The boy, hearing, waked, and sat up in bed suddenly. "Mother! mother!"
he cried, as the door flew open. The mother came to her husband's arms,
laughing and weeping, and an instant afterwards was pouring out her love
and anxiety over her child.
Father Corraine now faced the man, and with a soft exaltation of voice
and manner, said:
"John Bagot, in the name of Christ, I demand twenty years of your life--
of love and obedience of God. I broke my vow, I perjured my soul, I
bought your wife with ten kegs of rum!"
The tall hunter dropped again to his knees, and caught the priest's hand
to kiss it.
"No, no--this!" the priest said, and laid his iron crucifix against the
other's lips.
Dominique's voice came clearly through the room: "Mother, I saw the white
swan fly away through the door when you came in."
"My dear, my dear," she said, "there was no white swan." But she clasped
the boy to her breast protectingly, and whispered an ave.
"Peace be to this house," said the voice of the priest. And there was
peace: for the child lived, and the man has loved, and has kept his vow,
even unto this day.
For the visions of the boy, who can know the divers ways in which God
speaks to the children of men?