The Huguenot Bartholomew Dupuy and his descendants

128 BARTHOLOMEW DUPUY IN HISTORY.
Chap. I. morning we must be far away, if we would escape
the fagot or the gallows. Lose no time !"
XI.— The Flight to the Frontier.
The In twenty minutes the beautiful woman re-aptotlie
P^^red, clad in the rich page's costume of brown
Frontier, cloth and Velvet. It consisted of a coat, slashed
and decorated with embroidery, a long waistcoat,
buttoning nearly up to the chin, beneath which a
snowy ruffle just revealed itself, loosely-fitting kneebreeches,
and Spanish shoes reaching midway to
the knee. The flexible tops of chamois leather could
easily be pulled up, so as to protect the delicate
limbs in riding. The beautiful hair of the young
lady had been quickly gathered up, and secured beneath
the dark cap, with its floating feather. This,
and a handsome cloth cloak depending from one
shoulder, completed the costume.
The Countess, thus accoutred, resembled a small
and delicate youth of exquisitely proportioned figure,
except that no boy, however bashful, ever
blushed half so deeply as she did when her husband
reappeared.
"There! there! sweet!" said Dupuy, hastily; "let
us lose no time in comments. Your costume is unpleasant,
that is easy to understand; but if it takes
you safely over the frontier, and gives you to my
arms, 'twill answer every purpose. Let us now
hasten to swallow some bread and wine. We shall
need it."
Dupuy, ordinarily
so calm and resolute, seemed
at this decisive moment to be possessed by a demon
of haste, almost of trepidation. It was because all
that he held dearest in the world was staked upon
the cast of a die : the events of the next few hours
would determine the complexion of his whole future
life.
He devoured the dry bread with ravenous haste,
washed it down with huge gulps of wine, and forced
the Countess to do likewise.