--and my own head was resting on my dead father's breast. Us they
had spared from hanging--our gentle blood did us that service; but
my father and my three brethren all were stone dead. The Count de
Bearn had sworn to put an end to the ravages of the Black Wolf,
and, joining with the Montagudos, had done the work, like traitor
villains as they were."

"And yourself, Gaston?"

"I was not so badly wounded but that I could soon rise to my feet
--but where should I go? I turned towards the Castle, but the
Bearnese had been there before me, and I saw flames bursting
from every window. I was weak and wounded, and sank down,
bleeding and bewailing, till my senses left me; and I should have
died, but for two Benedictines journeying for the service of their
Convent. The good brethren were in fear for their bags in going
through the Black Wolf's country, but they had pity on me; they
brought me to myself, and when they had heard my tale, they
turned aside to give Christian burial to my father and brothers.
They were holy men, those monks, and, for their sakes, I have
spared the cowl ever since. They tended me nearly as well as
you have done, and brought me to their Convent, where they would
fain have made a monk of me, but the wolf was too strong in me,
and, ere a month was passed, I had been so refractory a pupil,
that they were right glad to open the Convent gates. I walked
forth to seek my fortune, without a denier, with nothing but the
sword I had taken from my father's hand, and borne with me, much
against the good men's will. I meant to seek service with any
one who would avenge me on the Count de Bearn. One night I slept
on the hill-side, one day I fasted, the next I fell in with Sir