ce, for, I know not why, the presence of this
Gascon disturbs me."

We will here hasten to inform the reader that the suspicions of Father
Griffen, so far as Croustillac was concerned, were without foundation.
The chevalier was nothing more than the poor devil of an adventurer
which we have shown him to be. The excellent opinion he held of himself
was the sole cause of his impertinent wager of espousing Blue Beard
before the end of the month.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PRIEST'S HOUSE.

The Unicorn had anchored at Martinique three days. Father Griffen,
having some matters requiring his attention before his return to his
parish of Macouba, had not as yet quitted Fort St. Pierre.

The Chevalier de Croustillac found himself landed in the colonies with
but very little money in his pocket. The captain and passengers had
considered the adventurer's declaration that before a month had passed
he would be the husband of Blue Beard, as an idle boast. Far from having
given up the idea, the chevalier persisted in it more and more since his
arrival in Martinique; he had carefully informed himself as to the
riches of Blue Beard, and was convinced that, if the life of this
strange woman was surrounded with the profoundest mystery, and she the
subject of the wildest exaggeration, it was at least true that she was
enormously wealthy.

As to her face, age and origin, as no one had on this point as much
knowledge as Father Griffen, nothing could be affirmed. She was a
stranger in the colony. Her man of business had come in advance to the
island in order to purchase a magnificent estate and to build the
mansion at Devil's Cliff, situated in the northern and most inaccessible
and wildest portion of Martinique. At the end of several months it
became known that the new proprietor and his wife had arrived. One or
two of the colonists, impelled by their curiosity, had penetrated into
the solitude of Devil's Cliff; they were received with a royal
hospitality, but they did not see the owners of the place. Six months
after this visit, news was received of the death of the first husband,
which occurred during a short visit taken by the couple to Terre-Ferme.

At the end of one year of absence and widowhood, Blue Beard returned to
Martinique with a second husband. It was said that this latter was
killed, accidentally, while taking a walk with his wife; his foot
slipped and he fell into one of those bottomless abysses which are so
common in th