ops and bail the water out
of the boat.--And the rest of you," he went on, addressing the sailors,
"pull with all your might! Now is the time; in the name of the devil who
is leaving you in this world, be your own Providence! Every one knows
that the channel is fearfully dangerous; I have been to and fro across
it these thirty years. Am I facing a storm for the first time to-night?"

He stood at the helm, and looked, as before, at his boat and at the sea
and sky in turn.

"The skipper always laughs at everything," muttered Thomas.

"Will God leave us to perish along with those wretched creatures?" asked
the haughty damsel of the handsome cavalier.

"No, no, noble maiden.... Listen!" and he caught her by the waist and
said in her ear, "I can swim, say nothing about it! I will hold you by
your fair hair and bring you safely to the shore; but I can only save
you."

The girl looked at her aged mother. The lady was on her knees entreating
absolution of the Bishop, who did not heed her. In the beautiful
eyes the knight read a vague feeling of filial piety, and spoke in a
smothered voice.

"Submit yourself to the will of God. If it is His pleasure to take your
mother to Himself, it will doubtless be for her happiness--in another
world," he added, and his voice dropped still lower. "And for ours in
this," he thought within himself.

The Dame of Rupelmonde was lady of seven fiefs beside the barony of
Gavres.

The girl felt the longing for life in her heart, and for love that spoke
through the handsome adventurer, a young miscreant who haunted churches
in search of a prize, an heiress to marry, or ready money. The Bishop
bestowed his benison on the waves, and bade them be calm; it was all
that he could do. He thought of his concubine, and of the delicate feast
with which she would welcome him; perhaps at that very moment she was
bathing, perfuming herself, robing herself in velvet, fastening her
necklace and her jeweled clasps; and the perverse Bishop, so far from
thinking of the power of Holy Church, of his duty to comfort Christians
and exhort them to trust in God, mingled worldly regrets and lover's
sighs with the holy words of the breviary. By the dim light that shone
on the pale faces of the company, it was possible to see their differing
expressions as the boat was lifted high in air by a wave, to be cast
back into the dark depths; the shallop quivered like a fragile leaf, the
plaything of the north wind in the au