azier. It was only when thus left that he could own, in
answer to Philip's inquiries, that he could feel either hunger or
weariness; nay, he would only acknowledge enough of the latter to give
a perfect charm to rest under such auspices. Eustacie had dispatched her
motherly cares promptly enough to be with him again just as in taking
off his corselet he had found that it had been pierced by a bullet,
and pursuing the trace, through his doublet, he found it lodged in that
purse which he had so long worn next his heart, where it had spent its
force against the single pearl of Ribaumont. And holding it up to the
light, he saw that it was of silver. Then there returned on him and
Philip the words they had heard two days before, of silver bullets
forged for the destruction of the white moonlight fairy, and he further
remembered the moment's shock and blow that in the midst of his wild
amaze on the river's bank had made him gather his breath and strength to
bound desperately upwards, lest the next moment he should find himself
wounded and powerless.

For the innocent, then, had the shot been intended; and she running
into danger out of her sweet, tender instincts of helpfulness, had been
barely saved at the extreme peril of her unconscious father's life.
Philip, whose vehement affection for the little one had been growing
all day, was in the act of telling Berenger to string the bullet in the
place of the injured pearl, as the most precious heirloom of Ribaumont
bravery, when Eustacie returned, and learning all, grew pale and
shuddered as danger had never made her do before: but this strange day
had almost made a coward of her.

'And this is has spared,' said Berenger, taking out the string of little
yellow shells. 'Dost know them, sweet heart? They have been my chaplet
all this time.'

'Ah!' cried Eustacie, 'poor, good Mademoiselle Noemi! she threaded them
for my child, when she was very little. Ah! could she have given them to
you--could it then not have been true--that horror?'

'Alas! it was too true. I found these