Are we then to hide our heads here till the snows of age gather upon them?  Are we, of all our race, to live and die obscure, unknown?  Father, we cannot stand it; it shall not be!  To thee we come to ask more of ourselves than yet we know.  To thee our mother commended us in her last moments; to thee she bid us look in days to come when we needed guidance and help.  Wherefore to thee we have come now, when we feel that there must surely be an end to all of this.  Tell us, Father, of our sire; tell us of our kinsfolk.  Where be they?  Where may we seek them?  I trow thou knowest all.  Then tell us, I beseech thee tell us freely all there is to know.”

The good priest raised his eyes and thoughtfully scanned the faces of the two eager youths.  Gaston was actually shivering with repressed excitement; Raymond was more calm, but not, as it seemed, one whit less interested.  What a strong and manly pair they looked!  The priest’s eyes lighted with pride as they rested on the stalwart figures and noble faces.  It was hard to believe that these youths were not quite sixteen, though man’s estate was then accounted reached at an age which we should call marvellously immature in these more modern days.

“My children,” said the good old man, speaking slowly and with no small feeling, “I have long looked for this day to come —­ the day when ye twain should stand thus before me and put this selfsame question.”

“You have looked for it!” said Gaston eagerly; “then, in very sooth, there is something to tell?”

“Yes, my children, there is a long story to tell; and it seemeth to me, even as it doth to you, that the time has now come to tell it.  This day has marked an era in your lives.  Methinks that from this night your childhood will pass for ever away, and the life of your manhood commence.  May the Holy Mother of God, the Blessed Saints, and our gracious Saviour Himself watch over and guard you in all the perils and dangers of the life that lies before you!”

So solemn were the tones of the Father that the boys involuntarily sank upon their knees, making the sign of the Cross as they did so.  The priest breathed a blessing over the two, and when they had risen to their feet, he made them sit one on each side of him upon the narrow pallet bed.

“The story is something long —­ the story which will tell ye twain who and what ye are, and why ye have been thus exiled and forced to dwell obscure in this humble home; but I will tell all I know, and ye will then see something of the cause.

“My children, ye know that ye have a noble name —­ that ye belong to the house of De Brocas, which was once so powerful and great in these fair lands around this home of yours.  I wot that ye know already some thing of the history of your house, how that it was high in favour with the great King of England, that first Edward who so long dwelt amongst us, and made himself beloved by the people of these lands.  It was in part fidelity to him that was