The times., 1897-04-02

certain dread and fOreboding. His two
servants did not attempt any such task.
They told each other, cOnsongly, that
they would he dead men before morning;
and so they rode hand in hand, each
devoutly hoping that the other would be
the victim OF the night, and that the able
their master, would precede them to the
grave. No superstition was too gross fol
them to believe. They swallowed every
goblin and witch and demon dwarf that
tradition had named for a hundred years
or more. There was not ghost in all
France that they would not have staked
their life upon And here at st. Cloud
where every village lad could tell you of
the scarlet witch who rode upon the wings
Of the wind when the sun had set and the
elves were abroad In the forest what
miracle, they asked, could save them from
the perilS OF an encounter with her.
Il have heardit said, " muttered Francois
To Jean, as they drove their stubborn asses
still deeper into the woods; Il have heard it
said that you have hut to look upon the
woman to he forever blind"
Jean groaned.
God grant that our master sees her
first he said.
!
''if you are young and good-looking she
will kiss you upon the forehead, and then
you are branded like one who has been
sent TO the galleys.'
Jean sighed.
SAT- Denis, said he, Il knew how it
would be We shall die here, comrade-
and for what? Because we follow our
master. Is that our duty? | tell you he
is no longer himself. Did you hear how
yon fellows called him? Be sure OF it
they have bewitched him already. l ana
ready TO die for the Able of Yvette: but
plague upon me If ride another league
for the Lord Bishop Of Blois'
He stopped his ass with the word, and
Francois, the valet. made haste to initiate
him. They were at this moment in glade
so deeply horderrd by chestnut trees that
you could scarce see Il patch OF gray sky
above. The moss beneath their feet was
soft and yielding, ana the asses sunk in
IL almost 10 the hooks. the figure of the
Able was scarcely To be discerned, al
though but twenty PAGES before them.
II was a gloomy Spot-dark, threatening.
lonely. stag. which leaped up at their
coming, set the hearts 0f the COwardly pair
beating like pumps And lust at the SUI
pretnc moment of their alarm. what should
they see in the hollow but a grCat flash Of
crimson light which lit up tine brake about
them until every twig seemed to have
been dipped in blood, every tree trunk To
he scarlet phantom conjured up by the
ghostly flames. Twice the light flashed.
livid, smoking, terrible-then darkness
fell;anIfrou the wood there came scream
oF in ,aI s..,I
like the wall of departed spirits or OF
men in their agony.
At the first flashing OF the fire, the
Abbe's pony stood quite still, shivcTing
with fear. Nor was his master in any
better plight.
Francois" roarcd he; Jean, do YOU
not hear me? God help US all--what
thing to see!''
But Francois and Jean heard nothing
They Were even then on their way back
to Yyette, at all the speed OF which asses
are capable. Long the Able called them,
in language the Church might not have
approved, but which the occasion aud the
Abbes fear demanded. When he found at
last that he was alone, beads of per
spiration stood upon his forehead, and 1t
seemed that a hundred spirits Were
mocking him in the woods.
"Oh!' groaned he, what do l see?
Where am /? Who is it that follows me?
That should have left my home to have
come to such Il piacel Heaven help me, or
i am surely lost"
He beat his pony the more in his fear,
and driving the unwilling beast through
the thichet only by generous application
of his cudgel, he came out at last upon a
sward oven which great trees cast Shad-
ows of fantastic shape. The spot was
desolate enough for anything; but it was
lighter than the copse he had just Quilted
and the stars, shining brightly in the gray
heavens above, seemed to send down a mes
sage of courage.
Come" said the able to himself, as he
wiped the perspiration from his forehead
and began to take heart little, why do
| fear when 1 have but ten crowns in my
pocket Who would harm the Cure of
Yvettc? Not the footpads Of st. Cloud, /
am sure And do not believe in spirits
certainly they are for hag's tales What
saw was the fire of some charcoal burner.
No doubt that was it. NJ men will come
up presently, and we will all go ON to-
gether. could laugh to remember what
figure cut
He did laugh a. the remembrance, hut it
was a poor attempt hollow and mcckiug
like the thought which bred it, And he
began now to be very anxious for the com
pany of his servants, bidding them come
forth from the thicket, where he believed
them still to lie.
Francois, Jeani' he bawled, 1T Is /,
your master, who calls you. What tlo YOU
fear, knaves? Am not here to protect
you? Oh, surely, will lay my cudgcl upon
your backs tomorrow
To his amazement, neither Jean nor Fran
co.'s ans wered his appeal; but in the wood
behind him there arose again the eerie wall,
ana now it was long sustained and piercing
like the wall of the witches upon the wing.
Hail to the Lord Bishop of Blois!' was
the cry; "hail! haiti Whittier he goes,
there so we-lolalla -lolalla!''
The echo fell from wood to wood and
grove to grove until it died away in moan
ing sighs afar, at the heart Of the forest
When the last note was stilled, the able
heard O voice, sweet and fresh and young,
crying:
What shall be done to the Lord bishop
of Blosl''
And from the woods the answer came:
"He must suffer, he must suffer-;olalla
-lolaIla -lolalla!',
A loud peal Of laughter followed the
words, and while the laughter rang, the
thicket was lit again with flaming c,im
son light. The abbe's heart threatened to
stand still when he saw, grouped there
upon the green, the strangcst company he
had ever beheld in all his life. Dressed
In scarlet, some like devils, some ike
dwarfs, some like hideous creatures with