Chapter VI.

"How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?"
-- _Macbeth._

At the same hour that Narcisse and his companions
entered the sombre and suspicious looking dwelling,
the advocate returned to his home in the upper en-
virons of the city, wearied in mind and frame, from
an application broken only by the entrance of Mon-
sieur Veuillot, and the arrival of a messenger from
Stillyside, who, hot and excited from the violent
scene whereof it had been the theatre, painted the
outrage in deepened colors, and exaggerated form.
Anger and shame contended in the old lawyer's bo-
som as he heard the story; the former sentiment
urging for the punishment of the delinquents, the
latter pleading for forbearance; for amongst the
transgressors was his illegitimate son, whose share in
the offence, if brought into the light of the tribunal,
would thence cast back a shadow upon the father,
and point, publicly and anew, to their disreputable
relationship. Others also, whose reputation was far
dearer to him than his own, must be dragged, either
as witnesses or as prosecutrix, to public gaze, and
thus be made to furnish matter for the tongue of
scandal. Perhaps, too, some latent paternal tender-
ness inclined the incensed advocate to mercy; and,
giving the messenger a hastily written note, sympa-
thizing with the tenants of Stillyside, he despatched

[[26]]

p025 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p026w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p027

v?