The correction inflicted by the lock-keeper bread to him who asked for it with the sign of had been severe; the blows, given at random, the cross and his hand on his mouth. Instead had fallen on his bare shoulders and legs, which of roving about the house of the lode as a wolf were beginning to be striped with bluish rays; roves around the fold, why do you not come some drops of blood trickled through the boy's every Wednesday to get your share for the hair and were mingled with the perspiration week?" which bedewed his temples and his forehead.

hawk."

The Guivarchs do not beg at doors like the He remained crouched beside a hillock, agitated wren," replied Laouik with haughty rudeness; with a nervous trembling and sobbing convul- they love better to catch their prey like the sively; but his eyes were dry and his features immovable; it seemed as if physical pain betrayed itself mechanically, without the consent of his will.

"And you do not know that God has forbidden this, poor creature," returned the young girl, gently. "The priests would have taught you, if Meanwhile, Gravelot had re-entered the house you had crossed the threshold of the church; but of the lock, and the hunchback had set out on you have been allowed to grow up on the heath his expedition of bird-catching; Nicola, who had like a Pagan. It is not your fault, I know, and driven Pen-Ru home, had just milked her, when, God will pardon you, I hope. Only listen to on leaving the stable, she perceived Laouik sitting those who warn you, cease to do evil to us, and in the same place. Whatever might have been I will do you all the good I can. I will begin the persecutions of the Guivarchs, the lock-keep-now. Wait for me here, dear friend, and to-day er's daughter harbored no malice; the remem- at least, one Guivarch shall not suffer from hunbrance of what she had endured left no anger in ger." this serene and guileless soul; for her, sufferance She ran to the house of the loch, whence she was easier than hatred. So the well deserved quickly came out with a porringer of milk, on chastisement inflicted on the boy of the burnt which was laid a thick slice of brown bread, and heath had caused her a sadness mingled with re- which she deposited with a smile at the feet of gret. As she saw him motionless at the corner the boy. At this sight the nostrils of Laouik of the heath, with his head on his knees, she dilated, his eyes sparkled, his lips half opened; suddenly felt herself seized with pity. After all, he reached forward with arms extended and an the child was responsible neither for the guilty exclamation as if he would have seized the unexamples nor the dangerous counsels which had expected prey offered him; all the joys of a huninfluenced him; nourished in resentment and ger about to be satisfied appeared to illumine his poverty, he had seen in the evil done to the features; but this was only a transient gleam. lock-keeper only a just retaliation. Since he By a sudden re-action, will seemed to prevail had been in the world, every thing had conspired over instinct, his countenance assumed a resoto envenom and corrupt him his malignity lute and sombre expression; he rose with a proved only his misfortune. Nicola was so vi-bound and kicked over the wooden porringer. vidly impressed with this idea, that, in her sudden impulse of pity, she left on the stone bench the pail of foaming milk, and advanced towards the child.

At the sound of her footsteps, the latter started and rose to flee, but, when he had recognized the young peasant, he sat down again, with his head in his hands. Meanwhile his movement had permitted Nicola to perceive the slight traces of blood which marbled his pale face. She stopped with an exclamation:

"Are you hurt, Laouik?" asked she in a troubled voice.

The boy cast upon her a glance of angry scorn, shrugged his shoulders, and replied only by a convulsive laugh.

"My father was vexed, and his hand struck too heavily," resumed the peasant girl; "but why should you wish evil to those who have never harmed you? Have you not sought to injure us for many days and months? Have you then never heard the word of God which tells us to love our brethren, and are we not baptized Christians, like yourselves?"

There was in this silent refusal such an energy of hatred, that Nicola recoiled in terror. Laouik cast a last and proud look at this rejected feast, whose fragments strewed the heath, uttered one of those peals of wild laughter habitual to him; then, as if he feared a new temptation, darted across the heath, and quickly disappeared in one of the ravines which furrowed it.

CHAPTER II.

Meanwhile, Perr Balibonlik had reached the opposite side of the great table-land and was pursuing one of those paths which wound at random among the tufts of thorny broom, verdant furze and rosy heath. From his shoulder was suspended a bundle of lime-twigs and the cage which contained the captive singer destined to allure the free birds of the heath.

The fresh and light air was impregnated with the earliest perfumes of the laboring sap. On every side was heard some sound of life announcing the awakening of creation. The warbling of the birds arose from every quarter of the heath and descended from every point of the sky. The little hunchhack advanced joyously amid this double concert, casting around him a lively "Is it then time that bread is wanting at the glance. From the moment of his setting foot on burnt heath?" resumed Nicola earnestly. "Ah! the heath, a singular change had been wrought poor people, I wish the loaf was large enough in his whole person. The timid expression prohere to give you all a slice; but, although it is in ceeding from his deformity had given place to a proportion to our appetites, I have never refused merry activity, revealed by a quickened step,

The boy smiled bitterly. "Yes, yes," said he, "baptized with the tears of the hunger of the Guivarchs!"

more assured glance and a humming interrupted with exclamations or loud remarks. One felt that Balibonlik was here in his own domain, surrounded with his familiar acquaintances. He talked to the birds whose flight designed a thousand capricious arabesques above the heath; he apostrophized the budding thorns which barred his road; he imitated the buzzing of the insect lost amid the tufts of fox-glove or heath; he looked, in fine, towards the four quarters of the heavens, listening to the varied tongues of the life which was nestling around him, and replying to them as to familiar voices.

After having descended the slope of a hill on which rose some dwarfish elms, he found himself at the entrance of a little marshy valley, the centre of which was occupied by a forest of reeds. Here, the horizon was bounded by thickets of alder and willow which enveloped the stagnant waters and seemed to fringe the borders of the hill. Arrested on its brow, the sunbeams could not penetrate the ravine, plunged in a cool twilight. No sound was heard but the croaking of the frogs, or at intervals the plaintive cry of the moor-hen.

181

voice of the dog alone; so, before turning round the hill, he became sufficiently emboldened to raise his head and look towards the burnt heath.

hive, against the projection of the hill. The The hut of the Guivarchs rested like a great wall, of wattles covered with clay and chopped straw, was capped by a roof of heath. A hurdle of broom turning on two willow withs by way of hinges, served as a door, and the narrow unglazed window was irregularly cut in the clay. The whole had a wild and awkward appearance, which betokened not only the unskilfulness of evident that he had hastily built a shelter, withthe constructor but his indifference. out troubling himself to make it commodious or durable. Already the roof half sunken, threatened ruin, and the crevices in the walls allowed the rain and wind to penetrate to the interior.

It was

Evi

The

the cabin was empty. The Guivarchs had fastAt the first glance, Balibonlik recognized that ened the dog securely to the threshold, as they were in the habit of doing when they absented themselves on some expedition, that he might not betray them by following their traces. As soon as the hunchback had reached the cultivated plain. This assurance restored to the dently they were occupied in marauding in the borders of the morass, his humor seemed to little hunchback all his gaiety. He uttered a change. He resumed his fearful air and slack-sigh of relief, changed his cage and lime-twigs ened his pace, drawing his head within his to the other shoulder; then resuming his road shoulders. The song which he was humming with an alert step, he quickly reached the end of died away on his lips. He cast around him a the ravine, climbed the hill, and found himself timid glance, and entered the path which crossed on the declivity opposite the canal. Here the the thicket with visible uneasiness. This path slope was richer in vegetation. The blackthorn, led by the cabin of the Guivarchs, built at the elder, hawthorn and holly, studded the unduextremity of the little valley in a species of lating ground; and the birds, attracted by their anfractuosity where they had cleared a spot by succulent berries, were hovering in flocks above fire which had procured for it the title of the the wild oasis. Balibonlik chose a species of enburnt heath. Balibonlik could not avoid pass-closure formed by the trees the most laden with ing in sight of the isolated hut, and it was rarely berries; he placed in the midst his cage covered that he did so without receiving abusive language with verdure, dispersed the lime-twigs among or being pursued by the children. Besides, at the branches; then, seeking a furrow dug by the this period, the leafless alders and willows, could rains of winter at the foot of the bushes, laid not disguise his approach; it might be perceived himself down there among the heath. from afar, and the passage would be the more birds, attracted by the song of the captive finch, difficult for him. Lo, on reaching the turn which did not delay to appear; they approached at first brought him in sight of the cabin, he stopped in with caution, narrowing more and more the ciruncertainty. For an instant he was tempted to cle around the cage. The boldest alighted on retrace his steps; but the greenfinch was warb- the shrubs around the enclosure, and flew from ling in its cage almost at his ear, he perceived on branch to branch until they encumbered the the right, beneath the trees, the height where he lime-twigs. was accustomed to spread his twigs, the serenity of the heavens assured him of success, and Nicola was relying on the promised game. He therefore summoned all his courage, and, in order not to be long exposed to peril, entered without turn-nate. ing his head, the path which coasted along the allowed themselves to be taken in great numwillows. Scarcely had he passed the first trees, when came more rare. bers; but at length they were frightened and bethe barking of a dog was heard. The little ment to have removed the decoy to another spot, This would have been the mohunchback started. Experience had taught him had not the little hunchback, satisfied with the that this was the signal for annoyance. At-result of his toil, accepted this suspension as a tracted by this appeal, the Guivarchs never failed rest. Dazzled by the light which inundated the to pursue him with stones and shouts. He there- heavens, and lulled by the soft murmur of the fore continued his route with a quickened pulse, wind through the bushes and furze, he insensibly expecting at every moment the usual attack; yielded to that enervating languor produced by but, to his great surprise, everything remained the first fine days of spring. On his bed of heath, motionless in the cabin of Konan. He reached he forgot the bird-catching to follow the thousthe extremity of the path, still pursued by the and confused images which memory creates or

hunchback, warned by their despairing chirps,
It was then only that the little
and the rustling of their wings, crept from his
retreat to seize them.

The first hours were, as usual, the most fortu-
The birds, who arrived without suspicion,

hope furnishes. By degrees his perceptions grew more vague, his eyelids became heavy, everything was effaced before him, and he slept.

the hunger of man, on the earth, in the air or under the water."

The blind grandmother interrupted her with an irritated voice, and raising her staff as if to strike her, exclaimed: "Where is the fairy who said that she is not at the burnt heath. Here there is but a meagre fairy called famine, who says every morning Take no care, my best beloved, thou shalt eat only bran bread, thou shalt drink only the wine of the frog! Ah! ah! ah! Is it not true that you hear her, my boys, and that she never deceives you?"

His slumber was doubtless long; for, when he awoke the breeze had freshened, and the sun was descending the opposite side of the hill. Balibonlik rose, and shaking off the withered heathflowers clinging to his hair, was resting his hand on the edge of the furrow which had served as a couch, and preparing to spring to his feet, when the sound of voices made him start and turn. Wreaths of smoke, mingled with sparks, were ascending from a little hollow beneath the The laugh of the old woman had a sort of enclosure of bushes where he had established ironical rage which startled Konan. He comhimself, and rough words, exchanged with an ac- pressed his lips, passed his hand over the butt of cent of ill-humor, reached his ears. A sus- the gun which he held between his knees, and picion which crossed the mind of the school- cast a side glance at his son Guy-d'hu; but the master made him turn pale; he crept to the ex-eyes of the latter were fixed on the fire in which tremity of the ridge which concealed him, and their meagre booty was cooking. recognized the Guivarchs grouped on a platform below. They were assembled around a fire of broom already consumed, into the ashes of which Soize was thrusting some potatoes, taken one by one from a wallet lying on the ground. The hunchback comprehended that, through haste or prudence, they had not wished to transport to their cabin the products of their rapine on the plain, and that they were about to dine at this bivouac fire.

All eyes were following these preparations of the little girl with eager interest; those of the grandmother, Katelle, were alone immovable; extinct for many years, and having acquired that marble fixedness which imprints on blindness something of fearfulness, they spotted, like two white points, a tanned visage, and added to the hard expression of the other features a still more implacable character. The costume of the old woman completed the singularity of her appearance. Clad in a fringed petticoat which revealed her bare limbs, whose rough and soiled skin had acquired the color of granite, she had thrown over her shoulders, to cover her ragged waist, one of the Briton counterpanes manufactured of woven list. Her right hand rested on a long thorn staff hardened by the fire, and she was coiffed with a species of cape of brown cloth. Before her stood her son Konan, to whom his meagreness, long hair in disorder, and sombre countenance gave a sinister aspect, and a little farther, her grandson Guy-d'hu, a young man of about twenty, with low forehead, sunken eyes, and fiery hair.

There was a long silence; at last, Katelle resumed in a lower tone, as if speaking to her self:

"I have known a time when there was always on the table of the Guivarchs a twelve-pound loaf of bread wrapped in a fringed cloth, and when the flour was so thick in the evening broth that the spoons stood up in it. Katelle had then to milk the black cow, which was like a fountain of milk; but they of the city drove it with her people from the banks of the river; they cut down her cabin like a tree; they placed hewn stones where the grass and the bearded barley grew, so that we were obliged to sell the cow, and the Guivarchs are now beggars."

Konan again became agitated, and uttered an impatient growl. The grandmother, who had remained silent an instant as if expecting a reply, uttered a second time her wild laugh.

"Ah! ah!" resumed she, aloud; "when the wolf becomes a hare, he is eaten. Katelle mar ried a true Kernewote of the mountains, hard as rock, tenacious as a thorn-bush. Whoever touched him struck only fire, and whoever approached him too boldly left a part of his fleece or his flesh. Then, the marrow of the Guivarch boiled in their bones, and they would not have suffered the city gentlemen to have taken their house."

Konan would doubtless have replied, had not the appearance of a new interlocutor suddenly interrupted him and attracted the general attention. This was Laouik, who arrived in the state which the sudden correction near the lock had In the midst of these repulsive or formidable left him. The traces of blood with which his countenances, the little Soize alone arrested the legs, arms and face were marbled, had dried up look; although her features were sharpened by without having been wiped away; his garments, the habit of stratagem, there was in her eyes rent in the struggle, hung in fragments, and reand in her smile a native sweetness which was vealed his bruised shoulders; his features were not without attractions. While making the pre-even paler than usual, and contracted by continparations for a repast, hastened by the hungry ual suffering. Soize was the first to notice the glances which were fixed upon her, the child murmured some verses of a Breton guerz:— "The fairy said to him: Take no care, my best beloved, for henceforth thou shalt drink in gold and eat in silver;

"Thou shalt drink eight kinds of red wines, and four of white wines not to speak of brandy and liquors,

"And thou shalt eat all that is pleasant to

bruises and the blood; she uttered the old Breton exclamation of sorrow: "Goa! whence come you, Laouik, and what has happened to you?" said she. "Holy cross! look, my people, surely he has been beaten, for he is bleeding."

"Beaten !" repeated the old blind woman, extending her hands to draw her grandson towards her; "who has done this? who has dared to strike my boy? Speak, Laouik, I will know."

THE LOCK KEEPER.

"It was the man of the lock," replied the child, in a voice of dull hatred.

This declaration elicited a general cry of surprise, and every head was raised.

The father and son exchanged a look, and seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"We will soon find out," said Konan at last; "take the right, Guy-d'hu, while I ascend by the

"Hoarne!" repeated Konan, with a sort of in-left." credulity, "did you say it was Hoarne? And for what motive?"

"Because I had approached his horse, and was throwing stones into the canal," replied Laouik. "But when did he strike you?"

"This morning. I remained a long time unable to walk, and when I reached the burnt heath I found no one."

"Will you believe me now!" exclaimed the grandmother, whose hands sought on the limbs of the boy the marks of the blows received. "Have I not said that the boldness of the people of the lock would increase from day to day, that after having taken the bread from between our teeth and imprisoned us, they would treat us like cattle? Now, they wish to taste our blood, and have commenced with the weakest; it will soon be the turn of the others."

"Silence, old mother," said Guivarch, roughly; women need not speak; this is the business of men."

Men," repeated the blind woman, raising her voice; "where are they? Had there been men here, think you the child would have been thus scourged? No, no, poor innocent!" added she, and she passed her hand through the locks of Laouik;" if your body suffers and bleeds, it is because there is no one here to defend you but a courage without eyes. Those who see and are strong tremble in their skin like the black poplar before the wind."

"By my life, the mother has lied!" exclaimed Guy-d'hu, bending on his knee a thorn-stick with a knotty head; "Hoarne inspires one with no more fear than do the little bird's which fly yonder among the bushes."

"Do not be anxious," added Konan, who had placed his hand on the lock of his gun; "this time he shall render us an account for what this child has suffered."

Katelle struck the ground with her heel.

"It is well!" exclaimed she; "be firm, my boys; show at last that you have blood around your hearts! Do you know, poor people, we must put an end to the lock and to those foxes who have earthed themselves in our domain? If you are indeed men, all will be done this night, and we shall remain masters of the country as in the past."

Each took the direction indicated, but with the
reflective slowness which the Breton peasant
preserves in peril and even in passion. They
reached the enclosure chosen by the schoolmas-
ter, and disappeared among the bushes. All eyes
were turned towards the height; even the
blind woman seemed to be looking. There was
a long delay. Two or three times the Guivarchs
returned and started anew; they were heard to
call each other and communicate from a dis-
tance; at last Guy-d'hu uttered a cry, and was
quickly seen to re-appear at the turn of the hill,
dragging the hunchback, who was in vain at-
tempting to speak.

CHAPTER III.

MEANWHILE evening had come, and the lockkeeper and his daughter were unable to explain had looked at the entrance of the principal paths the prolonged absence of Perr Balibonlik. Both without discovering any trace of the little hunchback. Justly alarmed at a delay so unprecedented, but unwilling to acknowledge the cause of their anxiety, they exhausted themselves aloud A kindred uneasiness caused in conjectures which served but to mask their secret terrors. their thoughts to rest on the Guivards. They alone in the vicinity were to be feared. Meanold schoolmaster seemed without interest and while, a serious attempt on their part against the without motive. The hatred of the people of the burnt heath could be aimed at him only indirectly, and in connection with others; he was, mies. It was, therefore, improbable that their undoubtedly, the most indifferent of their enevengeance would be exercised on the inoffensive being who had occasioned them no privations, Notwithstanding these reasons suggested by and whose disappearance could not benefit them. Nicola and her father, none succeeded in-reassuring them, and, when night had closed in, Hoarne ceased to feign ease. Doubtless, something had happened to his cousin; it was now necessary to seek and assist him. The young girl, not less uneasy, declared that they must set out immediately; she lighted a lantern, while her father entered upon the heath. armed himself with a box-wood cudgel, and both

They hesitated at first on the direction to be Here she was hastily interrupted by a gesture from Laouik which imposed silence. The child taken. Nicola had sometimes accompanied the had just ascended a hillock against which he had old bird-catcher in his excursions, and knew most at first leaned, and had perceived the lime-twigs of the places where he was accustomed to spread dispersed among the bushes of the platform his twigs; but she was ignorant what one he had above. He showed them to his father and to chosen on this day. After having consulted toGuy-d'hu. The latter, who had arisen, distin-gether for a few moments, the father and daughland, in the hope that they could thus see and be guished also the cage half concealed beneath the ter decided to follow the summit of the tableverdure.

ible, the night was not dark, the air was still, and "God save us! some one has been bird-catch-seen afar off. Although there were few stars vising here!" exclaimed he. swollen waters over the fall at the lock followed "It can be only the hunchback of the lock," the least sound could be heard. The rush of the continued Guivarch. "He must have heard us," added the grand-Hoarne and Nicola through the heath until they mother.

had reached the opposite declivity. The carpet

of lichens and fine grass on which they walked, | ed the burnt heath, the barking of the dog, which one after the other, stifled the sound of their foot- had at first continued, was transformed into steps; scarcely were heard here and there some plaintive howls. Nicola shuddered, and took the of those mysterious murmurs which awake by arm of her father. night in deserted fields, like voices from an invisible world.

"My opinion is that this howl announces the absence of his masters," said the father, "since, if they were at home, the animal would be quiet. But listen, there must be something in the house which worries him. Let us approach. Suppress your fears, Cola, whatever may happen; we may need all our courage."

They reached the other side of the ridge, be

The father and daughter advanced rapidly, and without speaking; both imperceptibly felt the influence of solitude and obscurity. At every bush which, half-whitened by the moon, stood on the right or left of the path, Nicola would start and involuntarily slacken her pace; but Hoarne briefly named the object of her uneasi-neath which rose the hut of the Guivarchs. The ness, and, re-assured for an instant, she resumed her route in silence. They reached thus one of the hillocks scattered over the heath, whence the eye could embrace, in the day-time, its whole extent. The undulations of the plain and the oases of the shrubs were indicated here and there by deeper shadows. The young girl observed that they were in the centre of the places habitually visited by the old schoolmaster.

"Well and good!" said Hoarne ; "but it would take all night to visit all his haunts. If Perr has been detained anywhere on the heath, he must be within call."

"Would you then cry out in the night?" asked Nicola, in alarm.

Why not!" replied Hoarne; "are you afraid I shall awaken the korrigans or raise the dead from their graves? If my cousin is within hearing, he will reply."

At these words he advanced to the edge of the bank and uttered a cry well known to the old schoolmaster. The sonorous syllables seemed to fill the immense space and die away in the distance. The young girl listened, but there was no reply; her ear heard only the slight nestling of the heath agitated by the night breeze.

He uttered a second cry, then a third more prolonged; this time a bark replied towards the right.

"Do you hear, Cola?" asked he, turning"Holy virgin! you have aroused the dog of the burnt heath!" replied the young girl in a low voice.

Hoarne looked in the direction whence the barking proceeded.

"In fact," resumed he, speaking to himself, "the house of the Guivarchs is below, and something tells me that it is there alone we can get news of our cousin."

"Alas! I am afraid," murmured Nicola.

The lock-keeper appeared for a moment undecided; but, at last striking the ground with his stick, he resumed in a resolute tone: "Our road lies in that direction. Extinguish the lantern, Cola, and step softly; we will go to the burnt heath."

door was carefully closed, and no sound was
heard but the howling of the dog. They de-
scended cautiously, profiting by the shadow pro-
jected by a corner of the hill; but at the mo-
ment of their reaching the burnt heath, an inarti-
culate cry issued from the cabin. Both started
and stopped.

"Did you hear it?" asked Nicola, recoiling.
"Yes," said Hoarne; "but what was it?"
"It was not the voice of a Christian."
"Nor that of any known creature."
"Listen!"

This cry, if one might give that name to a kind of convulsive rattle, had just resounded again, stronger, more mournfully, but it was impossible to recognize it. The young girl seized the arm of her father.

"Do not approach," stammered she, overwhelmed with fear; "let us return, let us return; we must not defy the great enemy."

But Hoarne overcame the terror which made his hair stand on end, and, disengaging himself from the hands of Nicola, ran precipitately to the cabin of the Guivarch.

The young girl saw him approach the window and look within. At this moment the barking of the dog re-commenced, then the inexplicable groaning was heard anew. The lock-keeper ut

tered an exclamation :

"It is he! it is our cousin!" he cried; "here Cola; quick, quick! we have arrived in time."

He sprang towards the hurdle which served as a door, and wrested it from its hinges. At the moment of opening it, the dog rushed at him with bristling hair and foaming mouth; but the stick of the lock-keeper struck him so rudely, that he rolled to a distance of several paces with a howl of pain, and rose only to take flight.

The father and daughter then entered the hut, where they perceived the little hunchback bound and gagged. He had heard in the silence of the night the call of the lock-keeper, and had made renewed efforts to burst his bonds. He remained for a few moments speechless, half-fainting in the arms of his cousin. At last, when he had suffi ciently recovered to speak, he related in broken phrases what had passed since morning. At the news of the project formed by the Guivarchs against the lock, Hoarne hastily rose.

The young girl made no objection. A human and known danger did not terrify her, especially when it was necessary to render assistance to her old master; so she walked without hesitation "Then they are there now," exclaimed he, behind Hoarne. For more safety, the latter had" and I am absent. Risc, old Perr; we must left the beaten path and was making his way return to the lock as fast as our feet will carry through the tufts of broom which might in case us."

of necessity afford concealment. As he approach- "To the lock!" repeated Balibonlik. "The Dwarfs who, according to tradition, inhabit demons have gone thither with hatchet and solitary places.

gun."