He then went on to tell me all that had occurred, drawing a sad picture of a wretched and miserable family. The baroness he depicted as harsh, haughty, and unprincipled--capricious to such a degree that there was no calculating upon any determination for a whole day, and only checkering the most idle and licentious levity with occasional fits of violent passion or long hours of gloomy sullenness. The baron, on his part, evidently both contemned and despised her; and yet, as we so frequently see, the woman who had acquired a tie upon him by his passions and his vices, ruled him like a slave by his weaknesses, even after his passions had been sated. The conduct of both to the children of the late baroness was anything, La Tour said, but what it should be, though towards Louise, the old man added, her father displayed strong affection, and sought her society when he seemed to fly from that of any one else. As to the religion of the baroness, the Protestant minister declared his solemn belief that she had none; but if ever she had a leaning either way, it was towards papistry. He feared very much too, he added, he feared very much that the baron himself was wavering in his faith. "And that fear," he added, "has induced me to cast every other consideration behind me, and to remain with the poor children, still to guard their minds from perversion as far as possible." The time since my departure thus passed, he said, in the most comfortless state of discontent on all parts, until at length the baron had declared, that if he could not obtain a safe conduct to reside unmolested in Paris with his whole household, he would take arms and join the Protestant forces. It was the policy of the court of France at that time, by every sort of bribe, by every promise of immunity and inducement that could be held out, to prevent the lukewarm Protestants from joining the more zealous ones in arms. The words of the baron were speedily noised abroad; and with no greater space of time than was necessary for a courier to travel post-haste from Bordeaux to Paris and from Paris to Bordeaux, a safe conduct for the baron, and every one whose name he chose to insert in it, arrived at the Chateau de Blancford, with the sole condition annexed, that he should present himself at the court as speedily as possible, where every sort of honour and distinction, the document said, awaited him.