Churl, upon thy eyes I throw

All the power this charm doth owe

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Her rival lived! The tidings could not but be communicated to

Diane de Selinville, when her father set out en grande tenue to

demand his niece from the Duke de Quinet. This, however, was not

till spring was advancing; for the pedlar had not been able to take

a direct route back to Nid-de-Merle, since his first measure had

necessarily been to escape into a province where the abstraction of

a Huguenot nobleman's despatches would be considered as a

meritorious action.

Winter weather, and the practice of his

profession likewise, delayed Ercole so much that it was nearly

Easter before he brought his certain intelligence to the Chevalier,

and to the lady an elixir of love, clear and coloured as crystal,

and infallible as an inspirer of affection.

Should she administer it, now that she knew her cousin not to be

the lawful object of affection she had so long esteemed him, but,

as he persisted in considering himself, a married man? Diane had

more scruples than she would have had a year before, for she had

not so long watched and loved one so true and conscientious as

Berenger de Ribaumont without having her perceptions elevated; but

at the same time the passion of love had become intensified, both

by long continuance and by resistance. She had attached herself,

believing him free, and her affections could not be disentangled by

learning that he was bound--rather the contrary.

Besides, there was plenty of sophistry. Her father had always

assured her of the invalidity of the marriage, without thinking it

necessary to dwell on his own arrangements for making it invalid,

so that was no reasonable ground of objection; and a lady of

Diane's period, living in the world where she had lived, would have

had no notion of objecting to her lover for a previous amour, and

as such was she bidden to rank Berenger's relations with Eutacie.

And there was the less scruple on Eutacie's account, because the

Chevalier, knowing that the Duchess had a son and two grandsons,

had conceived a great terror that she meant to give his niece to

one of them; and this would be infinitely worse, both for the

interests of the family and of their party, than even her reunion

with the young Baron. Even Narcisse, who on his return had written

to Paris a grudging consent to the experiment of his father and

sister, had allowed that the preservation of Berenger's life was

needful till Eutacie should be in their power so as to prevent such

a marriage as that!




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