"About my torch, and the devil, and other good Catholics, please your
honor," he answered, with a low bow.

"Have a care, sirrah!" said De Valette; "I allow no one, in my presence,
to speak disrespectfully of the religion of my country."

"It is a good cloak," returned the boy; "and I would not abuse a
garment, which has just been serviceable to me, however worthless it may
be, in reality."

"It may have been worn by scoundrels," said De Valette; "but its
intrinsic value is not diminished on that account. Would you intimate
that you have assumed it to answer some sinister design?"

"And, supposing I have," he asked; "what then?"

"Why, then you are a hypocrite."

"It is well for my lord's lieutenant to speak of hypocrisy," said the
boy, laughing; "it is like Satan preaching sanctity; tell the good
puritans of Boston, that the French Hugonot who worshipped in their
conventicle with so much decorum, is a papist, and what, think you,
would they say?"

"Who are you, that dares speak to me thus?" asked De Valette, angrily.

"That is a question, which I do not choose to answer; I care not to let
strangers into my secret counsels."