wear it on your eternal life?'

"He was about to swear; his mother raised her eyes to him, and said:--

"'Jacques, my child, take care; do not swear if it is not true; you can
repent, you can amend; there is still time.'

"And she wept.

"'You are a this and a that,' he said; 'you have always wanted to ruin
me.'

"Cambremer turned white and said,--

"'Such language to your mother increases your crime. Come, to the point!
Will you swear?'

"'Yes.'

"'Then,' Pierre said, 'was there upon your gold piece the little cross
which the sardine merchant who paid it to me scratched on ours?'

"Jacques broke down and wept.

"'Enough,' said Pierre. 'I shall not speak to you of the crimes you have
committed before this. I do not choose that a Cambremer should die on a
scaffold. Say your prayers and make haste. A priest is coming to confess
you.'

"The mother had left the room; she could not hear her son condemned.
After she had gone, Joseph Cambremer, the uncle, brought in the rector
of Piriac, to whom Jacques would say nothing. He was shrewd; he knew his
father would not kill him until he had made his confession.

"'Thank you, and excuse us,' said Cambremer to the priest, when he saw
Jacques' obstinacy. 'I wished to give a lesson to my son, and will ask
you to say nothing about it. As for you,' he said to Jacques, 'if you do
not amend, the next offence you commit will be your last; I shall end it
without confession.'

"And he sent him to bed. The lad thought he could still get round his
father. He slept. His father watched. When he saw that his son was
soundly asleep, he covered his mouth with tow, blindfolded him tightly,
bound him hand and foot--'He raged, he wept blood,' my mother heard
Cambremer say to the lawyer. The mother threw herself at the father's
feet.

"'He is judged and condemned,' replied Pierre; 'you must now help me
carry him to the boat.'

"She refused; and Cambremer carried him alone; he laid him in the bottom
of the boat, tied a stone to his neck, took the oars and rowed out of
the cove to the open sea, till he came to the rock where he now is. When
the poor mother, who had come up here with her brother-in-law, cried
out, 'Mercy, mercy!' it was like throwing a stone at a wolf. There was
a moon, and she saw the father casting her son into the water; her son,
the child of her womb, and as there was no wind, she heard _blouf_! and
then nothing--neither sound nor bubble. Ah! the sea is a fine keep