“I have a plan,” exclaimed the duke, with singular vivacity.  “But tell me first, has that young Gilbert seen the Lady Margaret?”

In reply the missionary briefly narrated the events of which the reader is already in possession.  “Then,” pursued the King of Arles, eagerly, “I have strong hopes of success.  Listen to me, holy Father:  the maiden is beautiful and virtuous, the youth fair and knightly, and I can so represent one to the other, as to create an attachment strong enough to insure to filial love a victory over parental hate.  It is fair, I think, to employ the bodily graces of these young persons against the mental deformity of their parents—­to array the child against the father, when we seek the triumph of innocence over sin.”

“Your highness is inclined to be romantic,” rejoined the priest.

“Only the circumstances are romantic, and they seem to have shaped themselves; my plan is practical enough.  Tell me—­what think you of it?”

“Briefly, then, I think your project impracticable.”

“Impracticable!  You cannot know, Father, all that love and youth will dare; but I, whose earthly life has given me experience in such matters, have seen the impossibilities of sober minds yield to the irresistible energy of two plighted hearts.  Oh, no; it is not impracticable.”

“I will grant you,” replied the missionary, “that these two young persons might be brought to love each other, that they might marry in spite of family opposition, but the result would make your romance a tragedy.”

“How so?” inquired the duke.  “May we not deem without impiety that God, in His mercy, has designed them for the extirpation of this miserable feud, and has drawn out of the stern parents themselves the instruments by which their hearts may be softened?”

“It is impossible,” said Father Omehr, “for us to discover by any human means what the mercy of God may appoint; all we can do is to ask for light to guide our steps, and to exercise the reason with which He has endowed us.  I have good ground to believe that any approach to tenderness, on the part of the children, would widen the breach between the fathers.  And were such the case, the consummation of your plan would give only a new and horrible feature to the present discord, by severing the bond between child and parent.  For, unless I am much deceived, the lords of Hers and Stramen would turn away in disgust from children whom they would consider, not only to have disobeyed them, but to have proved faithless to their race.  In this view, I can not suppose that heaven indicates the path to final reconciliation through fresh dissension.  The hearts of the parents can not be softened in the way your highness proposed, and that must be the first step in your plan.  Besides, I have little confidence in the agency of a human and selfish love to reach an end that ought to be gained by purer motives.  I have discovered, from observation, what the power you spoke of will dare; I know its greatness and its littleness.”