"Why in this direction?" inquired Gabriel Carew. "We have passed the house in which the brothers live."
"Wait," said Father Daniel solemnly. "They live there no longer."
The sun was setting, and the light was quivering on the tops of the distant trees. Father Daniel and Gabriel Carew plunged into the woods. There were scouts on the outskirts, to whom the priest said, "Has the magistrate arrived?"
"No, father," was the answer, "we expect him every moment."
Father Daniel nodded and passed on.
"What does all this mean?" asked Gabriel Carew.
And again the priest replied, "Wait."
From that moment until they arrived at the spot to which Father Daniel led him, Carew was silent. What had passed between him and Lauretta had so filled his soul with happiness that he bestowed but little thought upon a vulgar intrigue between a peasant girl and men whom he had long since condemned. They no longer troubled him; they had passed for ever out of his life, and his heart was at rest. Father Daniel and he walked some distance into the shadows of the forest and the night. Before him he saw lights in the hands of two villagers who had evidently been stationed there to keep guard.
"Father Daniel?" they cried in fearsome voices.
"Yes," he replied, "it is I."