nto port, the
clerk of a trader there came on board at once and, on the part of
his employer, begged Madame Vaillant and her son to take up their
abode at his house; he having been warned of their coming by his
valued correspondent, Monsieur Vaillant. A porter was engaged to
carry up their luggage to the house, whither the clerk at once
conducted them.

From his having lived so long among the Huguenot colony, the scene
was less strange to Philip than it would have been to most English
lads. La Rochelle was a strongly Protestant city, and the
sober-coloured costumes of the people differed but little from
those to which he was accustomed in the streets of Canterbury. He
himself and his aunt attracted no attention, whatever, from
passersby; her costume being exactly similar to those worn by the
wives of merchants, while Philip would have passed anywhere as a
young Huguenot gentleman, in his doublet of dark puce cloth,
slashed with gray, his trunks of the same colour, and long gray
hose.

"A proper-looking young gentleman," a market woman said to her
daughter, as he passed. "Another two or three years, and he will
make a rare defender of the faith. He must be from Normandy, with
his fair complexion and light eyes. There are not many of the true
faith in the north."

They were met by the merchant at the door of his house.

"I am glad indeed to see you again, Madame Vaillant," he said. "It is
some twenty years, now, since you and your good husband and your sister
hid here, for three days, before we could smuggle you on board a ship.
Ah! Those were bad times; though there have been worse since. But since
our people showed that they did not intend, any longer, to be slaughtered
unresistingly, things have gone better here, at least; and for the last
four years the slaughterings and murders have ceased.

"You are but little changed, madame, since I saw you last."

"I have lived a quiet and happy life, my good Monsieur Bertram;
free from all strife and care, save for anxiety about our people
here. Why cannot Catholics and Protestants live quietly side by
side here, as they do in England?"

"We should ask nothing better, madame."

At this moment, a girl came hurrying down the stairs.

"This is my daughter Jean, madame.

"Why were you not down before, Jean?" he asked sharply. "I told you
to place Suzette at the casement, to warn you when our visitors
were in sight, so that you should, as was proper, be at the door to