Part 20 (1/2)

'You areme for somebody else,' answered M de la Mothe, quietly

'What do you ht you just adry nobleman

'Oh, yes,' said the lawyer, 'so I a robe for a short coat, and once outside this court you would not dare to speak to me in such a manner'

At this point one of the attendants whispered in his ear that this was the celebrated soldier, and the nobleman, who seems to have been a poor-spirited creature, instantly ies

Many of his relatives reuenots up to the end, but M de la Mothe returned to the old religion after the Massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572 No man ever had a narrower escape of his life, for his house in Paris was attacked during the day, and though his servants defended it bravely, neither he nor his children would have been left alive had not athrough the crowd The leaders then called upon the ned by the queen, giving the fao in safety

M de la Mothe's son, Antoine Arnauld, had in hih to escape detection for acts which _we_ should certainly call frauds But he was an excellent husband to the wife of thirteen whom he married, and a very affectionate father to the ten out of his twenty children who lived to grow up

Monsieur Arnauld was ht of at the French bar, and was entrusted with law cases by the court and by the nobles He was a pleasant and clever man, and made friends as easily as ht have led the sahbours But the little bride of thirteen did not care for the balls and plays in which the fashi+onable ladies spent so much of their tiht_ to have been

She looked well after her husband's comfort, and saw that her babies ell and happy, and when everything in her own house was arranged for the day, she went through the door that opened into her father's Paris dwelling, and sat with her mother, as very delicate and could scarcely leave her sofa

The summer months were passed at monsieur Arnauld's estate of Andilly, not far froe coaches

Even here the laas busyhe was always ready to listen to his wife's account of her visits to their own poor people, or to those of the village near by At a period when scarcely anyone gave a thought to the peasants, or heeded whether they lived or died, Arnauld's labourers were all well paid, and the old and ill fed and clothed And if st theave her sound advice in her difficulties

As they grew older the children used often to accompany their mother on her rounds, and learnt from her how to help and understand the lives that were so different froes contented and happy on the simplest food, and sometimes on very little of it They did not think about it at the time, of course, but in after-years the memory of these poor people was to coe and shy of those whom they were called upon to aid

Madareat favourite with her grandfather, monsieur Marion, and was very proud of it In Paris everythe door of communication behind her If, as often occurred, her brothers and sisters wanted to come too, and drummed on the panels to h the key-hole:

'Go away! You have no business here, this house belongs to _h the roo to hiames she was fond of She was quick and clever and easily interested, and it amused monsieur Marion to listen to her when he had no work to occupy him; but one fact he plainly noticed, and that was that Jacqueline was never happy unless she was put first

[Illustration: 'Go away! You have no business here']

In the year 1599, ht children, and her father,froan to be anxious about their future After talking the matter over with his son-in-law, they decided that it was necessary that the second and third little girls, Jacqueline and Jeanne, should becoht have a larger fortune and e

Not that monsieur Marion intended that they should be common nuns He would do better than that for Jacqueline, and as his majesty Henry IV

had honoured him with special rant an abbey to each of his granddaughters

When the plan was told to madame Arnauld, she listened with dismay

'But Jacqueline is hardly seven and a half,' she said, 'and Jeanne is five;' but hed and bade her not to trouble herself, as he would see that their duties did not weigh upon theh he hoped they would behave better than many of the nuns, yet they would lead pleasant lives, and their mother could visit them as often as she liked