.

The repast ended, Monsieur placed a pot of tobacco and pipes at the side
of the bottle of canary, and Father Griffen and Croustillac were then
left alone.

After filling a glass of wine and passing it to the chevalier, the
priest said to him, "Your health, my son."

"Thanks, father," said the chevalier, lifting his glass. "Drink also to
the health of my future bride; it will be a good omen for me."

"How? your future bride?" replied the priest; "what do you mean?"

"I allude to Blue Beard, father."

"Ah--always jesting! Frankly, I believe the men of your province are
most inventive, my son," said Father Griffen, smiling mischievously, and
emptying his glass in small doses.

"I never spoke more seriously, father. You heard the vow which I made on
board the Unicorn?"

"Impossibility nullifies a vow, my son; because you should swear to
measure the ocean, would you engage to fulfill this oath?"

"How, Father--is the heart of Blue Beard as bottomless as the ocean?"
gayly exclaimed the chevalier.

"An English poet has said of woman, 'Perfidious as the waves,' my son."

"However perfidious women may be, my worthy host," said the chevalier
with a self-sufficient air, "we men know how to disarm them, and I shall
exercise afresh that power in dealing with Blue Beard."

"You will not attempt anything of the kind, my son; I am easy on that
point."

"Allow me to say, father, that you deceive yourself. To-morrow, at
daybreak, I shall ask of you a guide to conduct me to Devil's Cliff, and
I shall confide the course of this adventure to my Star."

The chevalier spoke with so serious an air that Father Griffen hastily
placed upon the table the glass which he was raising to his lips, and
regarded the chevalier with as much astonishment as distrust. Until then
he had really believed the matter to be only a pleasantry or idle boast.
"Are you sincere in this resolve? This is absolute madness, but----"

"Excuse me, Father, for interrupting you," said the chevalier, "but you
see before you the younger son of my family, who has tempted every
fortune, wasted all his resources, and with whom nothing has succeeded.
Blue Beard is rich, very rich. I have everything to gain, nothing to
lose."

"Nothing to lose?"

"Life, perhaps, you will say. I make a good bargain; and then, barbarous
though this country may be, helpless as justice may prove, I do not
think that Blue Beard will dare treat me, on my arrival, as she treated
he