tell you all."

The rope-dancer rose, pressed our hands earnestly, and related the following:

steps seemed to join mine. At last a stone wounded me in the shoulder; it was all over with me, unless I found a refuge.

"It was nearly two hours that I had been running; my strength and breath were almost exhausted; I saw the trees whirl around me, and I There was then a struggle of prodigious swift- heard nearer and nearer the shouts of the souleurs; ness. At the head, the rope-dancer cleared val-often even they were close to my ears, and their leys and mountains, hedges and ditches, lands and waters. Behind him, the souleurs imitated him with more or less advantage. Then the whole multitude followed at a distance, urged on But there was nothing in the horizon but a by curiosity. Imagine a furious chase of a sin desert heath! I was therefore about to resign gle man by a whole populace! Some were cow-myself to perish, when I saw a little smoke above ardly enough to take horses; but Samson dis- a ravine; it is doubtless a cottage, thought I, mounted them so well, that they were left on the and I recovered strength to attain it; I rushed square. headlong forward, cleared new fields, rolled from We soon lost sight of him. And yet the tor-ditch to ditch, pierced coppices, lost myself rent continued to bear us on, and also the hope of saving the unfortunate man, if we could reach him soon enough.

We wandered on until night, with a crowd of hunters who had lost trace of him. We found ourselves then before the cottage of Marguerite Trevihan.

twenty times, fell into a pond; got out, I know not how; traversed almost impenetrable thickets, with my enemies still howling on my track! and no habitation before me! Nevertheless, I saw again, from a clearing, the wreath of smoke, I recovered courage, and reached the goal.

I opened the door and entered. I found Mar.

guerite arranging this cradle. "Save me!" said | sobs and joyful exclamations, all the survivors I, "in pity, save me!" She received me at first which she had preserved of my infancy: my kindly, looked at me with a complacent eye, but baptismal cap, my first shoes, my playthings and without seeming to hear me. I repeated that my my jewels, and especially this cradle which she death was decreed, that infuriated men were pur- had watered with so many tears, and which she suing me; and, urged by new cries, I drew the had prepared every morning, for fifteen years, as bolt. if the angels were to bring me back in the evening.

Then Marguerite suddenly changed: she looked at me with disdain.

"This is my last hour," said I to myself, " since even a woman has no compassion for me."

At this moment I remembered that the souleurs had treated me as a Pagan, and that made me think of God, my only defender. I threw myself on my knees beside this cradle, before this Madonna, and addressed to her the only prayer I knew, a prayer which had doubtless been taught me in my childhood, and which I have always recited, morning and evening, because it consoled me in my sorrows, though the language is

now unknown to me.

"O werc' hez vara beneguet

C'hui zo guet enn oll inhouret."

But so much emotion had exhausted Marguerite; she fainted.

It was then that the souleurs arrived and shook the door with loud cries. In their fury they were about to force it and kill me, had not their clamor restored my mother.

She rose like a lioness, went to open it herself, and appeared on the threshold! Ah! if you had seen that gesture! If you had heard those superhuman words!

"Stop! wretches! or pass over my body! this young man is the guest of the prophetess! you shall not touch a hair of his head."

But you know the result, gentlemen; you found my enemies nailed to the door. When you entered I was repeating the prayer to which I am indebted for my mother and my life."

It will be imagined with what vivid impressions we listened to this recital of the ropedancer, and what a sympathy we felt with this recognition of which we had had a presentiment,

Scarcely had I pronounced these words, when but dared not hope for. Marguerite sprang towards me.

66

Who taught you this prayer?"

"My mother, I think, for I have known it since my childhood."

"What is your name? Whence come you?" "I know not, I have no family or country." "Continue this prayer," said she, palpitating. And she drew the bolt again to secure my safety. I finished the sacred words, and Marguerite fell into my arms.

All contradictions and all enigmas were explained in the conversation which followed.

Paul Trevihan had been stolen by some gipsy before the cottage of Jeannette. In order the better to bewilder his mind on the subject, he had been told that he was Flemish, and two years had been added to his age; then they had effaced from his head and his heart all the souvenirs of his childhood, except the image of his country, indestructible with the Bretons,-his "It is indeed so! it is indeed so!" exclaimed love for his hair, the distinctive sign of his race, she in a broken voice. แ My dream did not de--and the prayer which his mother had engraved ceive me. God warned me that I might not die of joy. The Korrigans have restored my Paul. It is he, indeed! grown up and beautiful! I recognize his blue eyes, his broad forehead, his long golden hair!

And she covered me with kisses, she passed her hands through my hair, she bathed me with burning tears, she pressed me to her heart.

"And I refused to defend him! I was about to drive him from my house! Ah! let them come now to attack him; they shall see whether I will allow him to be taken twice!"

I was myself bewildered with suprise and joy.
You are then my mother? exclaimed I in my

turn.

"Wait!" replied she, putting aside my coat with a trembling hand; Paul had a mark on his breast. Here it is! here it is! there is no longer any doubt! yes, I am your mother!" added she, re-opening her arms to me.

I threw myself into them; exclaiming, my mother! and in this embrace, I learned at last, what happiness is here below.

Immediately the prophetess, going and coming as if beside herself, opening her wardrobes and her chests, showed me one by one, amid

in the depths of his memory. One of the principal sources of his disturbance for several days had been that he had recognized several words of this prayer in the language of the peasants. The dream of Marguerite had a similar origin; she had, one morning, seen the rope-dancer pass, and, as he involuntarily reminded her of her son, this son had appeared to her by night under the same features. We then noticed between them those thousand resemblances which constitute a family likeness.

In short, both confirmed their identity many times, by repeating to satiety what they knew of their history since their separation; and these touching repetitions produced a new torrent of tears and caresses over the little caps, the playthings and the silver cross, the cherished cradle and the Madonna.

There was but one point on which Marguerite agreed neither with Samson nor with us. Nothing could persuade her that it was not the Korrigans who had stolen her Paul, and who, doubtless because they could not conquer him, had given him to the comedians.

It will be imagined that the sweetest confidence made to Paul, (it is time to restore to him

his name), was the history of his betrothal to Anne Marie,-which he received with a cry of joy.

Another sentiment which they had not been able to wrest from his soul, since his love for his affianced wife had revived as soon as he saw her. So he hastily interrupted the conversation, by asking us with energy:

"On what day is her wedding with Gildas fixed?"

"Next Monday," replied I.

CHAPTER XII.

THE WEDDING.

OUR apprehensions were realized that very evening, at Kerlenn. The great news had reached there before us; all the Kerias were thrown into commotion by it. Seeing only the reparation of her fault, Jeannette wept with joy as she embraced her son; it was necessary to detain her by force from hastening to congratulate Marguerite. Another-or rather a thousand other sentiments filled the heart of Anne Marie. Three times she had swooned, and three times the maIternal caresses or the threats of her father had reanimated her. She could not suppress the cry of her soul on perceiving us :"You come from the house of the prophetess! you have seen Paul!"

"A week," resumed he, is eight times as long as will be necessary to prevent this marriage. The thing was not so easy as he thought for, and required the most cautious management. foresaw some imprudent act, and entreated Paul and Marguerite to allow us to conduct the negotiation. If our prudence did not succeed, we would give them time to employ other methods. They accepted our offer, though with some hesitation; but we could not prevent the mother from publishing her happiness.

"I wish," said she, "that the Kerias should learn it immediately, by the voice of all the world."

And proudly seizing the hand of Paul, she ran to show him to the souleurs who were still at the door.

Long waiting had already calmed their fury; judge of the sentiment which took the place of it, when the prophetess said to them, in her most inspired tone:

"Bless, my children, the young man whom you have cursed! he has a right to wear long hair, to combat with you, and bear away the prize of the soule. He is a Christian, a Breton, like yourselves. It is Paul Trevihan, my only son, the treasure which the Korrigans had taken from me, and which the good God has restored to me by a miracle. You see that I embrace him, my friends, and embrace him without dying of joy. You, who have for fifteen years pitied the prophetess, in your turn, salute her son and press his hand! But first thank the holy Virgin for the favor which she has just granted me.

Never has a more sudden reaction or a more striking contrast been imagined. These infuriated men, who just now wished to massacre the rope-dancer, fell on their knees with him and with Marguerite, and recited the prayer of the Ave Maria.

These pious and sweet words succeeding to the death-cries which we had just heard, and mingling with the last sounds of evening, before this poor cottage and this admirable nature, caused us an emotion still greater than the scene which we had just witnessed.

We afterwards saw with joy the souleurs press the hand of Paul, and surround him as a countryman and friend. Some would even have borne him away in triumph, had not Marguerite claimed and detained her only son.

All then withdrew, exclaiming: "Noël! Noël to Marguerite and to Paul Trevihan!"

I comprehended this simple and affecting sentence. When the maiden had seen the young man, it was as the rope-dancer, she had not dared to look him in the face. Now it was Paul, her foster-brother, her first betrothed, and she envied us for having been able to contemplate him at our ease; for with her, as well as with him, these thousand souvenirs of childhood, which a simple interview had revived in their souls, awoke and began to sing like a flock of birds which the sun of spring has just brought back.

Joseph Kerias also comprehended but too well the intention of his daughter, and reproved her with a severity which terrified us for our mission.

I knew that in Brittany everything depends upon the head of the family, that his will alone is law, that the will of others, especially of the women, is nothing beside it. I therefore accosted Kerias directly, and plead the cause of Paul Trevihan.

I reminded him that he had betrothed him to his daughter, and under what solemn circumstances! I pointed out that he ought not to break his word to God; that the finger of Providence was visible in all this; finally, that the eternal happiness or misery of Anne Marie was involved in this matter.

The little man suffered me to speak as long as I would, looking at me stealthily out of a corner of his eye, lighting and smoking his short pipe, with that Breton impassibility which seemed incarnate in him; then made me wait a whole quarter of an hour for his reply, which I wrested from him only by appeals and urgency.

"Sir," said he at last, in an under-tone, "you preach better than our rector, and all this is doubtless very fine. I should be the first to keep my promise to Paul, if he were here, and if he should claim his betrothed."

"Parbleu, I will seek him this moment!" exclaimed I; "I promise you he shall not delay to come!" And I was already rising, triumphantly, when the farmer detained me by a gesture.

Meanwhile we noticed several who took no part in this sympathy nor these cries; and we foresaw that opinions would be divided at Mous-vagabond, is Paul Trevihan?" toirac, that the recognition of Paul would find partisans and adversaries equally obstinate.

"But who will prove to me," added he with the greatest coolness, that this rope-dancer, this

Such an objection solved the whole plan of Kerias; it was the best assuredly, for there was

:

no reply to it. I recalled vainly all the circum-
stances which permitted of not the slightest
doubt the conviction of the prophetess, my
own, that of all. The little man was free to re-
ply to me as he did, as he meant to do to the
last:-
:-

"Marguerite believes that it is Paul; you believe it, everybody believes it; everybody is welcome to do so! But I, the father of Anne Marie, I do not believe it; and unless it is proved to me as clear as day, my daughter shall espouse Gildas Favennek."

He contrived that the whole family should hear this final decree; and putting his pipe into his pocket, he quietly wished us good-night.

The main point, which I read in his soul, was that he had advanced too far to recede, that Gildas would have required restitution of the wedding presents, that after all, the first lover was less rich than the second.

Would so good a Christian break his vow? No. He reasoned with his conscience as with me, and persuaded himself that he really disbe lieved in the identity of Paul.

Meanwhile the fate of the latter and of Anne Marie troubled us too much not to inspire us with another expedient.

Robert gave me an excellent idea, which I put into execution the next day.

It was impossible longer to restrain Marguerite. She read on the pale brow and in the sombre looks of her son, that he would die if he did not espouse Anne Marie. She therefore hastened, more threatening than ever, to the house of Kerias, but the latter pitilessly closed his door upon her.

The farmer, not feeling strength enough to oppose the prophetess, openly relied upon a part of the village. He defied me, Robert, his family, his conscience, and struggled on, deaf and blind, against every body and against himself. He wished thus to reach the decisive hour, and then to entrench himself behind the completion of his plans.

Three times did Marguerite present herself at Kerlenn, three times she unavailingly broke her staff on the threshold.

I felt that the little man would break herself, rather than yield, and I thought only of defending Paul against the delirium of her grief.

He formed of his own accord a desperate plan, which we encouraged by way of diverting his mind.

Three days yet remained, there was time to find the rector, our only hope, and to return before the wedding. Paul undertook this expedition, and set out on a gallop in the night. He was sure to bring the rector in person, or a letter to the curate of Moustoirac.

effort turn against us.

Kerias triumphed loudly at the inexplicable absence of Paul.

The rector who had baptized Paul, who had known him five years, still lived at the other ex- The greatest secrecy was preserved by ourtremity of Brittany, at forty leagues from Mou-selves and by Marguerite; but I saw this last stoirac; but I had time to write him and receive his reply. I resolved to tell him all, and to invoke his testimony, the only one capable of conquering the obstinacy of Kerias. I therefore "You see," said he, "that this vagabond was addressed a long letter to the worthy pastor, and not Trevihan. He has gone as he came. Comecommissioned a sure man to carry it; at the ex-dian as he is, he has not been able to play his piration of three days, at farthest, I might hear from him.

I informed Marguerite and her son of my proceedings; I thus prevented their impatience from taking any useless step.

With what anxiety they counted the days, the hours and the minutes!

part!"

This opinion gained credit in the village, and troubled even the heart of Anne Marie.

I was tempted to take her into our confidence, but this reflection prevented my doing so:

Why deprive her of the strength to complete the sacrifice, if it should be, after all, inevitable!" Besides, something whispered that Paul would return in time.

Meanwhile the wedding-day came, and Paul had not returned.

Paul could not have endured such a delay but for going every instant to contemplate Anne Marie, in the garden of Kerlenn, through the hedge of the enclosure. Did the maiden know that he was there, concealed in the hollow of a We were present at Kerlenn at the preparatree, devouring with his eyes her slightest move- tions for the ceremony. Kerias carried his head ments? However this might be, it is certain high, hastening events for more safety. Jeanthat she went and came from morning till even-nette and her children looked at each other withing, that she changed very often her coif and out speaking. Anne Marie, pale and trembling, apron, and that she had never been so graceful allowed herself to be adorned as a victim. At in churning fresh butter, in summoning her mur- the slightest sound, she started and turned tomuring bees, and throwing golden millet to her wards the door. hens, whose broods were clucking around her. Paul had good reason to admire these pictures; none more lovely could be seen.

Unfortunately, time rolled away and the three days expired without the re-appearance of the

The gossips and the young girls successively put on the round shoes bordered with velvet and laced with ribbon, the blue petticoat under the red skirt with its thousand folds, the Korfsae (corsage with sleeves) of the same color, with velvet sleeves and points ornamented with red, revealing in front the scarlet korkenn (corsage without sleves), trimmed with green and embroidered with arabesques; the apron of violet silk, with its broad ribbons tied at the side; finally the lace cap, with its purple cushion, and the white coif with floating bundelettes.

Notwithstanding her paleness and her humid | happiness in the world till I have found my little eyes, she was adorable in this toilette. dove."

It was Marguerite, older and more decrepit (Here the breutaër entered the house and rethan ever. She had been there since dawn, mute, turned at the expiration of a few minutes. Robmotionless, like an oak bent by the storm, strain-ert profited by the delay to cast a glance over the ing her dry eyes towards the horizon. road. Paul Trevihan did not appear. The scene continued.)