Everywhere the people
remained true to their Faith; everywhere the priests stood firm
by them in their sorest need. The executioners of the Republic
had been sent to make Brittany a country of apostates; they did
their worst, and left it a country of martyrs.
One evening, while this frightful persecution was still raging,
Gabriel happened to be detained unusually late at the cottage of
Perrine's father. He had lately spent much of his time at the
farm house; it was his only refuge now from that place of
suffering, of silence, and of secret shame, which he had once
called home! Just as he had taken leave of Perrine for the night,
and was about to open the farmhouse door, her father stopped him,
and pointed to a chair in the chimney-corner.
"Leave us alone, my dear," said the old man to his daughter; "I
want to speak to Gabriel. You can go to your mother in the next
room."
The words which Pere Bonan--as he was called by the
neighbors--had now to say in private were destined to lead to
very unexpected events. After referring to the alteration which
had appeared of late in Gabriel's manner, the old man began by
asking him, sorrowfully but not suspiciously, whether he still
preserved his old affection for Perrine. On receiving an eager
answer in the affirmative, Pere Bonan then referred to the
persecution still raging through the country, and to the
consequent possibility that he, like others of his countrymen,
might yet be called to suffer, and perhaps to die, for the cause
of his religion.
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