Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-28
pebble, or In the distance. as the Hight
feb more sideways. q slant bayonet gieau-


country of the Cevennes in the simplest
and swiftest way, by the Rhine and tne
Protestant cantOns of Switzerland: Inc
pastors Of Geneva and the political leaders
municating with the districts where tneir
fellow religionists continued to make sucn
successful head against the forces OF the
king and the all-powerful church IL was
easy enough, therefore, for Patrick Well
wood and his daughter to pass into the
Businesses Of the Cevennes nearly month
before certain Pierre, the wagner OF
Roche-a'-Bayard and Hoo made his en-
campment upon its outer margin.
Nevertheless that night, SO mysterious
are the waves Of apprehension which pass
across certain sensitive spirits. Frances
Wildwood. a maid Of camps and barrack
yards, felt something that was not the chill
Of the boar frost, run cold through her
marrow at the sight of these dark shadoWs
crossing the ashen oval Of the moons disk
AS they passed from her view she went
quickly to her fathers room. The door was
unattached. She went In without knocking
and, pausing a moment on the threshold 10
listen in vain for his breathing. at last en-
tered on tip-toe- The bed was intact. II
had not been slept in.
HE is not here!' she murmured, step
ping back quickly.
Frances had bound her father by great
oath not to go out alone and wander hour
after hour as was his habit-ever since he
had well-nigh been shot by one Of the camp
sentries at former siege of Namur.
Either he has broken his word, or has
taken to dreaming again" she murmured
to herself unhappily.
Frances stood a moment thinking swiftly.
Then she went to the corner of her chamber
and taking down dark fold Of Spanish
lace. threw 1t about her head, drawing 1t
round her neck In the manner of a mantil-
la. Then since the night promised to be
cold she drew her fathers great cloak
about her. The window was high, and
save to an athlete, impossible, though in all
nj fIa SIR y.lr 80 &Io al
built by the Templars was crumbling
enough. But Frances Wildwood knew an
other way Of 1t. Her father had gone out,
and by the same road he had taken she
he had not passed her door, she had been
too wide awake
She remembered, however, that the low
archway which her father used for an en-
that opened somewhither, and accordingly
she turned back there, and set her hand
upon the latch. easily pushing the IRON
bound portal OPEN She came up against
the outer dark as against wall, aQd found
herself at the head of an outside stair,
which Gas In many Of the houses Of the
eastern part of her native lan6 connects
the second and even the third story Of
houses in the Cevennes with the ground.
When she had time to look, loi the stars
were blinking merrily. The heat haze in
the valley had altogether vanished and
there was smell and piercing breath of
u.
Still there was neither sight nor sound of
her father. -
Frances stood still as death while one
might count twenty. listening. Everywhere
dows Of the Camisard village beneath
seemed to be spying upon her. The streets
of La Cavalerle were narrow, irregular and
drowned in deep shadow. The moon, grown
old and sickly Of aspect, seemed unable to
make her pale beams penetrate. Her light
sifted down scarce brighter than so much
starshine.
But Flower-o' -the-corn had set her hand
Resolutely she drew her cloak about her
and set forth to look for her father He
had taken his little red double-volume
Covenanter's Bible with him. She had made
that the errand upon which he had gone
must be a religious one. Indeed, at that
hour and In that place, 1t was not likely
that ne would have gone forth on any
man who had ridden with Grey and Crys-
ton and the two Camerons at Ayrsmoss
might possibly have persuaded him that it
was still religious duty to hew Agag in
pieces before the Lord. In short, Patrick
Wellwoods mission might very well be re-
ligious without being at all pacific
Swiftly and lightly she glided up one ner-
row close and down another, till she found
herself within the outer belt of gardens
whose mutitudinous lntersecting walls
made such excellent fore-cover to these
Puritan peasants. militant among the high
Cevennes.
She had often enough found her way out
of the labyrinth by day. It was task
somewhat more difficult by. night. But with
q keen sense of direction (when outside of
the walls Of a house,. Flower-o -the-Corn
presently succeeded in surrounding the last
stone dyke. and stood in the last ditch.
or dry trench rather, which defended the
fortified village Of La Cavalerie
A little to the left, upon a low earthen
rampant, Frances could see the head and
shoulders Of a sentinel. At intervals she
could hear the bagpdpe- drone Of his chanted
psalm! Anon there came a metallic sound
as he grounded his piece on the battlements,
and gazed away northward motionless as
those palMd limestone pinnacles on the sky
line.
Frances continued to crouch quietly in the
ditch till the man had taken himself off to
the other end of his beat His watch to-
night was doubtless somewhat perfunctory.
knowing as he did that the greater part Of
the effective fighting force Of the village
was out upon the Cause.
At last the chant of his psalm, Hlted in
Camisard fashion with copious grace notes
and quavers. grew faint In the distance.
sped hastily across the sparse grass of the
sheep pasture in the track of the expedition
she had seen leave the village SO silently
The moon was for the time being behind
a cloud and shone through various thin
places here and there, like q lantern that
is moved to and fro In a tent.
There was no trail to be followed upon the
dusty, pebble-strewn grayness of the Hme-
stone upland. But as the dark figures took
their way across the moons disk, Frances
had almost involuntarily observed that a
long, low. Jagged scarp of limestone showed
like broken tooth against the rising moon
also In the line Of their march.
Thfs now appeared very obvious immedi-
ateiy in front Of her. lying paIlid and un-
earthly right across her path, the moons
rays striking nnstily upon It.
F1ower-o-the-Corn felt q sudden terror
overpower her. She was, OF course armed
as usual. But there seemed to be some
daunting influence abroad that night upon
the face Of the waste. It was 30 high up
under the moon that somehow spirits of
good and evil alike might be expected to
choose 1t as their p0tRtal playground in
preference TO the warm, homely, farm-be-
strewn valleys beneath. Swhere dogs bark
ed at night and cocks cspwded clarion-lake
in the dawn, -
Frances stole on int6sa little circle Of
blanched and moonlft Ncrxgs which rose out
OF the bald plain. casting long fiat shadows
like q lunar crater. -
There-there-quite near her, because the
circle Of pallid rocks measured nowhere
more than 200 yards across, were men who
crawled nearer and nearer to certain
point on the opposite face of natural
amphitheater -,
Suddenly on rock. HAT on top like a
table, she saw man spring erect and
throw up his hands, He showed black