de la Tour is certainly much indebted to his exertions for being so soon freed from imprisonment." "My uncle _is_ free and safe, then ?" asked Lucie, "though, indeed, your looks before assured me of it; and I ought not to have delayed so long imparting the intelligence to my aunt.

Suffer me to go, Stanhope; you know not her anxiety!" "You will not leave me so soon, my dearest girl ?" he asked, again drawing her arm through his; "indeed, it is useless; father Gilbert has by this time reached the fort, and imparted all that you could, and much more, with which you are yet unacquainted." "But my aunt is not there, Stanhope; I left her at Annette's cottage; and, I doubt not, she already thinks it strange that I have not returned: if she knew that I was loitering here with you"-- "She would not think it _very_ strange," interrupted Stanhope, smiling, and still detaining her; "and, in the happy tidings of her husband's safety, even you, Lucie, may be for a time forgotten.

If the priest is mortal, as I must believe he is, though you seem to doubt it, he will probably feel some pleasure in communicating good news, and I owe him this slight satisfaction, for the favor he conferred in bringing me hither." "I do not yet understand," said Lucie, "why you are here alone, or where you have left the companions of your luckless expedition?
I hope you have not entered into a league with the priest, or acquired any of his supernatural powers ?" "No, Lucie," he replied; "I shall long remain contented with the humbler attributes of mortality, rather than acquire any powers which can make you flee from me.

The mystery is very easily solved, as I doubt not, all which pertains to the holy father might be.

Released from all our difficulties, I left Penobscot Bay, in company with La Tour; we were vexed with head winds, for a day or two, against which my vessel, being small, was enabled to make greater progress, and leaving him behind, I just now anchored yonder, waiting for the tide to proceed up to the fort.