"What a dance you have led me!" cried the messenger. "I come from the
commissioner, who sends you a passport, and desires you to go to
Bordeaux as fast as you can."

What a smile broke over my uncle's face!

"Said I not," cried he, joyfully, "that a path would doubtless open for
me? Henceforth, my children, never distrust the Lord."

His course was now altered. Instead of making for the nearest coast,
now within a few miles, on the borders of the Mediterranean, he decided
to proceed with all convenient speed to Montauban, where my aunt had
friends, thence down the Garonne, and so to Bordeaux. I could but set
him on his way and trust his future course to the same good Providence
that had hitherto protected him. My aunt was decided to follow his
fortunes, happen what would.




CHAPTER VI.

TRIAL BY FIRE.


Day was far spent before I got back, my horse having gone lame. There
seemed unusual disturbance in the town; I distinguished a distant hum of
many voices, and all at once a shrill cry that made me shudder, followed
by the passionate wailing of children, and the incessant barking of
dogs. I took the back way to our house, where lay our stable, and