66 THE WATCH-TOWER OF KOAT-VEU. 



Renan, with its Gothic spire and rugged steeple of gray stone, was 

 already mantled by the evening dusk and by a light mist that hovered 

 over the little river of Hell-Arr, whose cool and limpid waters flowed 

 through the bosom of the valley. 



The lady of whom we speak was dressed after the English fashion 

 in a black riding-habit, which displayed a tall person. By a move- 

 ment which she made in throwing aside the veil which surrounded 

 her hat, her face was seen to be youthful, beautiful, pale, and of a 

 dark complexion. 



Withdrawing one of her gloves, she passed a delicate and taper 

 hand over her black tresses, smooth and unpowdered, upon her fore- 

 head, then held it above her finely arched brows, doubtless to screen 

 her eyes from the dazzling rays of the setting sun. 



It could hardly be conceived how much this last golden reflection 

 of the sun, spreading upon this pale and beautiful face, gave to it life 

 and brilliancy, how much the warm rays of this glowing light har- 

 monized with the energetic character of these features ; one would 

 have taken it for a noble portrait of M urillo, whose powerful effect 

 alone displays itself in all its splendour beneath the fires of a Spa- 

 nish sun. 



After the lady had looked several minutes with great attention to- 

 wards the north-west, a ^kind of signal, a white streamer, waved 

 for an instant upon the summit of a ruined tower built upon the rocks 

 very near the shore, and then disappeared. 



At sight of this the lady's eyes brightened, her brow was suffused 

 with crimson, her cheeks empurpled, and she pressed her hands with 

 force upon her lips, as if to send a kiss of love, when, knitting her 

 dark brows and drawing down her veil, she gave a smart switch to 

 her horse and galloped down the side of Fal-Goet with fearful ra- 

 idity. 



" Her grace the duchess does not consider/' exclaimed the squire, 

 approaching his mistress a little nearer than he had hitherto done, 

 " Coronella has good legs but this road is frightful." 



This was said in pure Castillian, with that tone of respectful re- 

 monstrance which is sometimes taken by an old and faithful servant. 

 " Silence, Perez," answered the duchess in the same language, 

 as she urged still faster, if it were possible, the speed of her palfrey. 

 The old esquire was hushed ; but it was easy to perceive the in- 

 terest which he took in his mistress by the uneasy and painful attention 

 with which he followed every movement of Coronella, without pay- 

 ing any regard to his own horse. 



As the old man had said, Coronella had good legs, so that in spite 

 of the inequalities, the hollows, and the channels which furrow all the 

 roads in Lower Brittany, she made not a single false step. 



Perez, nevertheless, did not breathe freely until he saw his mistress, 

 having reached the foot of the mountain, follow a deep avenue which 

 led to the castle of Kervan. 



Perez appeared to be about fifty years of age. He was thin and 

 of a tawny complexion, like a Spaniard of the south. A flat three- 

 cornered nat, with rolled brim, ornamented with a red cockade, 

 covered his rolled and powdered hair. He was dressed in a black 



