r, and as no tidings had
been received of him from any more direct source, the last news of his
fall had been generally received as true, no motive appearing why it
should be discredited.

His appearance, therefore, at the castle of St. Renan, was hailed as
that of one who had been lost and was now found, of one who had been
dead, and lo! he was alive. The bancloche of the old feudal pile rang
forth its blithest and most jovial notes of greeting, the banner with
the old armorial bearings of St. Renan was displayed upon the keep,
and a few light pieces of antique artillery, falcons and culverins and
demi-cannon, which had kept their places on the battlements since the
days of the leagues, sent forth their thunders far and wide over the
astonished country.

So generally, however, had the belief of Raoul's death been
circulated, and so absolute had been the credence given to the rumor,
that when those unwonted sounds of rejoicing were heard to proceed
from the long silent walls of St. Renan, men never suspected that the
lost heir had returned to enjoy his own again, but fancied that some
new master had established his claim to the succession, and was thus
celebrating his investiture with the rights of the Counts of St.
Renan.

Nor was this wonderful, for ocular proof was scarce enough to satisfy
the oldest retainers of the family of the young lord's identity; and
indeed ocular proof was rendered in some sort dubious by the great
alteration which had taken place in the appearance of the personage in
question.

Between the handsome stripling of sixteen and the grown man of twenty
summers there is a greater difference than the same lapse of time will
produce at any other period of human life. And this change had been
rendered even greater than usual by the burning climate to which Raoul
had been exposed, by the stout endurance of fatigues which had
prematurely enlarged and hardened his youthful frame, and above all by
the dark experience which had spread something of the thoughtful cast
of age over the smooth and gracious lineaments of boyhood.

When he left home the Viscount de Douarnez was a slight, slender,
graceful stripling, with a fair, delicate complexion, a profusion of
light hair waving in soft curls over his shoulders, a light elastic
step, and a frame, which, though it showed the promise already of
strength to be attained with maturity, was conspicuous as yet for ease
and agility and pliability rather than f