"
A moment afterwards he came into the house with Babette, leaving
one of the soldiers holding his horse. After the old man had gone,
I heard him say, "Were you at mass to-day? And did you see all?"
And when she had answered yes, he continued: "It was a mating as
birds mate, but mating was it, and holy fathers and Master Devil
Doltaire can't change it till cock-pheasant Moray come rocketing to
's grave. They would have hanged me for my part in it, but I repent
not, for they have wickedly hunted this little lady."
"I weep with her," said Jean's wife.
"Ay, ay, weep on, Babette," he answered.
"Has she asked help of you?" said the wife.
"Truly; but I know not what says she, for I read not, but I know
her pecking. Here it is. But you must be secret."
Looking through a crack in the floor, I could plainly see them.
She took the letter from him and read aloud:
"If Gabord the soldier have a good heart still, as ever
he had in the past, he will again help a poor
friendless woman. She needs him, for all are against her. Will he
leave her alone among her enemies? Will he not aid her to fly? At
eight o'clock to-morrow night she will be taken to the Convent of
the Ursulines, to be there shut in. Will he not come to her
before that time?"
For a moment after the reading there was silence, and I could see
the woman looking at him curiously. "What will you do?" she asked.
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