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337 ST. GENEVIEVE 337 lands and subjects until his retnm. They all Toted for Golo. As the gallant SigMed rode away, he lifted np his heart to the Blessed Virgin in heaven, and said, '^ O Madame Marie, I confide my wife to yon." The devil entered into Golo, and inspired him with a criminal passion for the conntess, and after her husband had been gone some time, he made np a story that he had perished in a ship- wreck, and tried to console her by offer- ing his own love. Genevieve received his suit with disdain. Moreover, the Virgin Mary, to whom Sigfried had entrusted her, appeared in a dream to the good countess, and told her her husband was not dead, and would return. One day, when Golo pressed his suit with unusual insolence, de struck him in the face. He now saw his love was hopeless, and determined to take vengeance on her. So, although her confinement was im- minent, he took away all her ladies and maids, and all her pages, and shut her up with no attendant but a wicked old woman who was in his pay. Poor Grenevi^ve, deprived of all human con- solation, and not knowing whether her husband would ever come home, gave birth to a son, and called him Tristram. One of her faithful servants managed to convey to her the intelligence that the count palatine was on his way home. She was very glad, and did not conceal her joy from her faithless custodian. G^lo was now in a great fright ; he went out and walked about the hills in despe- ration. There the devil sent him an accomplice. << What's the matter," said the old woman, '^that you look so sad and so scared ? " He told her his trouble, and she began counting on her fingers, and said, '< It's true our lady has a child ; but who's to know who its father is ? The count did not expect an heir when he went away. Nothing is easier than to make him believe that she has a lover." <* Nonsense," said the wicked man, beginning to feel a faint flutter of hope. '* She has had no visitors ; no one will believe it." '* Visitors, indeed I How stupid men are! Say it's the cook. Go to meet your master, and have the first word with him." So Gk>lo went and met his master, and told him the story he and the woman had invented; and the result was that the miserable count ordered some of his men to take the countess and her baby into the forest and there kill them. The ruffians were touched by her youth and misfortune, and her protestations of innocence, and on her promising not to betray them by leaving the forest and reappearing in the town, they liberated her; but, to persuade their master that he had been obeyed, they killed a dog, and brought its tongue and a cloth stained with a great deal of blood, as evidences of the murder. The poor ill- used mother had no milk to give to the baby ; but a white doe came running by, and she called it, and it came and lay down for the baby to suck as if he had been its own fawn. It stayed with them, and fed the baby as long as he wanted it. G^nevi^ve made a hut of branches, and there she and little Tris- tram lived for six years and three months, during which time all Gene- vieve's clothes wore out. At last it came to pass that Count Sigfried invited all his vassals and many knights and nobles to keep the feast of Epiphany with great splendour and rejoicing. They assembled in the town some days before, and to keep them amused, a hunting party was organized. They had scarcely arrived in the forest when they started Genevieve's white doe, which ran to its mistress for protection. The dogs were close behind it, and Genevieve tried to beat them off with a stick. The hunters arrived, and found a naked woman defending their quarry against the pack. Count Sigfried was among the foremost, and gave his cloak to the woman. No sooner had she a garment on her than she began to look like her- self, and one of the servants exclaimed, " By all the saints, I believe this is our good countess, whom Grod has preserved because she was innocent ! " It was soon remembered that she had a mark on her fjEU>e ; and there it was, to help to identify her. Then her husband z