THE VICARAGE. 31? 



soldier ; " and if the captain is asleep he will come 

 in here." 



Lucy was seated on a chair, her heart throbbing 

 violently, and her hands lifted up as if in prayer, 

 when the inside door was gently opened, and a 

 respectable and aged abbe entered the room. 

 He looked at the strangers with surprize. 



" How is captain Neville ?" enquired Henry. 



Lucy was unable to ask the question, but she 

 stood looking upon the Abbe, as if her whole hap- 

 piness and even life depended on his answer. 



" He is better to-day than I have seen him yet," 

 said the good Abbe, " and I have great hopes that 

 he may recover. He sleeps calmly." 



Lucy threw her arms around the Abbe, and 

 sobbed on his shoulder. This then, thought he, 

 is the young and beautiful female, whose name I 

 have heard sighed during feverish nights and 

 restless days ; and here she is almost amidst the 

 horrors and desolation of war, to seek a being she 

 loved. As he gazed on her he felt for her the 

 affection of a father, and this bond was never 

 broken. 



The Abbe S had been one of the chaplains 



of the unfortunate Louis XVI., and, after his 

 death, emigrated to England, where he arrived al- 

 most without money and without friends. After 

 undergoing many difficulties and privations, he 

 was received as tutor in a gentleman's family, 



