"I did not know how to take her up and comfort her. I was on my knees beside her, praying and weeping, when a man on horseback, dressed in black, and with a gray moustache, suddenly appeared and asked me why I was weeping so. I pointed to the woman lying on her husband's body. He spoke to her in several languages, for he was a great scholar; but he very soon saw that she was in no condition to reply. "The shock that she had received hastened her labor. "Some shepherds passed with their flocks. He called to them, and as they saw that that good man was a priest of their Christian religion, they obeyed his orders and carried the woman to their house, where she died an hour after bringing Mario into the world, and giving the priest the wedding-ring she wore on her finger, unable to say anything, but pointing to the child and to heaven! "The priest stayed at the shepherd's house until the two unfortunate creatures were buried, and as he supposed that I had been the lady's slave, he entrusted the child to me and bade me accompany him. But I did not choose to deceive him, having seen that he was learned and humane. I told him my story and how I happened to be a witness of the peddler's murder." "So he was a peddler?" said the marquis. "Or a gentleman in disguise," Mercedes replied; "for his wife wore the clothing of a lady under her cloak, and when we undressed him to lay him out, we found a shirt of fine linen and silk short clothes under his coarser garments. His hands were white, and we also found upon him a seal on which there was a crest." "Show me the seal!" cried Bois-Doré deeply moved. The Moor shook her head, saying: "I haven't it." "This woman distrusts us," rejoined the marquis, addressing Lucilio, "and yet this story interests me more than she thinks! Who knows that--Come, my dear friend, try to make her tell us at least the precise date of this adventure she is describing." Lucilio motioned to the marquis to question the child, who answered without hesitation: "I was born an hour after my father's death and an hour before the death of good King Henri the Fourth of France. That is what Monsieur l'Abbé Anjorrant, who took care of me, told me, bidding me never forget it, and my mother Mercedes said I might tell you, on condition that the Spaniard shall not know it." "Why?" said Adamas. "I do not know," replied Mario. "In that case beg your mother to go on with her story," said Monsieur de Bois-Doré, "and rely upon our keeping her secret, as we have promised to do." The Moor resumed her narrative thus: "The good priest, having procured a goat to nourish the child, took us away, saying: "'We will talk about religion later. You are unfortunate, and it is my duty to have pity upon you.'