keen eye; and if I point it out to you, what shall be my guerdon?"—" I will straightway betake myself to it, to prove I am not unthankful," said Semonville; " and, moreover, I will fill thy hood with bezants--that is, when thy people restore me that they have robbed me of."-" Noble knight, I ask no gold," said the maiden timidly.- "Tush, I knew she would 'sdeign thy proffer," said Verac; "thou art fitter to treat for thy ransom with a greedy peasant or gold-griping Jew, than with a damsel in the vanity of her rustical comeliness. I tell thee, maid, thou shalt have a mantle guarded with vair, a tunic of broidery, and a hood of such quaint and excellent fashion, that all the female heretics of thy party shall be converted, and say their prayers in Latin, in sæcula sæculorum, to the utter demolition of heresy !" Genevieve's look of humble but expressive rejection showed that this gorgeous proffer was as little valued as the other. "In the name of all the devils," said Semonville, "what wouldst thou have, or what art thou?-for woman thou canst not be, unmoved as thou art So by gold or gay attire. attire. if thou be not some spirit of the woods or fairy of the mountains. Look to it, De Verac; she will ask of us anon a drop of blood, or a lock of hair, or something that will merely cost our perdition."-" Oh no, no!" cried Genevieve," mistrust me not: I will suddenly point out your way, and ask but for my meed," uncovering the venerable head of the sleeping Pierre, "that when ye see a head so white as this, or meet a lone and lowly maiden like me, ye will do no despite to the feeble, no dishonour to helpless woman." "This passes!" said Semonville; the phrase by which he always expressed his sense of whatever exceeded the range of his faculties, or the expansion of his sensibility. "Fair nymph of the cave," said the more gentle De Verac, "most polished sylvan, and indeed faithful heretic, doubtless thou art the daughter of a Catholic, and as such my orisons shall be breathed for thee to our lady Venus and saint Cupid." "Breathe orisons for thyself the rather," said Semonville, to whom Genevieve had indicated the way, and who had begun to ascend, "for the way seems perilous, dark, and rugged." De Verac followed, and his voice was soon heard exclaiming, in plaintive accents, as his drapery suffered in the rude ascent-"Saints and angels, what a rent! mercy, good crag-gently, thou vil lain briar. By Heaven! the very rocks here are turned heretic, and delight to pierce the raiment of the faithful. I shall seem in this ragged attire like an ape that had run away from a gleeman, and ran wild through the country with his scarlet slops dangling about him." 66 By the mass, I am stuck," quoth Semonville, with a groan. "Go up. "I cannot." "Come down." "I cannot." "Then let me pass thee, and gain the entrance," said the more adroit Verac; and, as he spoke, he sprang upwards, and at one light and vigorous bound reached the aperture. "What dost thou shout for," cried Semonville, "thou traitor knight and false brother-in-arms, as if all the devils in hell were in thy throat ?"--" The Crusaders," shouted Verac, forgetting their peril in the enthusiasm caused by their gallant appearance" the Crusaders they wind down the mountain like a stream of gold. The great standard of the cross nods and blazes to the noon-day sun: wave all your banners, shout your battle-word, couch your lances, noble knights, valiant Crusaders-Dieu et l'Eglise." Semonville had now toiled to the entrance, and stood gazing on that gallant sight in despair. "Now Christ them sain and save!" he cried; "for living men they never will win back to the towers of Courtenaye this night:-now hie thee on, Verac, I will not be slack to follow;-perchance we may warn"We at least can perish with them,” cried Verac, bounding from the hill-top like a falcon from his stoop. |