had taken refuge, his vigour gradually returned. It had been necessary
that he should be protected from excitement; consequently, while
receiving from the hermit regular reports from the Vale, and many a
sweet message from his love which made his heart leap with happiness,
he knew nothing till the beginning of February of the incursion of the
Voizins, and the accompanying events. Since he had been alone, however,
he had dwelt for hours together on the strange story which he had
overheard in the tower, the principal figure of which, while his brain
had been still confused, had been always mingled in his delirium with
the massive form of the hermit. Father Austin, watching him with
anxiety, at length suggested that he should relieve his mind by
repeating the tale to the recluse himself. He readily adopted the
suggestion. His listener, who had been too delicate to question Hilda as
to her antecedents, but who had been burning to learn the explanation of
the striking resemblance of her features to a face which, whether he
waked or slept, ever haunted him, though more often contorted in agony
than wreathed in smiles, heard with impatience the history of Algar's
treachery; but when Jean detailed the escape of Tita and her charge, and
identified the latter with the maiden whom he had rescued, he sprang to
his feet at the risk of plunging his patient into a fresh crisis of
fever, and exclaimed, "May the choicest gifts of heaven be showered on
thee, brave youth! the blessed angels and saints will love thee for this
deed!" He reflected a moment, then turned his eyes full on Jean's face,
"Why should I leave it to Austin to tell thee what he has long known
under the solemn secrecy which binds priest and sinner? Thou shalt know
it from my own lips: I am Haco! Drifted hitherward on that lonely
voyage, I was released by holy men, now saints above, who healed my
wounds and taught me to bury my pride, and to kneel humbly before the
Cross. I never doubted that I was childless as well as wifeless; had I
done so, I should have returned at all risks to claim my own. But she!