"I have much to tell you, seigneur," he said, "and much advice to give you. In the first place, you are saved by one day; and you owe that to the scheme which our little Miriam devised for you before you went. The baron, your cousin, is indebted in a large sum to Solomon Ahar, and in a lesser sum to me; and as he promises this Seigneur de Blaye a large dowry with his child, Miriam proposed that the whole debt, which comprises more than all his moveable wealth, should be claimed at once. I was unwilling to do as she wished, except in case of absolute need; and when, on a former occasion, you found other means to stop the signature of the contract, I held back. Now, however, I knew there was no time to be lost; and, even had your letter not reached me, I would have acted as I have done, for I have been almost daily at the baron's house, as there is every day need of money for the husband, or jewels and rich stuff for the wife. By this means I had heard and knew that the baron had sworn his daughter should consent to marry the young Lord of Blaye, or that he would declare himself a Catholic, and use those means which our religion gives to force her to obey. It is not, however, that he loves this Lord of Blaye, for he abhors him; but it is, my good lord, that his wife has power over him of some kind which we know not. Some secret is in her hands, depend upon it, which puts him wholly in her power. However that may be, the day for signing the contract was named as yesterday, and the hour noon. The whole had met when I presented myself. I knew that the money to pay the dowry was prepared. I had armed myself with all legal forms, and went accompanied by those who knew each turn of law. The money was paid me; and the baron, with a proud air, said, 'It mattered not; that he was ready to sign; and that, in order to pay the dowry he had promised, and not to fail in one tittle of his word to Monsieur de Blaye, he would sell the estate of Cerons, even by auction in the halls of the Palais de Justice, and discharge the amount before the week was over.'" "Good God! has he done so?" I cried. "It was always my ambition to recover that, land." "He has not done so yet, seigneur," replied Martin Vern; "but this is Friday: to-morrow will be the last day of the week: his word is pledged, the sale proclaimed, and he will not retract; though, when the Seigneur de Blaye declared it would be better for none to sign the contract till the dowry was ready, I could see the blood mount into the baron's cheek and forehead till I feared the veins would burst. He turned towards his wife, but that fierce lady held up her finger to him, and he cowed in a moment. Unless you, sir, can stop the sale--unless you can prove that the estate of Cerons cannot be sold--the estate is sold, and the contract signed; nay, more, the young lady must become the wife of one she abhors, or be plunged into the imprisonment of a convent, from which you can never deliver her."