n hold out no longer. My heart is too full. I
must speak; and whom shall I trust if not you?"

"Father, you frighten me!" said Agricola, "What is the matter?"

"Why, you see, had it not been for you and the two poor girls, I should
have blown out my brains twenty times over rather than see what I
see--and dread what I do."

"What do you dread, father?"

"Since the last few days, I do not know what has come over the
marshal--but he frightens me."

"Yet in his last interviews with Mdlle. de Cardoville--"

"Yes, he was a little better. By her kind words, this generous young lady
poured balm into his wounds; the presence of the young Indian cheered
him; he appeared to shake off his cares, and his poor little girls felt
the benefit of the change. But for some days, I know not what demon has
been loosed against his family. It is enough to turn one's head. First of
all, I am sure that the anonymous letters have begun again."

"What letters, father?"

"The anonymous letters."

"But what are they about?"

"You know how the marshal hated that renegade, the Abbe d'Aigrigny. When
he found that the traitor was here, and that he had persecuted the two
orphans, even as he persecuted their mother to the death--but that now he
had become a priest--I thought the marshal would have gone mad with
indignation and fury. He wishes to go in search of the renegade. With one
word I calmed him. 'He is a priest,' I said; 'you may do what you will,
insult or strike him--he will not fight. He began by serving against his
country, he ends by becoming a bad priest. It is all in character. He is
not worth spitting upon.'--'But surely I may punish the wrong done to my
children, and avenge the death of my wife,' cried the marshal, much
exasperated.--'They say, as you well know, that there are courts of law
to avenge your wrongs,' answered I; 'Mdlle. de Cardoville has lodged a
charge against the renegade, for having attempted to confine your
daughters in a convent. We must champ the bit and wait."'

"Yes," said Agricola, mournfully, "and unfortunately there lacks proof to
bring it home to the Abbe d'Aigrigny. The other day, when I was examined
by Mdlle. de Cardoville's lawyer, with regard to our attempt on the
convent, he told me that we should meet with obstacles at every step, for
want of legal evidence, and that the priests had taken their precautions
with so much skill that the indictment would be quashed."

"That is just what the marsha