Once or twice, when they were disappointed in
their contraband traffic, lost some goods in a rencontre with the
Spanish officers of the revenue, and were finally pursued by a
military force, their murmurs assumed a more alarming tone, in the
terrified ears of my attendant and myself, when, without daring to
seem to understand them, we heard them curse the insular heretics, on
whose account God, Saint James, and Our Lady of the Pillar, had
blighted their hopes of profit. These are dreadful recollections,
Margaret."
"Why, then, dearest lady," answered Margaret, "will you thus dwell on
them?"
"It is only," said the Lady Hermione, "because I linger like a
criminal on the scaffold, and would fain protract the time that must
inevitably bring on the final catastrophe. Yes, dearest Margaret, I
rest and dwell on the events of that journey, marked as it was by
fatigue and danger, though the road lay through the wildest and most
desolate deserts and mountains, and though our companions, both men
and women, were fierce and lawless themselves, and exposed to the most
merciless retaliation from those with whom they were constantly
engaged--yet would I rather dwell on these hazardous events than tell
that which awaited me at Saint Jean de Luz."
"But you arrived there in safety?" said Margaret.
"Yes, maiden," replied the Lady Hermione; "and were guided by the
chief of our outlawed band to the house which had been assigned for
reception, with the same punctilious accuracy with which he would have
delivered a bale of uncustomed goods to a correspondent.
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