Not till then did he carry her into the lamplight by Philip's bed,

and scan therein every feature, to satisfy his eyes with the

fulfilled hope that had borne him through those darkest days, when,

despairing of the mother, the thought of the child had still

sustained him to throw his will into the balance of the scale

between life and death. Little Berangere gazed up into his face

silently, with wondering, grave, and somewhat sleepy eyes, and then

he saw them fix themselves on his powder-grimed and blood-stained

hands. 'Ah! little heart,' he said, 'I am truly in no state to

handle so pure a piece of sugar as thou; I should have rid myself

of the battle-stains ere touching thee, but how recollect anything

at such a moment?' Eustacie was glad he had broken the spell of silence; for having

recovered her husband, her first instinct was to wait upon him.

She took the child from him, explaining that she was going to put

her to bed in her own rooms up the stone stair, which for the

present were filled with fugitive women and children who had come

in from the country, so that the chancel must continue the lodging

of Berenger and his brother; and for the time of her absence she

brought him water to wash away the stains, and set before him the

soup she had kept warm over her little charcoal brazier. It was

only when thus left that he could own, in answer to Philip's

inquiries, that he could feel either hunger or weariness; nay, he

would only acknowledge enough of the latter to give a perfect charm

to rest under such auspices. Eustacie had dispatched her motherly

cares promptly enough to be with him again just as in taking off

his corselet he had found that it had been pierced by a bullet, and

pursuing the trace, through his doublet, he found it lodged in that

purse which he had so long worn next his heart, where it had spent

its force against the single pearl of Ribaumont. And holding it up

to the light, he saw that it was of silver. Then there returned on

him and Philip the words they had heard two days before, of silver

bullets forged for the destruction of the white moonlight fairy,

and he further remembered the moment's shock and blow that in the

midst of his wild amaze on the river's bank had made him gather his

breath and strength to bound desperately upwards, lest the next

moment he should find himself wounded and powerless.

For the innocent, then, had the shot been intended; and she running

into danger out of her sweet, tender instincts of helpfulness, had

been barely saved at the extreme peril of her unconscious father's

life. Philip, whose vehement affection for the little one had been

growing all day, was in the act of telling Berenger to string the

bullet in the place of the injured pearl, as the most precious

heirloom of Ribaumont bravery, when Eustacie returned, and learning

all, grew pale and shuddered as danger had never made her do

before: but this strange day had almost made a coward of her.




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