The Huguenot Bartholomew Dupuy and his descendants

100 BARTHOLOMEW DUPUY IN HISTORY.
Chapel, to any decision. I therefore propose, friends, that
A we break up our meeting, to assemble again at such
Meeting place and time as shall be agreed on."
-^ murmur of
Hugue-
approbation replied to the words—
nots. and in a moment all were kneeling before Messire
Jacques de la Fontaine, who offered up a passionate
and strangely eloquent prayer.
It was a singular spectacle, that of these men
thus kneeling beneath the branches of the great oak
of the forest, upon which the shades of night were
rapidly descending; praying to One beyond the
stars for succor. Their cathedral was the gloomy
wood, with its gnarled and knotted trunks; their
organ the low wind that began to moan in the
branches their ; light the stars that began to twinkle
like a million lamps in the drooping canopy above
them. And yet we know that He who looks to the
heart alone was listening, that the prayers of
Jacques
Heaven.
de la Fontaine reached the throne of
Ere long the last place in which the Huguenots
had assembled was deserted— the last footsteps had
died away— a solemn silence reigned in the forest,
the fall of a branch or the note of a
unbroken by
bird.
"Aha! are you there?" came suddenly from the
wide boughs of the great oak ; and descending with
the agility of a cat, the spy who had uttered these
words stood upon the ground.
"Aha!" he repeated, looking cautiously around
with his cunning eyes. "As sure as' my name's
Agoust, advocate, I'll string you, one and all, for
this. Ah! my birds! my good Huguenot traitors!
you shall swing for this ere you're a month older !''
Suddenly, however, the spy seemed to reflect
upon what had escaped his attention.
"I forgot," he said. "I lost sight of my advocate-
ship ! An advocate to turn spy— in a tree ! Really
that won't do ! Come, my dear Messire Agoust, let
us see if you can not legally, honorably, and inci-
dentally behold these traitors and their doings !"