rapid, but complete. His mind took in, at a glance, the burgher
quarter full of its own harmonies, where his happy childhood had been
spent, where lived his promised bride, Babette Lallier, where all
things promised him a sweet and full existence; he saw the past; he
saw the future, and he sacrificed it, or, at any rate, he staked it
all. Such were the men of that day.

"We need ask no more," said the impetuous sailor; "we know him for one
of our /saints/. If the Scotchman had not done the deed he would kill
us that infamous Minard."

"Yes," said Lecamus, "my life belongs to the church; I shall give it
with joy for the triumph of the Reformation, on which I have seriously
reflected. I know that what we do is for the happiness of the peoples.
In two words: Popery drives to celibacy, the Reformation establishes
the family. It is time to rid France of her monks, to restore their
lands to the Crown, who will, sooner or later, sell them to the
burghers. Let us learn to die for our children, and make our families
some day free and prosperous."

The face of the young enthusiast, that of Chaudieu, that of the
sailor, that of the stranger seated in the bow, lighted by the last
gleams of the twilight, formed a picture which ought the more to be
described because the description contains in itself the whole history
of the times--if it is, indeed, true that to certain men it is given
to sum up in their own persons the spirit of their age.

The religious reform undertaken by Luther in Germany, John Knox in
Scotland, Calvin in France, took hold especially of those minds in the
lower classes into which thought had penetrated. The great lords