Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-21
CHAPTER LIV,
The Cross Under the AnrOu.


| The face of GILES de Laval lord of Retz
had shone all day with an unholy luster
! like that of iron which the red heat yet
| struggles with the black In the castle of
| Machecoul his familiars went about wear
ing expressions upon their countenances in
| winch disgust and expectation We're min
gled with an overwhelming fear of the ter
| rible baron.
| The usual signs of approaching high
| saturnalia at Machecoul had not been want
ing.
| Early in the morning La Meffraye had
been seen lowering like an uncean bird of
| prey about the playing grounds of the vii
lage children at St Benoit, on the edges of
| the forest. At the frightened villagers
heard the howl of day-hunting wolf, and
| cutting bark for tannerieS in the valley
saw great gray wolf rush out and seize
| his little son. Jean, boy of five years old
who came bringing his fathers breakfast
WITH a great cry he hurried back TO alarm
| the village, but when men gathered with
| scythes and rude weapons of the chase the
beasts track was lost in the depth of the
forest.
Little Jean Verger of St Benoit was never
| seen again, unless it were he who half hid
den under the long black cloak dork of lie
Mefraye, was brought At noon by the pri-
Vate postern of the baron into the castle of
MachecoCl
So tho men of ST. Benoit went not back to
their work but abode together all that day.
/
one calling himself the servant of the bis,l-
| op of Nantes went about among them. and
! his words We're as knives. sharp and bitter
beyond belief. And ever as he spoke The
men turned them about till they faced
Machecoul. Their lips moved like those of
a Moslemite who says his prayers toward
/ Mecca. And the words they uttered We're
| indeed prayers of the solemnest import.
With his usual devotion at such seasons
GILES de Retz had attended service thrice
| that day in his chapel of the Holy limo
I;- lSI,n 1,,l
| intense devoutness. All excessive tender
| ness of conscience had marked his confess
sions to Pere Blouyn. his spiritual director
| in ordinary He confessed as his most fla
grant sin that his thoughts oftentimes were
| overmuch set on the vanites of the world.
and that he had even sometimes been
tempted of the devil to question the right
of holy church herself to settle all questions
| according to the will of her priests and
prelates.
Whereupoa Pere Blouyn. with suave cor
rectness of judgment, had pointed out
wherein he erred, but also cautioned him
against that undue tenderness of conscience
| natural to one with his exalted position and
high views of duty and life Finally he had
received dissolution.
| In the late afternoon the lord of Retz
commanded the fire to be laid ready for
| lighting in his chamber aloft in the keep of
Machecoul, and set himself down to listen
| to the singing of the choir, which under
| the guidance of Precentor Renouf rehears-
| ed for him the sweetest and most recent
| father at Rome. For there the marshaTs
| choirmaster had been trained and with its
leader he still kept up a correspondence
GILES de Retz as he sat under the late
blooming roses in the afternoon sunshine
| of the autumn of western France appeared
to the casual eye one of the most noble
| seiSneurs and the most enlightened in the
| world. He affected costume already semi
ecclesiastic a token of his ultimate in
| te1tion to seek holy orders. 1t seemed al
| ready as if the great soldier who had rid
| den into Orleans with Dunois and the maid
] had begun to lay aside his earthly glories
and seek the heavenly.
There upon chair placed within the
| cloisters, in place which the sunshine
touched most lovingly and where it fingered
1 longest, he sat, nodding his head to the
sound of the sweet singing and bowling low
at each mention of the name Jesus Gas the
custom is), a still, meditative almost saint
/ ly man. Upon the lap of his furred robe
| (for after all it was sunshine with GER
| tain shrewd wintrinesS in IT. lay an illu-
| minated copy of the holy gospels And
sometimes as he listened to the choir boys
singing he glanced therein and read of the
little children to whom belongs the king
| dom. He lifted the book also and looked
| with pleasure at the pictured cherubs who
cheered the way of the Master Jerusalem
/ ward with strewn palm leaves and shouted
hosannas
And ever sweeter and sweeter fell the
music upon his ear. till suddenly. like the
ceased to roll. the choir was silent, and out
of the quiet rose a single voice-that of
Laurence the Scot-singing in tenor of in
finite sweetness the words of blessing:
Suffer little children to come unto me,
And forbid them not,
For such is the kingdom of heaven.
And as the boys clear voice welied out