258 THE PROSCRIBED. 



possessed by fear, and even sought a proof of magic in the affection 

 that the rich lady bore to Godfrey, a poor orphan, come from Flan- 

 ders to Paris to study at the University. She put her hand abruptly 

 into her pocket, and drew thence quickly four pieces of the manu- 

 factory of Tours; that is, of twenty livres of Tours (of twenty sous 

 the livre), and looked at them with a feeling- where avarice and 

 fear were singularly opposed to each other. " This, at least, is not 

 bad money," she said, while she exhibited the richer coins to her 

 husband. " But it is not possible," she added, " to turn them out of 

 doors, after having received in advance the rent of the ensuing year." 



"Thou wilt consult the dean of the chapter," replied the ser- 

 geant. " Is it not his business to tell us how to conduct ourselves with 

 such extraordinary people ? " 



" Oh yes, extraordinary in truth," cried Jacqueline. " And it 

 is truly a malicious thing on their part to come and sit themselves 

 down in the very lap of Notre-Dame ! But," added she, " before 

 consulting the dean, why not inform this noble and worthy lady of 

 the danger which she runs ?" 



As she finished these words, Jacqueline and the sergeant, whose 

 teeth had not lost a single bite at his provender, returned to the 

 house. Tirechair, like a man grown old in his trade, pretended to 

 take the unknown lady for a real laundress ; but through his apparent 

 indifference it was easy to detect all the fear of a courtier who 

 respects a royal incognito. Just at this instant six o'clock struck from 

 the steeple of Saint-Denis-du-Pas, a small church situated between 

 Notre-Dame and the Port Saint Landry, the first cathedral built at 

 Paris, and erected, according to the chronicles, on the very spot where 

 Saint Denis was placed upon the gridiron. Immediately the hour 

 flew from steeple to steeple through all the city. All at once con- 

 fused cries arose on the left bank of the Seine behind Notre-Dame, 

 at the part where the schools of the University collect their swarms. 

 At this signal, Jacqueline's elder lodger was heard to walk in his 

 chamber. Soon afterwards, the sergeant, his wife, and the unknown, 

 heard a door abruptly opened and shut, and the heavy foot of the 

 stranger resounded on the steps of the stair-case ascending to his 

 apartment. 



The suspicions of the sergeant had invested the very appearance 

 of this personage with so high a degree of interest, that his counte- 

 nance and that of Jacqueline, presented on the instant so strange an 

 expression that the lady was struck by it. Referring, like all those 

 who love, everything to the object most dear, the unknown attributed 

 the visible terror of the couple to some cause connected with her pro- 

 tegee; and awaited with considerable uneasiness the solution of the 

 mystery. The stranger remained an instant on the threshold of the 

 door examining the three persons who were in the room, and appear- 

 ing to seek his companion there. The glance that he cast upon them, 

 however unthinking it might be, agitated every heart. It would 

 have been truly impossible, even to the firmest mind, to deny that 

 nature had bestowed extraordinary powers upon this awe-striking 

 being, super-human in appearance. Although his eyes were 

 deeply set below the grand arches described by his eyebrows, they 



