union with this widow is
impossible, even if you were of a princely house."

These words hurt immeasurably the self-esteem of the Gascon, who
exclaimed, "Father, this woman is but a woman, and _I_ am Croustillac."

"What do you say, my son?"

"That this woman is free; that she has not seen me; that but one look,
one only, will change entirely her resolve."

"I do not think it."

"Reverend Father, I have the greatest, the blindest confidence in your
word; I know all its authority; but this concerns the fair sex, and you
cannot understand the heart of woman as _I_ understand it, you do not
know what inexplicable caprices they are capable of; you do not know
that what pleases them to-day displeases them to-morrow; and that they
wish for to-day, that which they disdained yesterday. With women, my
reverend sir, one must dare in order to succeed. If it were not for your
cloth, I would tell you some curious adventures and audacious
undertakings by which I have been recompensed amorously!"

"My son!"

"I understand your sensitiveness, Father, and to return to Blue Beard:
once in her presence, I shall treat her not only with effrontery, with
haughtiness, but as a victor--I dare say it, as a lion who comes proudly
to carry off his prey."

These remarks of the chevalier were interrupted by an unforeseen
accident. It was very warm; the door of the dining room which looked on
the garden was half open. The chevalier, with back turned to this door,
was seated in an arm chair with a wooden back which was not very high. A
sharp hissing sound was heard and a quick blow vibrated in the middle of
the chevalier's chair.

At this sound Father Griffen bounded from his chair, rushed and took his
gun down from a rack placed in his bedroom, and precipitated himself out
of doors, crying, "Jean! Monsieur! Take your guns! Follow me, my
children! follow me! The Caribbeans are upon us!"

CHAPTER VI.

THE WARNING.

All this took place so rapidly that the chevalier was dumfounded. "Get
up! get up!" cried the priest. "The Caribbeans! Look at the back of your
chair--get out of the light!"

The chevalier rose quickly, and saw an arrow three feet in length fixed
in the back of his chair. Two inches higher and the chevalier would have
been pierced through the shoulders. Croustillac seized his sword, which
he had left on a chair, and hurried after the priest.

Father Griffen, at the head of his two negroes, armed with their guns,
a