The old lady smiled, but shook her head. "May thy dreams be fulfilled, child, but I shall never see them. I shall be in a fairer home than thine long before that time. I could have wished to have thee beside me to close my eyes, but it is to be otherwise, and I shall not be left alone. There, do not weep, my Therese, but listen while I tell thee the disposition of my affairs, that thou mayst remember them. I have made my will according to the law of the land, and it is in good Mr. McGregor's hands. Thou wilt inherit this house and all that I have; it is not much.
"But, Therese, keep carefully the clock and the old bureau and carved chest; they came from France with my father when he fled for his life in the persecuting times, when France, like Jerusalem, killed her prophets, and stoned them that were sent unto her. * And this Bible," said she, turning over the leaves and showing Therese a dark stain she had often seen before—"see, it is wet with the blood of the martyr, thy great-grandfather. He was shot down at a preaching. The people were collected in a close, narrow valley, at a communion; they were surprised by the troops, who fired volley after volley among them. My grandfather was shot down and died on the spot; my uncle and father escaped to carry the news and this book to their mother. They found that the enemy had been there during their absence. They left her half dead, and carried away her only girl, a child of ten years old. She never saw the child again."
* We are apt to think of Romanist persecution as entirely a thing of the past. At the very time when Lafayette was fighting our battles, there were multitudes of pastors and gentlemen in the galleys of Marseilles and Toulon for no other offence than that of being Protestants.
"What became of her?" anxiously inquired Therese.
"Nobody knows. She was doubtless taken to some convent where she was brought up to deny the faith of her fathers; perhaps to die for the truth, as younger children have done before now. The poor woman herself soon after died. Her sons, after long lurking in dens and caves of the earth, at last escaped, and came to Canada, where they had relations and friends and found peace and safety. They preserved this book through all, and thou must preserve it too. And, Therese, if thou art ever tempted to desert the faith, remember the line of which thou art sprung. Look unto the rock from which thou art hewn, and the hole of the pit from whence thou art digged. Thou art come of a race of martyrs, men and women, aye, and children, who thought of and cared for nothing in comparison of the truth and their duty. Be not thou unworthy of them. Count not thy life nor any part of it dear unto thyself if God calls thee to lay it down."
This was a long speech for Grand-mère Duval, who was usually a woman of few words.
Therese listened with silent and respectful interest. She had often tried to set her grandmother talking of these matters, but hitherto without much success. Now she ventured to ask a question which she had not dared to broach:
"Grand-mère, maman gave me a picture. She said you would tell me the story about it."
She drew from her pocket as she spoke the miniature which her mother had given her.
Grand-mère took it and looked at it long and earnestly.