tory mass
with you----"

He broke off, bowed to the three, who answered not a word, gave a last
look at the garret with its signs of poverty, and vanished.

Such an adventure possessed all the interest of a romance in the lives
of the innocent nuns. So, as soon as the venerable abbe told them the
story of the mysterious gift, it was placed upon the table, and by the
feeble light of the tallow dip an indescribable curiosity appeared in
the three anxious faces. Mademoiselle de Langeais opened the box, and
found a very fine lawn handkerchief, soiled with sweat; darker stains
appeared as they unfolded it.

"That is blood!" exclaimed the priest.

"It is marked with a royal crown!" cried Sister Agathe.

The women, aghast, allowed the precious relic to fall. For their simple
souls the mystery that hung about the stranger grew inexplicable; as for
the priest, from that day forth he did not even try to understand it.

Before very long the prisoners knew that, in spite of the Terror,
some powerful hand was extended over them. It began when they received
firewood and provisions; and next the Sisters knew that a woman had lent
counsel to their protector, for linen was sent to them, and clothes
in which they could leave the house without causing remark upon the
aristocrat's dress that they had been forced to wear. After awhile
Mucius Scaevola gave them two civic cards; and often tidings necessary
for the priest's safety came to them in roundabout ways. Warnings and
advice reached them so opportunely that they could only have been sent
by some person in the possession of state secrets. And, at a time when
famine threatened Paris, invisible hands brought rations of "white
bread" for the proscribed women in the wretched garret. Still they
fancied that Citizen Mucius Scaevola was only the mysterious instrument
of a kindness always ingenious, and no less intelligent.

The noble ladies in the garret could no longer doubt that their
protector was the stranger of the expiatory mass on the night of the
22nd of January, 1793; and a kind of cult of him sprung up among them.
Their one hope was in him; they lived through him. They added special
petitions for him to their prayers; night and morning the pious souls
prayed for his happiness, his prosperity, his safety; entreating God to
remove all snares far from his path, to deliver him from his enemies,
to grant him a long and peaceful life. And with this daily renewed
gratitude, as i