While they stepped carefully on, they heard the vesper-bell of a convent.

The twilight would not permit them to distinguish anything like a building, but the sounds seemed to come from some woods, that overhung an acclivity to the right.

Valancourt proposed to go in search of this convent.

'If they will not accommodate us with a night's lodging,' said he, 'they may certainly inform us how far we are from Montigny, and direct us towards it.' He was bounding forward, without waiting St.Aubert's reply, when the latter stopped him.

'I am very weary,' said St.Aubert, 'and wish for nothing so much as for immediate rest.