The Press., 1889-10-24

murs among the men who rode after Foul ques the Beautiful, and he heard his name spoken in bitterness among them when they knew not he was nigh, and he saw the frowns upon their faces when he came unheralded into their midst
 His own heart enid him and he fretted 10 be gone, and yet the face of Bathilde held him as though she were sorceress who nao bound him to her side by chains. But day came when messenger rode ID hot haste to Pierreluce with word that hands had been laid upon the sire of Foulques the Beautiful in his own country of Theoule, and he called his men to horse and threw himsen upon his palfrey and, daring not to look again on Bathilde. he rode away withoutsa glance behind.
 She spoke no word.
 Wearily she went up into her tower. There she sat alone and no one heard her voice in lamentation or could say that she was deso late
 But from that window where she had first looked down on the coming of her lord, there sat she from the first gray of dawning until the shadows of the night. and watched and waited for his return.
 No one heard her weeping and none could say that they had seen her shed 8 tear.
 But there by her window she wept the si- lent. bitter tears which scald and scar the cheeks they fall upon.
 And in the night the watchers of her castle saw her in her trailing robes of black wan dering through the long corridors, or stood aside that she might pass into her courts ana gardens and walk the paths and show her sleepless eyes to the cold pity of the stars.
 Thinner and pAler she grew until her black robes seemed to float about her and scarce touch her slender limbs.
 She was conscious neither of hunger. thirst nor fatigue.
 And at last she ceased to hope for the re- turn of Fouiaues the Beautiful He was dead or faithless
 Then she summoned her servitors and bade them take from her castle walls all the mir TOTS of glass and steel which were won't to re- fleet her beauty. She would look no more upon the face which he had ceased to love or which he never more might look upon with living eyes From her window in the tower, where still she sat-though hopeless, for the place was dear to her because it first yielded her the sight of hin-she one day saw troop or horsemen enter the road from the mountains. Straight she went down from her tower and ont at her castle gates to meet them. She went among them and questioned them herself, and trusted to none other But they knew naught of Foulques the Beautiful
 After that day she went out and questioned all who journeyed on the road, and took into her white hands the hands of pilgrims and beggars and entreated of them tidings Of her ! lord.
 But none could tell her of Foulques the l Beautiful ..l And now she prayed to God and all his angels Each day she went to the church | and bruised her delicate knees on the rough ! stones where knelt the poor to pray, or tore her tender feet with pilgrimages to shrines where she might lay offerings of flowers and burn tapers and pray for the return of her lord She emptied her coffers of their stores l of wealth and scattered her silver among l Gods poor and gave her gold in aims to ab- bots for the building of new monasteries and churches, where masses might be said for the safe return of her lord. And when her cof ! fers were empty and she had sold her jewels, her rings, her glittering girdles, her golden strings with their clasp of amethyst, and no | jewel remained to her, she took her silken | robes and mantles of rich brocades and laid them as offerings to Our Lady, and they were taken by the church and used to drape the blessed saints
 And she kept only her robes of black and she was as poor in her castle as any beggar upon the roads which led unto it's gates
 Then came a monk to the donjon gates to ask for Lady Pierreluce.
 White and thin, in her black garments, she came Sad stood before him.
 The friaF told her wneful tale of his es- cape from the wars with only his life, and that threatened by wounds given him through his sacred garments by the enemies of his church. They had surprised him while bind ing the ten wounds of Foulques the Beauti full, now Lord of Theoule, who had been hurt unto death in battle, and one hundred against ! two, they had borne away the lord and chased him with thrusts of many weapons tc die, as they thought, in the woods. He had fingered long enough to learn that the ransom placed on the head of Foulques the Beauti full by these, his eternal foes, was sum ot 1000 fires stamped in the image of the king | of France and ten cases of precious stones.
 She listened with eyes in which burned the signals of overwhelming despair.
 ''I am poor" she said, II have nothing"
 Daughter, where Is thy great wealtha' asked the monk, and she saw that he believed her not.
 II have given unto the church, :" she an swered, and would have explained further but with cold, averted eyes the friar turned and left her, and she knew that he believed
 her not and held her faithless
 Then she went, sad eyed, back to her towe
 and sat in her window. She looked on th
 road and saw a great number of her peopl
 vending their way toward the church. The,
 were bearing great branches of palms. Thel
 she bethought her wearily that it was tn
 Feast of Palms and @ holy Sabbath day. Ant
 alone in her tower, she sank on her knee
 and prayed unto God for the delivery of Fol
 ques the Beautiful
 A thought came to her.
 Rising, she went down from her tower ant
 out at her castle gates and knelt on the roas
 where the people must pass her on their wa,
 the face of the dead and her eyes were a
 dark as black pools when the sky is angr.
 above them.
 And when the people came from the churcl
 they found the Lady of Pierreluce kneelin
 among the beggars by the roadside wit
 hands outstretched, asking aims of her serf
 for the ransom of Foulques the Beautiful
 And they thought her mad and spat upo her-because they feared her no longer ! They took stones from the road and place
 them in her hands and bade her help hersel
 from their store of jewels They laid bits c
 tin and copper between her white finger
 and bade her make herself welcome to thei
 gold But as they stoned her and laughed a st her and reviled her in her misery, the hol
 abbot and his white clad friars came dow .1l from the donjon chapel, and when he say her kneeling there he laid his hands upon he
 head and blessed her.
 4I And loi there came sudden rift of ligh
 from heaven and it bathed her from head t
 foot in its splendor. And the bits of tin an copper became the shining gold she coveted
 and the stones cast at her turned to jewels
 her hands, and she had ten times more c
 these than she had any possible need of.
 The people marveled and cried "Hosar s5 t,d eJ.A rrra and trathered nm her treasl1r