“Oh! yes, yes,” replied the marchioness, “we must meet again.”
“Well, then, my mother, this evening I shall be at the park gate. There is a spot which is sacred to me, and to which I must pay a last visit. I shall expect to meet you there. It is on that spot, my mother, that we should say farewell.”
“I will be there,” said the marchioness.
“Here, my mother, here,” said Paul, “take these commissions: the one for Emanuel, and the other for the husband of Marguerite. Let the happiness of your children be conferred by yourself. Believe me, mother, you have bestowed more on me than I on them.”
The marchioness retired to shut herself up in her oratory. Paul left the castle, and proceeded toward the hut of the fisherman.
CHAPTER XIX.—THE FAREWELL.
Hark! she has bless’d her son—I bid ye witness,
Ye listening heavens—thou circumambient air;
The ocean sighs it back—and with the murmur
Bustle the happy leaves.
All nature breathes
Aloud—-aloft—to the Great Parent’s ear,
The blessing of the mother on her child.
ON approaching the fisherman’s hut, the place appointed with Lectoure, Paul perceived Lusignan and Walter, who were waiting for him.
Precisely at the hour agreed, Lectoure appeared on horseback; he had been obliged to find his way as he best could, for he had no guide, and his own servant was as much a stranger as himself in that part of the country. On seeing him at a distance the young men came out of the hut. The baron instantly put his horse into a gallop, to hasten to them. When within a few paces of them he alighted from his horse, and threw the rein to his servant.