mind and force of
character that distinguished him in days to come.

The small community to which they had brought the persecuted victim of
the sorcerer's evil practices belonged to the order of the Cistercians,
who have been described as the Quakers of their day. At a time when many
of the older orders of monks were falling from their first rigid
simplicity -- falling into those habits of extravagance which in days to
come caused their fall and ultimate suppression -- the Cistercians still
held to their early regime of austere simplicity and plainness of life;
and though no longer absolutely secluding themselves from the sight or
sound of their fellow men, or living in complete solitude, they were
still men of austere life and self-denying habits, and retained the
reputation for sanctity of life that was being lost in other orders,
though men had hardly begun to recognize this fact as yet.

From the first moment that Raymond's eyes fell upon the wonderful face
of Father Paul, his heart was touched by one of those strange
attractions for which it is difficult to account, yet which often form a
turning point in the history of a human life. It was not the venerable
appearance of the holy man alone; it was an indescribable something that
defied analysis, yet drew out all that was best and highest in the
spirit of the youth. But after the first glance at the monk, as he came
forward and received the inanimate form of the woodman's son in his
strong arms, Raymond's attention was differently occupied; for on
looking round at his companions, he saw that John's face was as white as
death, and that he swayed in his saddle as though he would fall.

It then occurred to the boy for the first time that this long and tiring
night's ride was an undertaking for which John was little fit. He had
but recently recovered from a bout of sickness that had left him weak
and fit for little fatigue, and yet the whole night through he had been
riding hard, and had only yielded to exhaustion when the object for
which the journey had been taken had been accomplished.

The kindly monks came out and bore him into their house, and presently
he and the woodman's son lay side by side in the room especially set
apart for the sick, watched over by Father Paul, and assiduously tended
by Raymond, to whom John was by this time greatly attached.

As for Gaston, after a rest extending over two nights and days, he was
despatched to Windsor with the escort