Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts

er in 1841 by one Yann, or Jean, Riel, a Breton "merchant," alias smuggler - whether or not a descendant of the famous Herve of that name, I do not know. He chanced to fall ill while v

able, at this distance of time, to learn how cl

tinct, and the visit of M. Riel to his old customers

the little green flask, 144 ankers at 4 gallons per anker, at 5s. 6d

other was reading the letter aloud. "It costs a man a working day, with their gal

traight run. Come close in, any wind but easterly, and can load up horses alongside. March 24th or 25th will be best, night tides suiting, and no moon. Horses will be

ugh," was my fa

knees and elbows, the same as tante Yvonne use

-'." My father dropped into his chair, and sat spe

ceived from this Cornish venturer, in a woman's hand, small and delicate, with upstrokes like spider's thread; written in French, too, quite

m Admiral Brueys upwards; but fifteen littl

to watch the bouillon. "You can get as many as you like in the very next

r exampl

to take me on the very nex

raight run, as they call it, and not

at war with England again, and then it will be the

ds the Isle de Batz. I had been coaxing her half t

Roscoff, and made a good landfall of the Dodman at four in the afternoon, just twenty hours after starting. This was a trifle too early for us; so we dowsed sail, to escape notice, and waited for nightfall. As soon as it grew dark, we lowered the two tub-boats we carried - one on davits and the other inboard - and loaded them up and started to pull for shore, leaving two men b

the troop of horses standing behind, quite quiet, shoulder to shoulder, shaved from forelock to tail, all smooth and shining with grease. I had heard of these Cornish horses, and how closely they were clipped; but these beat all I had ever imagined. I could see no hair on them; and I saw them quite close; for in the hurry each horse, as

glers that used to be common as skate at Roscoff in those days; so I made shift to ask one of the men alongside where the freighter might be. As well as I could make out, he said that the freigh

t missed him. I stood still to listen. This side of the track was quite deserted, but the noise of the runners behind me, though not loud, was enough to confuse

rse came up laden from the water and joined the troop behind, no man leading or following. The queer thing about my mare, though, was that her coat had no grease on it like the others, but was close and smooth as satin, and her mane as long

her to be quiet, and quiet she was at once. I found that the tubs, being slung high, made quite a little cradle between them. "Just a moment," I told myself, "and then I'll slip off and r

and was raising my head to look when the mare rose too, upon her hind legs, and with the fling of her neck caught me a blow on the nose th

twinkling on his sleeve as he reached past my nose, and finding neither bit nor rein, laid his hand at length right on top of mine. I believe that, till then, the riding-officer - it was he, for the next time I saw a riding-officer I recognised the buttons - had no guess of anyone's being on the mare's back. But instead of the oath that I expected, he gave a shrill scream, and his arm dropped, for the mare had turned and caught it in her teeth, just above the elbow. The next moment she picked up her stride again, and forged past him. As he dropped back, a bullet or two sang over us, and one went ping! into the right-hand keg. But I had no time to be afraid, for the mare's neck rose again and caught me another sad knock on the nose as she heaved herself up the cliff-track, and now I had work to grip the edge of the keg, and twine my left han

raid - it was like swinging in a hammock to the pitch of a weatherly ship. I was not in dread of falling, either; for her heels fell so lightly on the turf that they persuaded all fear of broken bones out of the thought of falling; but I was in desperate dread o

d be. Here I was, in a foreign land I had never seen in my life, and could not see now; on horseback for the first time in my life; and going the dickens knew whither, at the dickens knew what pace; in much certain and more possible danger; alone, and without speech to explain myself when - as I supposed must happen sooner or later - my runaway fate should shoot me among human folk.

hed the back of my head as I ducked it; then a moorland rising straight in front, and rounded hills with the daylight on them. And as I saw this, we were dashing over a granite bridge and through a whitewashed street, our hoofs drummi

worked their soaped hides into a complete lather. But the mare generalled them all the while; and striking on a cart-track beyond the second rise of the moor, slowed down to a w

he middle of it - just low enough to be hidden from the valley beneath - stood a whitewashed farmhouse, with a cou

, who stood some paces away, was a very different person - tall and slight, like a lady; grey-haired, and yet not seeming old; with long white hands and tiny high-heeled shoes, and dressed in black silk, w

oat! Good Lilith!" Then, as Lilith munched the sugar -"Who are you, lit

Yann Riel. I am from Roscoff

he clapped her hands, drew me down from

t. Tell me only how you came - a word or

the run, and the dragoons on the be

ful! But how came

. But when I spoke to he

h!" She patted the mare's neck, and broke off to clap her hands again and interpret the tal

ut the packet on your back - your night-shirt, I suppose? You h

," said I, "jointed at the knees and

le boy!" She kissed me twice again. "Come, and you s

een damask, all closely pinned around it, and a green valance. But she went to the little bed, which was hung with pink dimity, and pulled the white sheets out of it and replaced them with others from a great wardrobe sunk in the wall. And whi

turned at the door. "The tubs are all in

slept the round of the clock before I opened my eyes, for the room was now bright with c

he convent schools in Brittany, and her grey hair was tied just like a girl's. One litt

that I was awake, and she

rive you to the coast, to a town called Fowey, where some friends of his 'in the trade' are starting for Roscoff. In six hours you will be aboard ship again; and in another twenty, perhaps, you

re I will

the Demoiselle Heloise Keranguin.

as my own town

Nuns, on the road to Morlai

ed a small table over to the big bed and loaded it with candlesticks. There were three candles already alight in the room, but she lit others and set them in line - brass candlesticks, plated candlesticks, candlesticks of chinaware - fourt

and laid down, and rose-trees gummed on little sticks, and a fish-pond and brook of looking-glass, with embroidered flowers stuck along their edges, and along the paths (of real sand) a score of litt

ty, mademoise

so long ago that I may have forgotten. Tell me if it is like

tly like, m

alks with me - this is I- as she always did. And what do you think? With the fifteen dolls that you have brought I am going to have a real Pardon, and townspeople and fisher people to stand

, madem

n lay but a mile from my mother's house. He fled to us, wounded; and we carried him to the coast - there was

me words I have never forgotten, though it was not until years after that I got

andle down again and gently d

ood. Although I have written the farmer's letters for him, it never seemed to me that I wrote to living p

when I passed out of the room, dressed and ready for my journey, it was quite dark on

dolls,"

ed it under the table's edge. It was a little silver cr