"Have you the courage, my daughters?" looking earnestly at them.

Madeleine threw herself into his arms.

"I knew what your answer would be," said he, fondly kissing her; "but
my little Gabrielle--"

"Oh, fear me not, father," cried Gabrielle, hastily. "Anything to get
out of this horrid place. I believe I have seemed too impatient of it
to those around me, but that was because inaction is always so trying
to me."

"My love, you may yet be exposed to it. I have known one of our brethren
put into a chest, with very few air-holes, and lowered into the hold of
a merchant-vessel, with considerable roughness, where he was left many
hours before he could be released."

Gabrielle changed color. "Never mind," said she, in a low voice, and
pressing her father's hand. "What man has done man may do, though I am
but a woman who say it."

"That's my brave girl!" fondly kissing her. "Well, my friends, if we
can but get to Bordeaux, we shall escape; that is provided for. It was
this which kept me from you so long. And what a return has been mine!
I got no answers from you to my letters; I heard the persecution here
was raging with fury; I came to snatch you from it, and found my home
deserted, the factory burnt, the workmen scattered, no tidings of you
to be found. At length I got news of you from one of the men, who told
me of your retreat, and that he, under cover of night, brought you