er brow: she waved her hand, and
hastened out of the room.

* * * * *

"That was a very nice girl, by your description," interrupted the pacha:
"pray what might you pay for such a girl in your country?"

"She was beyond all price," replied the renegade, with an absent air, as
if communing with times past. "Love is not to be bought. The Moslem
purchases the slave and blind submission to his will, but he makes not
love."

"No, he buys it ready made," replied the pacha; "and I must say I wish
you had done the same: for, with all this love making, you get on but
slowly with your story. Proceed."

* * * * *

I remained another week, when the bishop, who had not yet taken his
departure, one morning drove over to Marseilles, and returned to dinner.
"I was sent for," observed he, as we sat down to table, "to consult as
to the propriety of requesting from the Pope the canonisation of the
Soeur Eustasie, of whom you have heard so much, and whose disappearance
has been attributed to miraculous agency: but during our consultation, a
piece of information was sent in, which has very much changed the
opinion of parties as to her reputed sanctity. It appears that near the
spot where the vessel was wrecked they have discovered the body of a
woman dressed in man's clothes; and it is now supposed that some
miscreant has personified her at the Convent, and has subsequently
escaped. The officers of justice are making the strictest search, and if
the individual is found, he will be sent to Rome to be disposed of by
the Inquisition."

As your highness may imagine, this was not very agreeable news; I almost
started from my chair when I heard it; but I had sufficient mastery over
myself to conceal my feelings, although every morsel that I put into my
mouth nearly choked me.

But before dinner was over the plot thickened; a letter was brought to
the Marquis from my adopted father the Comte de Rouille stating that
such contradictory reports had been received, that he could not
ascertain the truth. From one he heard that his eldest son was alive,
and at the chateau; from others that he had been murdered: others
congratulated him in their letters upon the escape of one of his sons.
He requested the Marquis to inform him of the real state of affairs, and
to let him know by the bearer whether his eldest son was with him, or
whether he had met with the unfortunate death that was r