'I do not like such gaiety,' said Albinia. 'What, they wished to
make you confess your secret?'

'Yes. They had learnt by some means that I keep one of my drawers
locked, and they had figured to themselves that in it was some relic
of my Huguenot ancestors. They thought it was some instrument of
death, and they said that unless I would tell them the whole, the
Admiral had the right of search, and, oh! it was foolish of me to
believe them for a moment, but I only thought that the fright would,
kill my grandmother. Oh, you were so good, Madame, I shall never
forget; no, not to the end of my life, how you rescued me!'

'We did not bring you here to be teased,' said Albinia, caressing
her. 'I should like to ask your pardon for what they have made you
undergo.'

'Ah, Madame!' said Genevieve, smiling, 'it is nothing. I am well
used to the like, and I heed it little, except when it falls on such
subjects as these.'

She was easily drawn into telling the full history of her treasure,
as she had learnt from her father's lips, the Huguenot shot down by
the persecutors, and the son who had fled into the mountains and
returned to bury the corpse, and take the prized, blood-stained Bible
from the breast; the escapes and dangers of the two next generations;
the few succeeding days of peace; and, finally, the Dragonnade, when
the children had been snatched from the Durant family, and the father
and mother had been driven at length to fly in utter destitution, and
had made their way to England in a wretched, unprovisioned open boat.