“I know not, but this I know: for his sake, if not for my own conviction, would I forswear the country which, if it has not witnessed his death, has condemned him to a life of misery. Dearly as I loved my own France, I am more Huguenot than French. Revoke my decision? Abjure my belief? Never! Day by day and hour by hour it becomes more and more dear to me in this free home. Listen, monsieur: to-morrow morning I start at break of day to walk over twenty miles to church. I shall do it gladly, joyfully, for it brings me to a service which is my delight. Would I do this if I could be turned by your chance words? My home is humble, yes, but here we are free to sing our psalms, to worship as we desire. I toil with my hands; I labor in the fields that I may help to pay for this piece of land which we call ours. I would work a thousand times harder for those who cherish me and who have given me their honest, honorable name that I may be safe from those who hunt me down and who seek to do me despite. Leave these, my dear adopted parents? Never, till my father himself returns to claim me.”
M. Dupont listened thoughtfully. “You would leave only at your father’s command? It behooves me, then, to find him.”
Alaine clasped her hands. “Oh, monsieur, find him, find him, and I will bless you forever, though you may be my enemy!”
“Your enemy?” He shrugged his shoulders; then looking at her with an inexplicable smile, he said, “Consider me yours to command, mademoiselle. We shall meet again, fair Alaine Hervieu, and I shall yet bid you good-morrow under the skies of France.” He lifted the heavy wooden latch of the door and bowed himself out, leaving Alaine stunned and bewildered.
In the dimness of the room Papa Louis did not perceive the expression on the girl’s face as he entered and gayly cried, “The wolves have not devoured my little bird, I see.”
Alaine flew toward him and clasped his arm. “Oh, papa, papa, there has been some one here!” And she poured forth her tale, one moment the passionate tears falling, and the next a tremor born of fear creeping into her voice.
Papa Louis listened silently until she had concluded, then he said, “But this young man, he is Protestant; he is a friend of Jacob Therolde’s. I have been speaking but now of him to Alexandre Allaire. He has talked to one and another, and no one seems to imagine evil of him. This is a puzzle, my daughter. I am dismayed by the strangeness of it. Ma petite, he did but tease you, perhaps; yes, that is it, he did not mean it when he urged your return to France; he would find out how steadfast you really are, that is all.”
“No, no, I am sure it was not that; yet——” She paused and considered the matter. “He did not say that he was not Protestant, he but spoke as if it were nothing to change one’s religion as favors come one’s way. If he is not Protestant, why is he here among us, so far from home? and what means his ardent friendship for my cousin? I am terrified by it all, papa.”
“But you need have no fear. Who shall take you from us? Not one man, nor two. So go to sleep, my little one; the good God will defend you. Say your prayers to Him and sleep well, for we have a long walk before us and must start betimes. I hope before long that it will be but a step to our own temple of worship. Mark how sweet is the air and how quiet the night. God be thanked for our peace. Embrace me, little one, and good-night.”
Alaine crept up the ladder to her room above. Why, after all, should she fear? There were papa and Gerard and all the good friends and neighbors to defend her. What could one man do? and why should he desire to harm her? And she went to sleep with a prayer upon her lips.