"Change of scene and the mild south will soon restore her health," said
Adrian; "and in your peculiar life she is so little brought in contact
with others, especially of her own sex, that I trust she is but seldom
made aware of whatever is painful in her situation. And woman's love,
Montreal, as we both have learned, is a robe that wraps her from many a
storm!"

"You speak kindly," returned the Knight; "but you know not all our cause
of grief. Adeline's father, a proud sieur, died,--they said of a broken
heart,--but old men die of many another disease than that! The mother, a
dame who boasted her descent from princes, bore the matter more sternly
than the sire; clamoured for revenge,--which was odd, for she is as
religious as a Dominican, and revenge is not Christian in a woman,
though it is knightly in a man!--Well, my Lord, we had one boy, our
only child; he was Adeline's solace in my absence,--his pretty ways were
worth the world to her! She loved him so, that, but he had her eyes and
looked like her when he slept, I should have been jealous! He grew up in
our wild life, strong and comely; the young rogue, he would have been a
brave knight! My evil stars led me to Milan, where I had business with
the Visconti. One bright morning in June, our boy was stolen; verily
that June was like a December to us!"

"Stolen!--how?--by whom?"

"The first question is answered easily,--the boy was with his nurse in
the courtyard, the idle wench left him for but a minute or two--so she
avers--fetch him some childish toy; when she returned he was gone; not a
trace left, save his pretty cap with the plume in it! Poor Adeline, many
a time have I found her kissing that relic till it was wet with tears!"