“We can grant you time enough for that,” returned François.
Alaine watched the frowning cliff grow nearer and nearer. The Château of St. Louis upon the terrace of the Upper Town rose before her; below twisted the streets of the Lower Town, its gray wharves stretching along the river. She gazed at the clusters of spires and of buildings. Under which roof might be those nuns of whom M. Dupont had spoken? Darkness had settled down when the vessel at last dropped her anchor, and Alaine went to sleep with a feeling half dread, half joy, for what the morrow might bring.
She was out upon deck early the next morning. The town stretched out before her in all its outline of spire and roof, of postern and bastion; a French city, and she, a French girl, there a prisoner before it. Father Bisset noted her sigh before he made his presence known. “Art sorrowful at leaving the ship?” he whispered, smiling.
“No, Father, but one has many thoughts. All this,” she waved her hand, “does it not bring back thoughts of home to you?”
“Of wrong and persecution, of oppression and death?” he asked.
“Yes, for us it includes that. Oh, Father, shall we surely escape?”
He nodded. “I have the clue I missed. If Marie should follow us I can manage her. As for the other, he will take a nap this afternoon, I fancy.”
“Sh! here he comes.”
François approached, debonair and confident. “We will breakfast a little late. I have sent ashore for some provisions, and we will have such a feast as we have not had for many a long day. Now that our voyage is ended, I will admit that it was not without danger. With England at war with us, and her ships upon the seas, besides the possibility of heavy storms at this time of year, we might have fared hardly; yet all has gone well and we will celebrate the event. Mademoiselle will not refuse a glass of good old wine, and you, Father Bisset, will not object to drinking her health. I would see you first in my cabin; I have a few words for your ear.”
Father Bisset followed him, and when they were alone François said, “Mademoiselle will need a better wardrobe than she is at present provided with;” he handed him a purse; “this for the purpose.”