im with a happy suggestion, and he
trolled to himself a ballad with a nonsensical chorus, popular in his
native land--

"Behind the manor lies the mere,
_En roulant, ma boule_;
Three fair ducks skim its water clear.

_En roulant, ma boule roulant._
_En roulant, ma boule._

Three fair ducks skim its waters clear,
The King's son hunteth far and near.

The King's son draweth near the lake,
He bears his gun of magic make.

With magic gun of silver bright
He sights the Black but kills the White.

He sights the Black but kills the White;
Ah, cruel Prince, my heart you smite."

A rap on the door interrupted him. Dominique put his head in,
announcing--

"A woman, sir."

"A woman? Young and beautiful?"

"No, sir; old."

"On what errand?"

"She insists it is business."

"Let her come in."

A figure entered dressed in a faded black shawl, a red dress, and a blue
linen apron, and her face shadowed in a hood. She kept back out of the
window-light, and he thought she was in great distress.

"Madame," he stammered, putting aside his gaiety, and rose.

"Monseigneur, I supplicate your mercy," she sobbed.

"My mercy? I do not understand."

"Your mercy; I supplicate it," she cried in an agonised voice.

"My good woman, I would never injure you, I protest."

"I am their mother, sir; I am starving."

"Whose mother?"

She represented the prisoners as being sons of hers. When she mentioned
the robbery, he recoiled. As she proceeded, however, he condoled with
her and gave her a piece of money, which she took, expatiating brokenly
on the dependance of her sons' necks on his evidence.

"Mon Dieu! Monsieur," she concluded, "do you know what it is to take
three lives of poor men? Can you picture what it means to a parent? You
have a heart--you have a God--you have a mother."

The flood of tears and hysterical sobbing were in the highest art of
expert mendicancy. She advanced towards him, threw herself upon her
knees at his feet, embraced his shoes, and writhed.

Germain was so shaken that for a moment he had an intention of running
for a cabriolet to take him to Paris to intercede with the magistrates
in the affair. He was about to follow his impulse when a consideration
startled him. He had heard the Prince repeatedly speak with satisfaction
of the capture of the highwaymen. To interfere with the arrests, he saw,
would shock the robbed family; it wo