d resolution, she was a tender, timid woman, a little
afraid of the dark, very afraid of being alone in it, and desperately
afraid of wolves. Now Dragon could kill a wolf in a brace of shakes; but
then Dragon would not go with her, but only with Reicht; so altogether
she made one confidante.

The next night they made another moonlight reconnaissance, and as I
think, with some result. For not the next night (it rained that night
and extinguished their courage), but the next after they took with them
a companion, the last in the world Reicht Heynes would have thought of;
yet she gave her warm approval as soon as she was told he was to go with
them.

Imagine how these stealthy assailants trembled and panted when the
moment of action came; imagine, if you can, the tumult in Margaret's
breast, the thrilling hopes, chasing, and chased by sickening fears;
the strange and perhaps unparalleled mixture of tender familiarity and
distant awe with which a lovely and high-spirited, but tender, adoring
woman, wife in the eye of the Law, and no wife in the eye of the
Church, trembling, blushing, paling, glowing, shivering, stole at night,
noiseless as the dew, upon the hermit of Gouda.

And the stars above seemed never so bright and calm.

CHAPTER XCII

Yes, the hermit of Gouda was the vicar of Gouda, and knew it not, so
absolute was his seclusion.

My reader is aware that the moment the frenzy of his passion passed, he
was seized with remorse for having been betrayed into it. But perhaps
only those who have risen as high in religious spirit as he had, and
suddenly fallen, can realize the terror at himself that took possession
of him. He felt like one whom self-confidence had betrayed to the very
edge of a precipice.

"Ah, good Jerome," he cried, "how much better you knew me than I knew
myself! How bitter yet wholesome was your admonition!"

Accustomed to search his own heart, he saw at once that the true cause
of his fury was Margaret. "I love her then better than God," said he
despairingly; "better than the Church, From such a love what can spring
to me, or to her?" He shuddered at the thought. "Let the strong battle
temptation; 'tis for the weak to flee. And who is weaker than I have
shown myself? What is my penitence, my religion? A pack of cards built
by degrees into a fair-seeming structure; and lo! one breath of earthly
love, and it lies in the dust, I must begin again, and on a surer
foundation." He resolved to le