Adeline's father, a proud sieur, died,--they said of a broken heart,--but old men die of many another disease than that! The mother, a dame who boasted her descent from princes, bore the matter more sternly than the sire; clamoured for revenge,--which was odd, for she is as religious as a Dominican, and revenge is not Christian in a woman, though it is knightly in a man!--Well, my Lord, we had one boy, our only child; he was Adeline's solace in my absence,--his pretty ways were worth the world to her! She loved him so, that, but he had her eyes and looked like her when he slept, I should have been jealous! He grew up in our wild life, strong and comely; the young rogue, he would have been a brave knight! My evil stars led me to Milan, where I had business with the Visconti.

One bright morning in June, our boy was stolen; verily that June was like a December to us!" "Stolen!--how ?--by whom ?" "The first question is answered easily,--the boy was with his nurse in the courtyard, the idle wench left him for but a minute or two--so she avers--fetch him some childish toy; when she returned he was gone; not a trace left, save his pretty cap with the plume in it! Poor Adeline, many a time have I found her kissing that relic till it was wet with tears!" "A strange fortune, in truth.

But what interest could--" "I will tell you," interrupted Montreal, "the only conjecture I could form;--Adeline's mother, on learning we had a son, sent to Adeline a letter, that well nigh broke her heart, reproaching her for her love to me, and so forth, as if that had made her the vilest of the sex.
She bade her take compassion on her child, and not bring him up to a robber's life,--so was she pleased to style the bold career of Walter de Montreal.

She offered to rear the child in her own dull halls, and fit him, no doubt, for a shaven pate and a monk's cowl.

She chafed much that a mother would not part with her treasure! She alone, partly in revenge, partly in silly compassion for Adeline's child, partly, it may be, from some pious fanaticism, could, it so seemed to me, have robbed us of our boy.