grieved or
distressed on her account; but, as he told her, he took the summons to
leave her as a sign that his task was done, and the term of her trials
ended. 'I trust as fully,' he said, 'that thou wilt soon be in safe and
loving hands, as though I could commit thee to them.'

And so he died in her arms, leaving her a far fuller measure of blessing
and of love than ever she had derived from her own father; and as the
enemy's trumpets were already sounding on the hills, she had feared
insult to his remains, and had procured his almost immediate burial in
the cloister, bidding the assistants sing, as his farewell, that evening
psalm which had first brought soothing to her hunted spirit.

There, while unable, after hours of weeping, to tear herself from the
grave of her father and protector, had she in her utter desolation been
startled by the summons, not only to attend to the wounded stranger,
but to lodge him in the chancel. 'Only this was wanting,' was the first
thought in her desolation, for this had been her own most cherished
resort. Either the _bise_, or fear of a haunted spot, or both, had
led to the nailing up of boards over the dividing screen, so that the
chancel was entirely concealed from the church; and no one ever thought
of setting foot there till Eustacie, whose Catholic reverence was
indestructible, even when she was only half sure that it was not worse
than a foible, had stolen down thither, grieved at its utter desolation,
and with fond and careful hands had cleansed it, and amended the ruin
so far as she might. She had no other place where she was sure of being
uninterrupted; and here had been her oratory, where she daily prayed,
and often came to hide her tears and rally her spirits through that long
attendance on her fatherly friend. It had been a stolen pleasure. Her
reverent work there, if once observed, would have been treated as rank
idolatry; and it was with consternation as well as grief that she found,
by the Captain's command, that this her sanctuary and refuge was to be
invaded by 