Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/66

Rh countenance, saying with the greatest good nature: "ah! Ned! my boy! be advised: now for once only follow your aged parent there, who has ever merely required from you what is quite reasonable."

"Leave vengeance to Him," said the father in a powerful voice, "to Him, who rules, permits and superintends all, and in whose almighty arm our wrath and weakness, are no longer vengeance! I do not understand the word. Our hearts were not created for this feeling."

"Still and ever the same folly!" cried a deep voice fnom behind and the gaunt figure of the grey-headed Lacoste was groping his way towards them in the dark, over heaps of rubbish. "Vengeance! hatred!" exclaimed he; "who knows not those sentiments, knows love but in part. Knowest thou me still, thy rival, the Lacoste, whom thou renderedst many years ago so unhappy? Who meant thee evil were it not for thy gallant Edmond."

"How comest thou here?" cried the