You must understand that he had no foolish illusions concerning the white cap and purplish ribbons--the Mademoiselle Henriette, as he discovered she was called.

He only knew that here were two women, his compatriots, poor certainly, often hungry perhaps, shipwrecked so close to him upon this corner of (pardon me, Miss Dorothea) an unfriendly land, yet divided from any comfort he could bring by fifty yards of road and his word of honour.

She must be of the true blood of France who quavered out _Vive Henri Quatre_ so resolutely over her digging and hoeing: but the sound of a French voice might hearten her as hers had heartened him.

Therefore he sang lustily while he angled--which is not good for sport; and when he caught a fish, broke into paeans addressed less to the captive--with which, between you and me, he was secretly annoyed--than to an ear unseen, perhaps a quarter of a mile away.
"But there came a day--how shall I tell it ?--when calamity fell upon the cottage.

For some time the farmers up the valley had been missing sheep.