"Well, I shall go with the protection of God," replied the lock-keeper, raising his stick; "if you cannot come, cousin, remain here with Cola." "Rather would I follow you on my hands and knees," stammered the terrified hunchback. They have sworn my death, and on their return will throw me into the canal to prevent my speaking. Cola, give me your arm; God will reward you for your pity, my daughter." The young peasant did not need this promise to induce her to aid the old schoolmaster; she hastened to offer him her arm, and both attempted to overtake Hoarne, who, without waiting for them, had taken the road to the lock. Balibonlik and his conductress at last reached Gravelot, who had regained the open heath. Their glances were directed towards the lock, which they perceived like a dark spot in the distance. Suddenly Nicola, who for an instant had seemed to listen, stopped short. "What is the matter?" asked the hunchback and Hoarne. At the cry which he uttered, Guivarch turned; he started on recognizing him, and recoiled two paces. "Wo!" said he, "the man of the lock was not at home!" "Villain!" said Hoarne, "you thought, then, to have burned me with my dwelling? He made a movement towards Konan; the latter raised his gun. "Do not approach," said he in a ferocious accent. "Down with your arms, vagabond!" exclaimed the lock-keeper. Guivarch did not reply; but the lock clicked beneath his fingers. Nicola, who had just arrived, ran to her father, and would have held him back; Hoarne, exasperated, resisted. "No," exclaimed he, struggling, "it shall not be said that a beggar from the mountains has burned my roof and destroyed the lock committed to my care with impunity; I have already expended too much patience on this brood of She imposed silence with her hand and stoop-wolves; I must put an end to them." ed forward: all listened; distant but regular blows resounded in the direction of the canal. "It seems as if woodcutters were at work," observed the schoolmaster. "It is the Guivarchs, cutting away the lock," exclaimed Hoarne, "wo is me! I shall arrive too late!" He began to run; but as he approached, the blows resounded stronger and more frequent. He could no longer doubt. They came indeed from the lock, and the house alone, which they began to distinguish in the shadow, prevented them from perceiving the demolishers. The eye of Gravelot was seeking to look around the obstacle, when a luminous ray suddenly shone through the darkness and revealed to him his dwelling in flames. Three cries were uttered simultaneously. The lock-keeper and his companions stopped. The fire, which had doubtless been kindled for some time, had just burst forth with a violence and uniformity which did not allow of its being at tributed to chance. The shouts of triumph which were heard also, proved that the incendiaries were present and enjoyed their work. These shouts aroused Hoarne from his stupor; he resumed his course towards the lock, followed by Nicola and the hunchback, who in vain attempted to detain him. At the moment he reached the tow-path, the entire roof formed a sheaf of flame which illuminated the canal, the cascade, and the lock. The gates of the latter, completely broken, allowed a free passage to the waters, which passed through them with a sullen rush. On the platform, which separated it from the burning house, stood Konan with gun under his arm, Guy-d'hu with hatchet in hand, and Laouik occupied in throwing the last fragments into the canal. At this sight, the hunchback and Nicola stopped as if thunderstruck; but Hoarne dashed forward. Rent by the thorns through which he had just passed, with bare head, pale with despair and with anger, he fell, so to speak, in the midst of the space illuminated by the fire, and seemed to complete this terrific scene. "Come, then, if you dare," replied Guivarch, taking off his broad-brimmed straw hat and throwing it between himself and the lock-keeper; "I challenge you; make one step forward, and all is over!" At this ancient form of defiance preserved among our mountains, and which, like the glove thrown in the Middle Ages, seems to doubt the courage of him to whom it is addressed, Hoarne turned, and escaping from the hands of the young girl, precipitated himself on Konan with raised cudgel; but at the very moment his foot struck the hat, a flash was seen followed by a detonation. He stopped short, extended his arms, and dropped with a groan. The shot had struck him in the side. Nicola sprang despairingly towards him. "Are you wounded?" exclaimed she. Killed!" murmured the lock-keeper, instinctively laying his hand on his side. The young peasant tried to raise him in her arms; but Guivarch, infuriated by the sight of blood, raised over him the butt of his gun, exclaiming: " To the death!" and began to strike with wild rage. Nicola in vain extended her hands to ward off the blows; struck twenty times, her father rolled without motion at her feet; and the murderer stopped only when Guy-d'hu seized him by the elbows, exclaiming : " Quick, quick! to the heath, or we are lost!" What is the matter?" asked Konan, who staggered like a drunken man. 66 "Look, yonder!-the boatmen !" Guivarch looked towards the canal, and in fact perceived a boat advancing rapidly, drawn by three mariners pulling at the rope. They had doubtless seen the light of the conflagration, for they seemed to be in haste, and were within gunshot of the lock. Their voices could already be distinguished. Nicola thought she recognized one. She uttered a loud cry and called Alann. "I am here, Cola!" replied a well-known accent; and the master of the boat, springing on the bank, hastened towards her with the little hunchback, who had joined him. Then followed a confused mingling of cries, tears, and broken explanations. At last, after many questions, Nicola's lover could understand what had taken place. He had moored the boat at a few paces from the lock, and the dying man was borne thither. He thought then of searching for the murderer; but the Guivarchs had profited by the first moment of confusion to escape, and the schoolmaster declared that he had seen them take the road to the burnt heath. "Then they have returned to their adders' hole?" exclaimed Alann. "It shall not be said that we let them rest there tranquilly in their crime. Come, my boys! the Guivarchs must be made to render an account to the laws." "Would you leave me alone here?" exclaimed Nicola on her knees beside her father and occupied in stanching the blood which flowed from his wound; "in the name of our Saviour, Alann, do not quit me." "That is a reasonable request, master," observed the oldest sailor; "it would be too hard to abandon this dear girl when her father is dying." Alann appeared embarrassed. "Then, objected he, we must leave in peace those who have taken the house and the life ofGravelot." "Not so, Alann," resumed he who had already spoken; I will go with the two other boys; and, if it please God, we will bring back the people below there, to pay for the fire and blood." "But how will you find your way over the heath?" "I will guide them!" exclaimed the hunehback; "let them kill me, if they please, since they have killed my cousin. Ah! why had I not strength to defend him? Pardon me, beloved Hoarne, I will lead these people to the heath, and they shall avenge thee." The schoolmaster embraced the dying man, and started for the heath, accompanied by the three mariners. Alann, left alone with Nicola, aided her to stanch the blood of the lock-keeper. "Cola," said he gently, "you must prepare your heart for the blow that is to come upon you. Nothing but a miracle could save your father." "Then all is over with him!" replied Nicola sobbing, “and on this day of your arrival, when he would have been so rejoiced to have called you his son! The happiness he prepared for me, he cannot taste, and he will never know how much you loved him." The death-rattle of the wounded man became every instant more feeble; Alann, standing beside him, kept his eyes fixed on the features convulsed with the last agony, and seemed to be waiting. Suddenly he stooped, put his hand on the mouth of the lock-keeper, then on his breast, and slowly uncovering, said in a low voice "May God receive him to his glory!" The young girl started. "My father!" stammered she. "Now-he is with the master, Cola," returned the young mariner, taking her hand. her despair had exhausted itself by its very excess, the boatman attempted to raise her. "Come," said he, with authoritative gentleness, your father's body must not longer remain without the honors due to the dead. Let us sce whether the fire has left a shroud, a crucifix and the holy water to which the Christian has a right: summon your courage, Cola, and let us go to the house of the lock." Nicola made no objection. With that submissive simplicity which is the most striking characteristic of the Breton peasants, she wiped her eyes, made the sign of the cross, and followed Alann from the boat. The night-wind had just died away suddenly after having piled in the heavens clouds which began to dissolve into a warm and heavy rain. The fire which the Guivarchs had kindled beneath the roof of the house of the lock, counteracted by the tiles with which it was covered, had not been able to reach further. It had concentrated itself in the beams, which still burnt slowly, suffering to escape here and there some jets of intermittent flame which this unexpected shower soon extinguished. At the moment when the young boatman and Nicola disembarked, the burning roof seemed extinct, the rafters were black and hissing, and to the red gleams had succeeded volumes of a dense smoke. Alann remarked, on his arrival at the house, that the interior had suffered little. The cinders from the roof had reached a part of the furniture only and he hastened to enter with the young girl in order to wrest from the fire what might still be saved. CHAPTER IV. While this was passing at the lock, the Guivarchs were fleeing by the route of the burnt heath, in which they were quickly pursued; but Konan, who marched at their head, had doubtless foreseen the possibility of this pursuit, for he struck across the heath towards the left, through the broom, which left no trace of their passage, and reached the opposite declivity. After many windings through the sinuous inequalities of the hill, he reached at last a thicket of furze which, at the first glance, seemed to offer no practicable route. Guivarch coasted along it unto some known point, and there putting aside the bran ches cautiously he leaped a sort of shrub fence, and found himself in a narrow path which wound through the furze. He thus reached a thicket of broom concealed in the depths of a thorny undergrowth, and which no research could have discovered. The branches had been interlaced in such a manner as to form a roof. In the centre was left a narrow enclosure carpeted with fine heath and white moss. Before entering, the man of the burnt heath uttered the plaintive cry of the water-rail, to which some one replied by a brief exclamation. Guivarch immediately advanced and found himself Although the blow was expected, Nicola ut- before a species of wild nest in which he pertered a loud scream and threw herself on the ceived by the feeble light of the moon, the old body, which she clasped in her arms. She re- grandmother seated with little Soize at her feet. mained thus for some time, kissing his hair, call-At the signal of the Guivarchs, both rose. ing him by the most tender names; at last, when "Is it you, Konan ?" asked the blind woman "Do you not recognize my cry?" roughly re- from my feet and hands, it was because my plied the man of the heath. "And why have you returned so soon?" ly." mother (God bless her) nursed you; but when one has warned the wolf that the dogs are at hand, one cannot answer for its life. Listen if you would be saved. We cannot set out together; we must separate here. Guy-d'hu will take the main path and Laouik follow the ridge, while Soize conducts you across the heath. We will meet below there, behind Faonet, in the oak Guy-coppice, near the house of the korigans. You hear it is said! and now let each rely upon himself and his patron saint." "By heaven! can you already have done what you intended?" exclaimed the old woman; speak, and in your heat do not deceive me. The lock!" "There is no longer a lock," interrupted d'hu, brandishing his hatchet. "And no longer a house!" added Laouik with a wild laugh. "We have seen the current carry away the last plank." "And the roof blaze like a pile of fagots." "Death of my life! is this true?" exclaimed Katelle striking her hands on her knees,-“ no longer a house or a lock! and the man below there allowed you to do it?" At this question Laouik and Guy-d'hu cast a stealthy glance at each other and remained silent. "Well! why do you not reply?" resumed the blind woman groping around her. And, encountering the head of the little girl: "Soize," added she, are your brothers no longer there, that they do not speak. Say, where is Konan?" "He is before you, re-loading his gun," replied the child. The old woman started: He replaced his gun beneath his arm, and, after having pointed out to Laouik and Guyde'hu the direction they were to take, disappeared himself in one of the invisible paths of the heath. The old woman suffered them to depart without making any movement or pronouncing any word to detain them; she remained for some time motionless in the same spot, seeming to listen to the sound of their footsteps. The vague smile which hovered on her lips gave to her granite face an expression of terrific and scornful joy; she murmured some unintelligible words. At last she called the little girl. "You have then discharged it?" exclaimed" she; answer me, where is the lock-keeper?" "Where you will soon be!" replied Guivarch brutally. But the blind woman did not notice the harshness of the reply; she raised her arms with a peal of wild laughter: "Is it possible! is this certain!" exclaimed she. "Then I retract my words of yesterday. Yes, Konan, thou art indeed a Guivarch." And turning towards her the head of the little girl, she added: "Have you heard, Soize? our trials are over; hunger will no longer lift the latch of our door; we shall soon recover all our former possessions. At this hour we become sole masters of the river and the heath." "At this hour," exclaimed Konan in a harsh voice, "we must quit forever the river and the heath, if we value our necks!" "What mean you?" exclaimed Katelle. "I mean," replied Guivarch with a gloomy air, "that the betrothed of Cola has arrived at the lock with his people." "What! with the boatmen ?" "And the boat! They have borne the dead man thither, they have all assembled there for our ruin, for they have recognized us, and there is no more safety for us here." "When one revenges himself he must pay the penalty." "Resume therefore your staff of thorn, angry old woman, and turn your back forever on the heath, for I come to warn you that the gendarmes will soon be here." The blind woman would have offered some objections; but Konan struck the but of his gun upon the ground angrily. "I have no time to talk," cried he; "if I came hither without taking time to wash the blood "Here I am, grandmother," said Soize. "Are we alone?" asked the old woman. The child seemed astonished. "They told us to go across the heath," observed she. "No, no," interrupted the woman; "by the lock, Soize; I wish to go by the lock. I am not afraid of being arrested; I have not been concerned either in the fire or the murder; there is no red spot on my clothes; the blood of the slain man has spouted only at my heart, and that they cannot see. Lead me, I will know by your eyes whether they have boasted too loudly, or whether they have done as they said. Take the shortest road, little one." She had risen and presented the end of her staff to the child, who used it to direct her through the windings of the furze-thickets. Contrary to her custom, the blind woman quickened her pace without regard to the thorny branches which from time to time struck her face or wounded her bare feet. She went straight forward and boldly on, murmuring exclamations of hatred. On leaving the thicket, she rapidly crossed the heath, reached the tow-path, then the lock. The horizon was beginning to grow light; the first rays of dawn rendered objects more distinct. The blind woman, warned by the fall of the water, asked her conductress if she had arrived. "Yes, grandmother," replied Soize, looking at her with surprise mingled with terror. "And what do you see?" resumed the old woman, stopping. The little girl appeared to hesitate. "I see so many things," said she,-"first, the lock has no longer any gates,-it lets the river pass which falls in a cascade." "What else?" said Katelle, impatiently. 46 "I see the house," continued Soize; "the roof is half destroyed and smokes beneath the rain." "Is that all?" "No," cried the affrighted child; "I see here, near us, that the stones are red. Ah! grandmother, grandmother, there is blood everywhere." She attempted to draw the grandmother away; the latter resisted. "And is there no person around us?" asked she. "No one, grandmother, unless on this side, in the boat which is moored above the lock. I can see a gleam of light in the cabin." "It was there that they carried the dead man," replied the old woman. "Yes" interrupted Soize," there are red marks all the way to the boat." "And they are now surrounding him," continued Katelle, speaking to herself, "for Konan saved his powder. She struck only the man of the lock; his daughter and Alann, who remain, will cry out for vengeance. We shall not be tranquil until they have all been silenced." She stopped, murmuring some inarticulate words like a person who is consulting with himself; suddenly her head was raised, a gleam of terrible resolution made all the wrinkles of her countenance quiver, she struck the ground with her staff, and placing her shrivelled hand on the shoulder of the child, resumed hastily and in a low tone: "Soize, did you not say that the lock was now a cascade?" "Do you not hear the waters?" replied the little girl; "they fall as violently as at the great light-house, and are breaking up the last planks of the gates like straws." "Good," murmured the blind woman; "then the boat might be carried away!". "There is nothing to fear," replied the child; "the mariners have moved it to the bank." "Where?" "At the great post." "Lead me thither, I wish to touch it." Soize guided the old woman, who, on reaching the post, stretched out her hand and felt of the cable. "You are sure that this is all which detains the boat?" asked she. "I am finishing the work of Konan," replied Katelle, disengaging the cord wound around the post, with a suppressed laugh; "the others have made only a breach in the hedge of thorns; I will level it entirely! Now the heath will be free! Look, look, the rope is detached and slips through my hands." "The boat is going!" said Soize, making an involuntary movement to seize the rope. "And those who are in the cabin perceive nothing?" "No, it has reached the fall! Ah! grandmother, it will be over!" Katelle uttered a peal of savage laughter which was responded to by cries, but the voices did not proceed from the boat; they were those of the lock-keeper's daughter and Alann, who were emerging from the burned house. The blind woman, warned by the direction of the voices, turned in consternation. "Then they were not in the boat!" exclaimed she. "Who are they, Soize, do you see them?" "I see. Nicola and the sailor," replied the child; "they are running towards the lock." She could say no more; a prolonged crash was heard, followed by a dull roar; the boat, borne away by the violence of the current, had just struck against the side of the lock, and remaining for an instant suspended at the summit of the cascade, at last turned itself in the whirlpools of foam, leaving only its fragments. In the midst of these a human form was suddenly lifted up by the waters, and revealed, in the first rays of daylight, the motionless and pale countenance of the lock-keeper. The corpse passed rapidly as if it had wished to bid a last adieu to the modest domain confided to its care, and which it had defended to death, then was en gulfed in the swollen waters. Nicola, who had extended her arms towards this funeral vision, followed it for a moment along the lock; when she saw it buried in the waters, she fainted in the arms of Alann. Almost at the same instant the boatmen and the little hunchback returned from the burnt heath, where they had found no one; they learned the wreck of the boat with despairing surprise; but the young master cut short all questions, charg ing two of his companions to proceed to save the fragments, while he took the oldest mariner with him to explore the canal and seek the body of the lock-keeper. This search was prolonged several hours. At last, the young man was compelled to return and acknowledge to Nicola the uselessness of his efforts. This was for the young girl a renewal of her grief; in renouncing the pious hope of rendering the last duties to the remains of her father, it seemed as if she had lost him a second time. Finally, towards evening it was decided to quit the spot where nothing longer detained her, to accompany Alann to his mother's. They harnessed the cow Pen-Ru to a cart on which was laid the little furniture which had escaped the fire. The orphan clad in mourning garments and with her hair floating over her shoulders, seated herself amid these remnants of destroyed comfort; beside her walked Alann, guiding the team, and Perr Balibonlik, carrying his light baggage, among which warbled the singing finch; behind came the mariner, laden with oars, torn canvas and broken cordage. To see this silent and mournful company slowly following the deserted tow-path by the declining sun-light and casting at each winding a backward glance, one would have thought it some family of barbarous times driven away by war, inundation, or the incendiary, and fleeing with its household goods to seek afar a new country A year after the murder of the lock-keeper, blind woman, she had been found dead the prethe court of Vannes sentenced Konan and Guy- ceding winter at the entrance of the Black Mound'hu, who went to expiate at the prison of Brest, tains, with her head on her staff of thorn, and their long impunity, while Soize and Laouik sleeping an eternal sleep. were sent to the Orphan Asylum. As for the' WORLD. From The Economist. Emperor's high officers and the Commodore JAPAN ENTERING THE COMMERCIAL should be held where he proposed. Throughout these negotiations the Japanese showed WE stated on January 28th, that the spread-attributed to them, but as much forbearance none of the captiousness and arrogance usually ing of Europeans over the Islands of the and courtesy with the strangers as the most Pacific must soon lead to opening Japan to graceful of European diplomatists exhibit the trade of the world. We were not then towards each other. aware how near was the period for that coun- The arrangements for the interview were try to enter cordially into the expanding circle not completed till March 8th, and in this inof commerce. On the last day of January terval the festivities occurred between the the American sailing squadron destined to subordinate Japanese officers and the American negotiate with Japan left Loo Choo. They officers, which are well described in a letter were followed on the 7th of February by the steam vessels, and on the 12th the whole fleet published in the Times: — anchored in the Bay of Yedo (Jeddo,) passing On the 1st of March, Captain Buchanan gave Uraga, where the interview between the Yzaiman, the Governor of Uraga, and nine of American commander and the Japanese took his suite, a dinner on board his ship (the Susplace last year. No interruption was offered quehanna), the first foreign dinner, perhaps, to the vessels, though forts were observed; and ever given in Japan. They enjoyed themselves on the 13th Japanese officers visited the ships, in perfect confidence, and relished our food and and stated that in a few days a special high liquors with the taste of gourmands. They had officer would be sent from Yedo to arrange to take portions of it and of other things on shore never tasted turkey before, and asked permission everything in a "courteous, frank, and friendly to show to their friends, which they did, wrapmanner." They wished the ships, however, to ping them up in paper, very much like Chinese return to Uraga, where the Emperor desired paper, leaves of which constituted their pocketthe meeting might be held, but as the anchor- handkerchiefs. They intuitively accommodated age there was considered unsafe, the Ameri- themselves to our customs, especially that of cans declined to comply. This preliminary emptying their glasses; and used the knives and negotiation was conducted with such good forks with nearly as much dexterity as perseverhumor, that it ended in merriment on Captain ance. They returned thanks for our toasts, and Adams, the American negotiator, suggesting that instead of going back to Uraga, a more safe and convenient anchorage might perhaps be found near Yedo. reciprocated them with more than the tact of an alderman; as, for example, Captain Buchanan sabsist between our Japanese friends and ourgave "May the kind feelings which so happily selves prevail throughout both countries." Governor Yzaiman promptly replied with thanks for the sentiment and as surances of its reciprocity, and hopes that the Americans and Japanese would soon be enabled to visit each other's countries. Captain Adams proposed "The health Governor Yzaiman immediately replied that he of the Emperor, and a long and happy reign." On the 14th the Japanese officials again visited the Commodore's ships, and renewed with urgency the application to return to Uraga; but, finding the Americans firm, gracefully left it to the Commodore to select a place for the interview. They offered supplies of provisions and water, but, except water, were informed that nothing was required. and, filling all the glasses himself, drank the appreciated the compliment to his Emperor; The Commodore then despatched Captain "Health of the President of the United States, Adams in the Vandalia to Uraga to meet the and a happy Administration." Lieutenant Duer, Governor of the province, who assured the with a few happy remarks, proposed "The health Captain, if the Commodore would come there, of Governor Yzaiman," at which he blushed; the whole business would be completed before but, with admirable presence of mind, proposed the "going down of the sun." Nothing the health of "Commodore Perry, and all the tempted the Commodore to depart from his officers of the squadron." All this passed, of own plan, and he selected Yokohama, near to course, through the interpreters, and each toast her anchorage, about twenty miles from was drunk in our manner, with all the honors; Uraga and about ten from Yedo, as the place and they joined in them with great glee. Lieutthe huzzas appeared to divert them very much, for the interview. These preliminaries were enant Brown sang a song, which they answered not settled till February 25th, when it was with a verse or two of a Japanese song. I trust finally arranged that the meeting between the the difference of taste did not make our song |