The Seats of the Mighty: Being the Memoirs Op Captain Robert Stobo, Sometime an Officer in the Virginia Regiment, and Afterwards of Amherst's Regiment

XIX.

RECOVERING, I found myself lying on a couch, in a large, well-lighted room hung about with pictures and adorned with trophies of the hunt. A wide window faced the foot of the bed where I lay, and through it I could see — though the light hurt my eyes greatly — the Levis shore, on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence. I lay and thought, trying to discover where I was. It came to me at last that I was in a room of the Château St. Louis. Presently I heard breathing near me, and, looking over, I saw a soldier sitting just inside the door.

Then from another corner of the room came a surgeon with some cordial in a tumbler, and, handing it to me, he bade me drink. He felt my pulse ; then stooped and put his ear to my chest, and listened long.

舠 Is there great danger ? ” asked I.

“ The trouble would pass,” said he, “ if you were stronger. Your life is worth fighting for, but it will be a fight. That dungeon was slow poison.”

“ You must have a barber,”added he ; 舠 you are a ghost like this.”

I put my hand up, and I found my hair and beard were very long and almost white. Held against the light, my hands seemed transparent. “ What means my comng here ? ” asked I.

He shook his head. “ I am but a surgeon,” he answered shortly, meanwhile writing with a flourish on a piece of paper. When he had finished, he handed the paper to the soldier, with an order. Then he turned to go, politely bowing to me, but turned again and said, “ I would not, were I you, trouble to plan escape these months yet. This is a comfortable prison, but it is easier coming in than going out. Your mind and body need quiet. You have, we know, a taste for adventure,” —he smiled, — “ but it is not wise to fight a burning powder magazine.”

“ Thank you, monsieur,” said I, “ I am myself laying the fuse to that magazine. It fights for me by and by.”

He shrugged a shoulder. “ Drink,” said he, with a professional air which almost set me laughing, “ good milk and brandy, and think of nothing but that you are a lucky man to have this sort of prison.”

He bustled out in an important way, shaking his head and talking to himself. Tapping the chest of a bulky soldier who stood outside, he said brusquely, “Too fat, too fat; you ’ll come to apoplexy. Go fight the English, lazy ruffian ! ”

The soldier gave a grunt, made a mocking gesture, and the door closed on me and my attendant. This fellow would not speak at all, and I did not urge him, but lay and watched the day decline and night come down. I was taken to a small alcove which adjoined the room, where I slept soundly.

Early the next morning I waked, and there was Voban sitting just outside the alcove, looking at me. I sat up in bed and spoke to him, and he greeted me in an absent sort of way. He was changed as much as I; he moved as one in a dream ; yet there was the ceaseless activity of the eye, the swift, stealthy motion of the hand. He began to attend me, and I questioned him : but he said he had orders from Mademoiselle that he was to tell nothing — that she, as soon as she could, would visit me.

I felt at once a new spring of life. I gave him the letter I had written, and bade him deliver it, which he promised to do ; for though there was much in it not vital now, it was a record of my thoughts and feelings, and she would be glad of it, I knew. I pressed Voban’s hand in leaving, and he looked at me as if he would say something ; but immediately he was abstracted, and left me like one forgetful of the world.

It was about three hours after this that as, clean and well shaven, I lay upon the couch in the large room, propped up by pillows, the door opened, and some one entered, saying to my guard, “ You will remain outside. I have the Governor’s order.”

I knew the voice ; an instant, and I saw the face shining with expectancy, the eyes eager, yet timid, the body bent forward, a small white hand pressed to a pulsing breast — my one true friend, as I had called her often, the jailer of my heart.

I stretched out my arms. She gave a little cry, and, running to me, was clasped to my breast. For a moment she was all trembling and excited, her hand softly clutching at my shoulder, tears dripping from her eyes and falling on my cheek, as hers lay pressed to mine : but presently she grew calm, and her face was lifted with a smile, and, brushing back some flying locks of hair, she said in a tone most quaint and touching too, “ Poor gentleman ! poor English prisoner! poor hidden lover! ” and then there came a little burst of tears again, and with it a smile so rare that I was won all over again to love her, as if I never had set my heart upon her. Something not known before was born in me, some fresh sense of gratitude, and I seemed to feel that though this was the love I had known, it was that love grown into new expression, and behind it were strange events yet to be told.

“ I ought not, I ought not,” she said, “ show my feelings thus, nor excite you so ” — My hand was trembling on hers, for in truth I was most weak, though my mind was alert and strong enough, as I thought. “ It was my purpose,” she added, “ to come most quietly to you; but one cannot always rule one’s self to stillness ; there are times when reserve is impossible. One must cry out, or the heart will burst.”

I spoke then as a man may who has been delivered from bondage into the arms of love and beauty and the good open world ; and she became very quiet, looking at me in her grave, sweet way, her deep eyes shining with a sincerity and honesty beyond my telling. I saw the perfect naïveté of the child, joined to a large wisdom, come of that very naïveté, which had looked upon life without ever a craven thought; which, in the midst of vexing problems of the emotions and sore dangers, never paltered, never juggled with conscience — did only what her good heart told her should be done, and questioning always, Is this right? To decide with a clear mind in such matters as had troubled her daily life these past two and a half years was a task which might well have driven many a lady to despair. She had decided, had acted, had gone on towards one end ; perils like bayonets thrusting out at every corner, pitfalls at all points. The thoughts most in my heart spoke to her now almost unconsciously.

“ Honest, honest eyes,” said I — “ eyes that never deceive, and never were deceived.”

“ All this in spite of what you do not know,” she answered, with a sweet smile which stirred me ; and for an instant a look elfish and childlike came into her eyes, and she drew back from me, stood in the middle of the floor, and caught her skirts in her fingers.

“ See,” she said, “ is there no deceit here ? ”

Then she began to dance softly, her feet seeming hardly to touch the ground, her body swaying like a tall flower in the wind, her face all light and fire. I was charmed, fascinated. I felt my sleepy blood stirring to the delicate rise and fall of bosom, the light of her eyes flashing a dozen colors. There was scarce a sound — her steps could not be heard across the room.

All at once she broke off from this, and stood still.

“ Did my eyes seem all honest then ? ” she asked, with a strange, wistful expression. Then she came to the couch where I was, and looked at me as if she would read my soul.

“ Robert,” said she, “ can you, do you trust me, even when you see me at such witchery ? ”

“ I trust you always,” I answered. “ Such witcheries are no evils that I can see.”

She put her finger upon my lips, with a kind of bashfulness. “ Hush, till I tell you where and when I danced like that, and then, and then ” —

She settled down in a low chair. "I have at least an hour,” she continued. “ The Governor is busy with my father and General Montcalm, and they will not be free for a long time. For your soldiers, I have been bribing them to my service these weeks past, and they are safe enough for to-day. Now I will tell you of that dancing.

“ One night last autumn there was a grand dinner at the Intendance. Such gentlemen as my father were not asked ; only the roisterers and hard drinkers, and gambling friends of the Intendant.

You would know the sort of upspring it would be. Well, I was sitting in my window, looking down into the garden ; for the moon was shining, and I love to gaze into the moonlit night. Presently I saw a man appear below, glance up towards me, and beckon. My heart beat hard at first, for I thought it might be you ; but no, it was Voban. I hurried down to him, and he told me that there had been a wild carousing at the palace, and that ten gentlemen had determined, for a wicked sport, to mask themselves, go to the citadel at eleven o’clock, fetch you forth, and make you run the gauntlet in the yard of the Intendance, and afterwards set you fighting for your life with another prisoner, a common criminal. To this, Bigot, heated with wine, made no objection. Monsieur Doltaire was not present; he had, it was said, taken a secret journey into the English country. The Governor was in Montreal, where he had gone to discuss matters of war with the Council.

“ There was but one thing to do — get word to General Montcalm. He was staying at the moment with the Seigneur Pipon at his manor by the Montmorenci Falls. He must needs be sought there : he would never allow this shameless thing. So I bade Voban go thither at once, getting a horse from any quarter, and to ride as if for his life. He promised, and left me, and I returned to my room to think. Voban had told me that his news came from Bigot’s valet, who is his close friend. This I knew, and I knew the valet too, for I had seen something of him when my brother lay wounded at the palace. Under the best circumstances General Montcalm could not arrive within two hours. Meanwhile, these miserable men might go on their dreadful expedition. Something must be done to gain time. I racked my brain for minutes, till the blood pounded at my temples, and I could not think at all. So I resolutely bound a handkerchief round my eyes, and lay down, holding myself very still, that I should not lose command of will and action. Presently a plan came to me.

“ There is in Quebec one Madame Jamond, a great Parisian dancer, who, for reasons which none knows save perhaps Monsieur Doltaire, has been banished from France. Since she came to Canada, some nine months ago, she has lived most quietly and religiously, though many trials have been made to bring her talents into service ; and the Intendant’s efforts have been constant to have her dance in the palace for his guests. But she would not.

“ Madame Lotbinière had come to know Jamond, and she arranged, after much persuasion, for lessons in dancing to be given to Lucie, myself, and Georgette. To me the dancing was a keen delight, indeed almost a passion. In it I seemed to forget the bitterness of my troubles, as when listening to great music or reading a noble poem. Yet the dancing did more ; for in it nothing was mechanical, artifice was sunk in the music of motion, and as I danced I saw and felt a thousand things, I cannot tell you how. Now my feet appeared light as air, like thistledown, my body to float. I was a lost soul flying home, voices calling to me as I passed, and flocks of birds singing me to come with them down pretty scented lanes to waters in tender meadows, with nests in yellow boughs upon the banks, and gardens of apples and honey-sweet flowers near.

“ Then all that changed, and I was passing through a bitter land, with harsh shadows and tall cold mountains, and great sadness even in the timid sunlight. From clefts and hollows figures flew out and caught at me with filmy hands, and little arrows pointed with flame kept falling round me, crying as they fell. All these melancholy things pursued me as I flew, till my wings drooped, and I felt that I must drop into the dull marsh far beneath, round which traveled a lonely mist.

“ But this too changed, and I passed through a land all fire, so that, as I flew swiftly, my wings were scorched, and I was blinded often, and often missed my way, and must change my course of flight. It was all scarlet, all that land — scarlet sky and scarlet sun, and scarlet flowers, and the rivers running red, and men and women in long reel robes, with eyes of flame, and voices that kept crying, ‘The world is red like wine, and all life is a fever! ’ Sometimes as I flew I wheeled and wheeled, and a wild spirit worked in me, so that I would have flown down and joined the scarlet people, but that I remembered there is a place called the White Valley, where the heart has no mad struggles or sick desires. So I kept on, and at last, passing out of that cheerless world, I came into the good stillness . . . and knew that I was but a girl dancing, after all.”

She paused for a moment, seeming to come out of a dream, and then she laughed a little. “ Will you not go on ? ” I asked softly.

“ Sometimes, too,” she said, “ I fancied I was before a king and his court, dancing for my life or for another’s ; and oh, how I scanned the faces of my judges, as they sat there in their lazy glory watching me ; some throwing crumbs meanwhile to fluttering birds that whirled round me as I danced, some stroking the ears of hounds that gaped at me, while the king’s fool at first made mock at me, and the face of a man behind the king’s chair smiled like Satan. Ah, Robert, I know you think me fanciful and foolish, as indeed I am ; but you do know that out of dreams comes life itself, and nothing is so dreamlike as life, so weird, so undelinable.

“I danced most constantly, practicing hour upon hour with Jamond, who came to be my good friend ; and you shall hear from me some day her history—a sad one indeed. She is a woman who has been sinned against, not sinning. But these special lessons went on secretly, for I was sure, if people knew how warmly I followed this recreation, they would set it down to willful desire to be singular — or worse. It gave me new interest in lonely days. So the weeks went on. Meanwhile, there were many trials for me with Monsieur Doltaire ; but of these I shall have to speak at another time.

“ Robert, that wicked night I sent Voban to General Montcalm, and, as I said, a thought came to me : I would go to Jamond, beg her to mask herself, go to the Intendance, and dance before the gentlemen there, keeping them amused till the General came, as I was sure he would at my suggestion, for he is a just man and a generous. All my people, even Georgette, were abroad at a soirée, and would not be home till late. So I sought Mathilde, who had been with me for some weeks, — silent always, — and she hurried with me, my poor daft protector, to Jamond’s, whose house is very near the Bishop’s palace. We were at once admitted to Jamond, who was lying upon a couch. I hurriedly told her what I wished her to do, what was at stake, everything but that I loved you ; laying my interest upon humanity and to your having saved my father’s life. She looked troubled at once, then took my face in her hands. ‘ Dear child,’ she said. ’I understand. You have sorrow too young — too young.’ ‘ But you will do this for me ? ’ I cried. She shook her head most sadly. ‘ I cannot. I am lame these two days,’ she answered, ’I have had a sprain.’ I sank on the floor beside her, sick and dazed. She put her hand pitifully on my head, then lifted up my chin. Looking into her eyes, I read a thought there, and I got to my feet with a spring. ‘ I myself will go,’ I said ; ‘I will dance there till the General comes.’ She put out her hand in protest. ‘ You must not.’ she urged. ‘ Think : you may be discovered, and then the ruin that must come ! ’

“ I drew myself up, for I seemed to feel this was a thought from God. ‘ I shall put my trust in Him who thus far has preserved me,’ said I. ‘ I have no fear. I will do this thing.’ She caught me to her breast. ‘ Then God be with you, child,’ was her answer ; ‘ you shall do it.’ In ten minutes I was dressed in a gown of hers, which last had been worn when she danced before King Louis. It fitted me well, and with a wig the color of her hair, brought from her boxes with great swiftness, and use of paints which actors use, I was transformed. Indeed, I could scarce recognize myself without the mask, and with it on my mother would not have known me. ’I will go with you,’ she said to me, and she hurriedly put on an old woman’s wig and a long cloak, quickly lined her face, and we were ready. She walked lame, and must use a stick, and we issued forth towards the Intendance, Mathilde remaining behind.”

Alixe paused, and sat looking at me as if to see the effect of her words. Presently she shook her head, and said with a quaint pity, “ They have put an old head on young shoulders,” referring to my gray hair.

“I was about to say the same of you, sweetheart,” I answered. “ Will you not go on ? ” I touched her soft hair with my fingers, which were too weak and thin now to be rough, though they were awkward as of old.

She made a playful motion, which recalled her as I first knew her in the old garden at the Manor, the lilacs, berries, and orchard blossoms round her, her feet buried in the pretty flowers of early summer, her apron full of the yellow apples of wild mandrake. There came to me, too, though I was so eager to know the end of her tale, the words of a song written by my master at the university. I quoted from it to her in a low voice.

“ You should not flatter me,” she softly said, blushing. Then after a moment she went on : “ When we got to the palace, and were admitted, I asked for the Intendant’s valet, and we stood waiting in the cold hall until he was brought. ’I come from Monsieur Voban, the barber,’ I whispered to him, for there were servants near ; and he led us at once to his private room. He did not recognize me, but looked at us with sidelong curiosity. ‘ I am,’said I, throwing back my cloak, ‘ a dancer, and I have come to dance before the Intendant and his guests.’ ‘ His Excellency does not expect you ? ’ he asked. His Excellency has many times asked Madame Jamond to dance before him,’ I replied. He was at once all complaisance, but his face was troubled. ‘ You come from Monsieur Voban ? ‘ he inquired. ‘ From Monsieur Voban,’ answered I. ‘ He has gone to General Montcalm.’ His face fell, and a kind of fear passed over it. ‘ There is no peril to any one save the English gentleman,’ I urged. A light dawned on him. ‘ You dance until the General comes?’ he asked, pleased at his own penetration. ‘ You will take me at once to the dining-hall,’ said I, nodding. ‘ They are in the Chambre de la Joie,’ be rejoined. ‘ The Chambre de la Folie,’ I added; and he led the way. When we came near the chamber, I said to him, ‘ You will tell the Intendant that a lady of some gifts in dancing would entertain his guests, if he would have it so ; but she must come and go without exchange of individual courtesies, at her will, and without remark.’

“ He opened the door of the chamber, and we followed him ; for there was just inside a large oak screen, and from its shadow we could see the room and all therein. At the first glance I shrank back, for, apart from the noise and the clattering of tongues, such a riot of carousal I have never seen. It seemed to me brutal and coarse, and I was shocked to note gentlemen whom I had met in society, with the show of decorum about them, loosed now from all restraint, and swaggering like woodsmen at a fair. I felt a fear go through me, and I drew back sick ; but that was for an instant, for even as the valet came to the Intendant’s chair a dozen or more men, who were sitting near together in noisy yet half-secret conference, rose to their feet, each with a mask in his hand, and made as if to go towards the door, amid the remarks of others of the guests. I felt my blood fly back and forth in my heart with great violence, and I leaned against the oak screen for support. ‘ Courage,’ said the voice of Jamond in my ear, and I ruled myself to quietness.

“ At that instant the Intendant’s voice stopped the men in their movement towards the great entrance door, and drew the attention of the whole company. ‘ Messieurs,’ said he, not loud, ‘ a lady has come to dance for us, so be you on your best behaviors. She makes conditions which must be respected. She must be let come and go without individual courtesies ; as if, indeed, she were on the stage, and we her audience. Messieurs,’ he added, ‘ I grant her request in your name and my own.’

“ There was a murmur of ‘ Jamond ! Jamond ! ’ and every man stood looking towards the great entrance door. The Intendant, however, was gazing towards the door where I was, and I saw he was about to come, as if to welcome me. Welcome from François Bigot to a dancing - woman! So, on the instant, I slipped off the cloak, looked at Jamond, who murmured once again, ‘ Courage,’ and then, with a prayer on my lips, I stepped out swiftly, and made for a low, large dais atone side of the room. I was so nervous that I knew not how I went. The faces and forms of the company were blurred before me, and the lights shook and multiplied distractedly. The room shone brilliantly, yet just under the great canopy, over the dais, there were shadows, and they seemed to me, as I stepped under the red velvet, a relief, a sort of hiding-place from innumerable candles and hot unnatural eyes.

“ When once I stepped there, I was changed. I did not think of the applause that greeted me, the murmurs of surprise, approbation, questioning, rising round me. Suddenly, as I paused and faced them all, and held myself quiet and still, all nervousness passed out of me, and I saw nothing — nothing but a sort of far-off picture. My mind was caught away into that world which I had created for myself when I danced, and these rude gentlemen were but visions. All sense of indignity passed from me. I had no maidenly shrinking ; I was a woman fighting for a life and happiness. I was holding men back from doing a hateful act, stopping the clock of events.

“ As I danced I did not know how time passed — only that I must keep those men where they were till General Montcalm came. After a while, when the first dazed feeling had passed, I could see their faces plainly through my mask, and I knew that I could hold them ; for they ceased to lift their glasses, and stood watching me, sometimes so silent that I could hear their breathing only, sometimes making a great applause, which passed into silence again quickly. Once, as I wheeled, I caught the eyes of Jamond watching me closely, and the Intendant never stirred from his seat, and scarcely moved, but kept his eyes fixed on me. Nor did he applaud. There was something painful in his immovability. I saw it all as in a dream, yet I did see it, and I was resolute to achieve a triumph over the wicked designs of base and abandoned men. I feared that my knowledge and power to hold them might stop before help came. Once, in a slight pause, when a great noise of their hands and a rattling of scabbards on the table gave me a short respite, some one — Captain Lancy, I think — snatched up a glass, and called on all to drink my health. ‘ Jamond ! Jamond ! ’ was the cry, and they drank ; the Intendant himself standing up, and touching the glass to his lips, then sitting down again, silent and immovable as before. One gentleman, a nephew of the Chevalier la Darante, came swaying towards me with a glass of wine, begging me in a flippant courtesy to drink ; but I waved him back, and the Intendant said most curtly, ‘ Monsieur la Darante will remember my injunction.’

“ Again I danced, and I cannot tell you with what anxiety and desperation, for there must be an end to it before long, and your peril, Robert, come again, unless these rough fellows changed their minds. Moment after moment went, and though I had danced beyond reasonable limits, I still seemed to get new strength, as I have heard men say, in fighting, they ‘ come to their second wind,’ a rude but faithful phrase. At last, at the end of the most famous step that Jamond had taught me, I stood still for a moment to renewed applause; and I must have wound these men up to excitement beyond all sense, for they would not be dissuaded, but swarmed towards the dais where I was, and some called for me to remove my mask. Then the Intendant came down among them, bidding them stand back, and himself stepped towards me. I felt affrighted, for I liked not the look in his eyes, and so, without a word, I stepped down from the dais, — I did not dare to speak, lest they should recognize my voice, — and made for the door with as much dignity as I might. But the Intendant came to me with a mannered courtesy, and said in my ear, ‘ Madame, you have won all our hearts ; I would you might accept some hospitality — a glass of wine, a wing of partridge, in a room where none shall disturb you ! ’ I shuddered, and passed on. ‘ Nay, nay, Madame Jamond, not even myself with you, unless you would have it otherwise,’ he added.

“ Still I did not speak, but put out my hand in protest, and moved on towards the screen, we two alone, for the others had fallen back with whisperings and side-speeches. Oh, how I longed to take the mask from my face and spurn them ! The hand that I put out in protest the Intendant caught within his own, and would have held it, but that I drew it back with indignation, and kept on towards the screen. Then I realized that a new-comer had seen the matter, and I stopped short, dumfounded, for it was Monsieur Doltaire! He was standing beside the screen, just, within the room, and he sent at the Intendant and myself a keen, piercing glance, his face most cold and hard.

“ Now he came forward quickly, for the Intendant also half stopped at sight of him, and a malignant look shot from his eyes ; hatred showed in the profane word that was chopped off at his teeth. When Monsieur Doltaire reached us, he said, his eyes resting on me with intense scrutiny, ‘ His Excellency will present me to his distinguished entertainer ? * He seemed to read behind my mask. I knew he had discovered me, and my heart stood still. But I raised my eyes and met his gaze steadily. The worst had come. Well, I would face it now. I could endure defeat with fortitude and courage. He paused an instant, a strange look passed over his face, his eyes got hard and very brilliant, and he continued (oh, what suspense that was !) : ‘ Ah yes, I see — Jamond, the perfect and wonderful Jamond, who set us all a-kneeling at Versailles. If Madame will permit me ? ’ He made to take my hand. Here the Intendant interposed, putting out his hand, also. ’I have promised to protect Madame from individual courtesy while here,’ he said. Monsieur Doltaire looked at him keenly. ‘ Then your Excellency must build stone walls about yourself,’he rejoined, with cold emphasis. ‘ Sometimes great men are foolish. To-night your Excellency would have let ’ — here he raised his voice so that all could hear — ‘ your Excellency would have let a dozen cowardly gentlemen drag a dying prisoner from his prison, forcing back his Majesty’s officers at the dungeon doors, and, after baiting, have matched him against a common criminal. That was unseemly in a great man and a King’s chief officer, the trick of a low law-breaker. Your Excellency promised a lady to protect her from individual courtesy, if she gave pleasure — a pleasure beyond price — to you and your guests, and you would have broken your word without remorse. General Montcalm has sent a company of men to set your Excellency right in one direction, and I am come to set you right in the other.’

“ The Intendant was white with rage. He muttered something between his teeth, then said aloud, ‘ Presently we will talk more of this, Monsieur. You measure strength with François Bigot — we will see which proves the stronger in the end.’ ‘ In the end the unjust steward kneels for mercy to his master,’ was Monsieur Doltaire’s quiet answer ; and then he made a courteous gesture towards the door, and I went to it with him slowly, wondering wliat the end would be. Once at the other side of the screen, he peered into Jamond’s face for an instant, then he gave a low whistle. ’You have an apt pupil, Jamond, one who might be your rival one day,’ said he. Still there was a puzzled look on his face, which did not leave it till he saw Jamond walking. ‘ All yes,’ he added, ’I see now. You are lame. This was a desperate but successful expedient.’

“ He did not speak to me, but led the way to where, at the great door, was the Intendant’s valet standing with my cloak. Taking it from him, he put it round my shoulders. ‘ The sleigh by which I came is at the door,’ he said, ‘ and I will take you home.’ I knew not wliat to do, for I feared some desperate act on his part to possess me. I determined that I would not leave Jamond, in any case, and I felt for a weapon which I had hidden in my dress. We had not, however, gone a half dozen paces in the entrance hall when there were quick steps behind, and four soldiers came towards us, with an officer at their head — an officer whom I had seen in the chamber, but did not recognize.

“ ‘ Monsieur Doltaire,’the officer said ; and Monsieur stopped. Then he cried in surprise, ‘ Legrand, you here ! ’ To this the officer replied by handing Monsieur a paper. Monsieur’s hand dropped to his sword, but in a moment he gave a short, sharp laugh, and opened up the packet. ‘ H’m,’he said, ‘ the Bastile! The Grande Marquise is fretful, eh, Legrand ? You will permit me some moments with these ladies ? ’ he added. ‘ A moment only.’ answered the officer. ‘ In another room ? ‘ Monsieur again asked. ‘ A moment where you are, Monsieur,’ was the reply. Making a polite gesture for me to step aside, Monsieur Doltaire said, in a voice which was perfectly controlled and courteous, though I could hear behind all a deadly emphasis. ‘ I know all now. You have foiled me, blindfolded me and all others, these three years past. You have intrigued against the captains of intrigue, you have matched yourself against practiced astuteness. On one side, I resent being made a fool and tool of ; on the other, I am lost in admiration of your talent. But henceforth there is no such thing as quarter between us. Your lover shall die; and I will come again. This wliim of the Grande Marquise will last but till I see her ; then I will return to you — forever. Truly, your lover shall die, your love’s labor for him shall be lost. I shall reap where I did not sow—his harvest and my own. I am as ice to you, Mademoiselle, at this moment; I have murder in my heart. Yet warmth will come again. I admire you so much that I will have you for my own, or die. You are the high priestess of diplomacy ; your brain is a statesman’s, your heart is a vagrant; it goes covertly from the sweet meadows of France to the marshes of England, a taste unworthy of you. You shall be redeemed from that by Tinoir Doltaire. Now thank me for all I have done for you, and let me say adieu.’ At that he stooped and kissed my hand. ‘ I cannot thank you for what I myself achieved,’ I said. ‘ We are to be at war, you threaten, and I have no gratitude.’ ‘ Well, well, adieu and au revoir, sweetheart,’ he answered. ‘ If I should go to the Bastile, I shall have food for thought; and I am your hunter to the end. In this good orchard I pick sweet fruit one day.’ His look fell on me in such a way that shame and anger were at equal height in me. Then he bowed again to me and to Jamond, and, with a sedate gesture, walked away with the soldiers and the officer.

“ You can guess what were my feelings. You were safe for the moment — that was the great thing. The terror I had felt when I saw Monsieur Doltaire in the Chambre de la Joie had passed, for I felt he would not betray me. He is your foe. and he would kill you ; but I was sure he would not put me in danger while he was absent in France—if he expected to return — by making public my love for you and my adventure at the palace. There is something of the noble fighter in him, after all, though he is so evil a man. A prisoner himself now, he would for the moment have no means to hasten your death. But I can never forget his searching, cruel look when he recognized me ! Of Jamond I was most sure. Her own past had been full of sorrow, and her life was now so secluded and religious that I could not doubt her. Indeed, we have been blessed with good, true friends, Robert, though they are not of those who are powerful, save in their loyalty.”

Alixe then told me that the officer Legrand had arrived from France but two days before the eventful night of which I have just written, armed with an order from the Grande Marquise for Doltaire’s arrest and transportation. He had landed at Louisburg, and had come on to Quebec overland. Arriving at the Intendance, he had awaited Doltaire’s coming. It was like some special providence that the arrest should occur when my dear girl was most in danger. Doltaire had stopped to visit General Montcalm at Montinorenci Falls, on his way back from Virginia, and had thus himself brought my protection and hurried to his own undoing. I was thankful for his downfall, though I believed it was but for a moment: a man of such amazing address, who could make black to appear white, is not easily brought to doom, especially when his tyrant is a woman, or a man under a woman’s will.

I was curious to know how it chanced I was set free of my dungeon, and I had the story from Alixe’s lips ; but not till after I had urged her, for she was sure her tale had wearied me, and she was eager to do little offices of comfort about me ; telling me gayly, while she shaded the light, freshened my pillow, and gave me a cordial to drink, that she would secretly convey me wines and preserves and jellies and such kickshaws, that I should better get my strength.

“ For you must know,” she said, “ that though this gray hair and transparency of flesh do become you, making your eyes look like two jets of flame and your face to have shadows most theatrical, a ruddy cheek and a stout hand are more suited to an English soldier. When you are young again in body, these gray hairs shall render you distinguished.”

Then she sat down beside me, and clasped my hand, now looking out into the clear light of afternoon to the farther shores of Levis, showing green here and there from a sudden March rain, and very white elsewhere, the boundless forests beyond, and near us the ample St. Lawrence still covered with its vast bridge of ice, anon into ray face, while I gazed into those deeps of her blue eyes that I had drowned my heart in. They were so true, so resolute, so unwavering. I loved to watch her, for with me she was ever her own absolute self, free from all artifice, lost in her perfect naturalness, let out of prison into the open road where Love walks, baring its head to the sun and the inspiring day, resting at night in a still cottage among the vines : a healthy, perfect soundness, a primitive simplicity beneath the artifice of usual life. She had a beautiful hand, long, warm, and firm, and the fingers, when they clasped, seemed to possess and inclose your hand — the tenderness of the maidenly, the warmth and protectiveness of the maternal. She carried with her a wholesome fragrance and beauty as of an orchard, and while she sat there I thought of the engaging words : —

“ Thou art to me like a basket of summer fruit, and I seek thee in thy cottage by the vineyard, fenced about with good commendable trees.”

Of my release she spoke thus : “ In two days Monsieur Doltaire was conveyed overland to Louisburg en route for France, and he sent me by his valet, before he left, a small arrow studded with emeralds and pearls, and a skull all polished, with a message that the arrow was for myself, and the skull for another,舒 remembrances of the past, and earnests of the future, — truly an insolent and terrible man. When he was gone I went to the Governor, and, with great show of interest in many things pertaining to the government, — for he has ever been flattered by my attentions, poor little bee in the buzzing hive ! —came to the question of the English prisoner. I told him it was I that prevented the disgrace to his good government by sending to General Montcalm to ask for your protection.

“ He was deeply impressed by ray love of his viceregal welfare, and he opened out his vain heart in divers ways about the state. But I may not tell you of these — only what concerns yourself ; the rest belongs to the Governor’s honor. When he was in his most pliable mood, praising me in an absurd fashion, I grew deeply serious, and told him there was a danger which perhaps he did not see. Here was this English prisoner, who, they said abroad in the town, was dying, as indeed his jailer had also declared, even Gabord, with whom he had fought. There was no doubt that the King would approve the sentence of death, and if it were duly and with some display enforced, it would but add to the Governor’s reputation in France. But should the prisoner die in captivity, or should he go an invalid to the scaffold, there would only be pity excited in the world for him. For his own honor, it were better the Governor should hang a robust prisoner, who in full blood should expiate his sins upon a tall scaffold in the sight of all the land. The advice went down like wine ; and when he knew not what to do, I urged your being brought here, put under guard, and fed and nourished for your end. Again I was thanked : and so it was.

“ The Governor’s counselor in the matter will remain a secret, for by now he will be sure that he himself had the sparkling inspiration. There, dear Robert, is the present climax to many months of suspense and persecution, the like of which I hope I may never see again. Some time I will tell you all: those meetings with Monsieur Doltaire, his designs and approaches, his pleadings and veiled threats, his numberless small seductions of words, manners, and deeds, his singular changes of mood, when I was uncertain what would happen next ; the part I had to play to know all that was going on in the Château St. Louis, in the Intendance, and with General Montcalm ; the difficulties with my own people, to whom I am a riddle they cannot solve; the despair of my poor father, who does not know that it is I who have kept him from trouble by my influence with the Governor. For since the Governor and the Intendant are reconciled, he takes sides with General Montcalm, the one sound gentleman in office in this poor country — alas ! ”

Soon afterwards we parted. She passed out, telling me I might at any hour expect a visit from the Governor, and I was left to good dreams and great thanksgiving.

XX.

The Governor visited me. His attitude was marked by nothing so much as a supercilious courtesy, a manner which said, You must see I am not to be trifled with ; and though I have you here in my Château, it is that I may make a fine scorching of you in the end. Now he vaingloriously insisted that the English would be destroyed, if they came to take Quebec ; again, sought, crudely, to have me divulge the plans of our generals, as though I were in constant correspondence with them ; and he bade me see what a wretch I had been to seek escape. He would have me consider if he were the sort ot gentleman to bear trifling. Out of his wisdom, he had freed me from the dungeon, to render me a fitter sacrifice to international honor. He would make of me an example to amaze and instruct the nations — when I was robust enough to die. J might easily have flattered myself on being an object of interest to the eyes of nations. He did not say that a girl yet in her teens had told him what to do. I almost pitied him ; for he appeared so lost in self-admiration and the importance of his office that he would never see disaster when it came.

“There is but one master here in Canada,” he said, “ and I am he. If things go wrong, it is because my orders are not obeyed. Your people have taken Louishurg; had I been there, it should never have been given up. Drucour was hasty — he listened to the women. I should allow no woman to move me. I should be inflexible. They might send two Amhersts and two Wolfes against me, I would hold my fortress.”

“ They will never send two, your Excellency,” said I.

He did not see the irony, and he prattled on: “That Wolfe, they tell me, is bandy-legged ; is no better than a girl at sea, and never well ashore. I am always in raw health — the strong mind in the potent body. Had I been at Louisburg, I should have held it, as I held Ticonderoga last July, and drove the English back with monstrous slaughter.”

Here was news. I had had no information in many months, and all at once two great facts were brought to me.

“ Your Excellency, then, was at Ticonderoga? “ said I.

“ I sent Montcalm to defend it,”he replied pompously. “ I told him how he must act, I was explicit, and it came out as I had said : we were victorious. Yet he would have done better had he obeyed me in everything. If I had been at Louisburg ”...

Vain old braggart ! how might an excellent soldier like General Montcalm be ruined by his stupid vanity ! But what had I to do with that ? I hoped to see him humbled by Amherst or Wolfe, and to give him a taste of what he had given me, with an added humiliation which I had never felt. Indignities and sufferings had not shaken my pride ; for rash I may have been, but I had been no fool. I could not at first bring myself to flatter the viceregal peacock ; for it had been my mind to fight these Frenchmen always ; to yield in nothing; to defeat them like a soldier, not like a juggler. But I brought myself to say half ironically, “ If all great mean had capable instruments, they would seldom fail.”

“ You have touched the heart of the matter,” he said credulously. “ I took Oswego, I held Ticonderoga ; give me faithful service, and who shall take Quebec ? ”

“ I would care less to engage with your Excellency than any general I know,” answered I ; and I thought, Surely now he will see I am but fooling him, and retort upon me with harsh treatment; but he took me seriously instead.

“ It is a pity,” he remarked, with complacent severity, “ that you have been so misguided and criminal; you have, in some things, more sense than folly.”

I bowed as to a compliment from a great man. Then, all at once, I spoke to him with an air of apparent frankness, and said that if I must die, I cared to do so like a gentleman, with some sort of health, and not like an invalid. He must admit that at least I was no coward. He might fence me about with what guards he chose, but I prayed him to let me walk upon the ramparts, when I was strong enough to be abroad, under all due espionage. I had already suffered many deaths, I said, and I would go to the final one looking like a man, not like a relic of humanity.

“ Ah, I have heard this before,” said he. “ Monsieur Doltaire, who is in prison here, and is to fare on to the Bastile, was insolent enough to send me message yesterday that I should keep you close in your dungeon. But I had had enough of Monsieur Doltaire ; and indeed it was through me that the Grande Marquise had him called to durance. He was a muddler here. They must not interfere with me ; I am not to be cajoled or crossed in my plans. We shall see, we shall see about the ramparts,” he continued. “ Meanwhile prepare to die.” This he said with such importance that I almost laughed in his face. But I bowed with a sort of awed submission, and he turned and left the room.

I grew stronger slowly day by day, but it was quite a month before Alixe came again ; for the Château did not face the river, and my room was at the back, and she must come by the front entrance. But sometimes I saw her walking on the banks of the river, and I was sure she was there that I might see her, though she made no sign towards me, nor ever seemed to look towards my window. Nor yet was there any message from her.

Spring was now come. The snow had gone from the ground, the tender grass was springing, and the air was so soft and kind that war’s alarms seemed unmannerly breaches of nature’s peace. One fine day, at the beginning of May, I heard the booming of cannons and a great shouting, and, looking out, I could see crowds of people upon the banks, and many boats in the river, where yet the ice had not entirely broken up. By stretching from my window, through the bars of which I could get my head, but not my body, I noted a squadron sailing round the point of the Island of Orleans. I took it to be a fleet from France bearing reinforcements and supplies — as indeed afterwards I found was so ; but the reinforcements were so small and the supplies so limited that it is said Montcalm, when he knew, cried out, Now is all lost! Nothing remains but to fight and die. I shall see my beloved Candiac no more.”

For the first time all the English colonies had combined against Canada. Vaudreuil and Montcalm were at variance, and Vaudreuil had, through his personal hatred and envy of Montcalm, signed the death-warrant of the colony by writing to the colonial minister that Montcalm’s agents, going for succor, were not to be trusted. Yet at that moment I did not know these things, and the sight made me grave, though it made me sure also that this year would find the British battering this same Château, and, by God’s help, flying our good ensign where the golden lilies shook in the wind above me.

I need not set down the many details of my cramped life in the Château, the close vigilance of my sentinels, my strict confinement, the liberal supplies of food and wine that were sent me, and the surly treatment of my guards, who said that while good Frenchmen had not food enough to keep body and soul together, I was stuffed with delicacies. I sought to mollify them by presents of gold, and succeeded to some small degree.

Presently there came word from the Governor that I might walk upon the ramparts, and I was taken forth for several hours each day ; always, however, under strict surveillance, my guards, well armed, attending, while the ramparts were, as usual, patrolled by soldiers. I could see that ample preparations were being made against a siege, and every day the excitement increased. I got to know more definitely of what was going on, when, under vigilance. I was allowed to speak to Lieutenant Stevens, who also was permitted some such freedom as I had enjoyed when I first came to Quebec. He had private information that General Wolfe or General Amherst was likely to proceed against Quebec from Louisburg, and he was determined to join the expedition.

For months he had been maturing plans for escape. There was one Clark, a ship-carpenter (of whom I have before written), and two other bold spirits, who were sick of captivity, and it was intended to fare forth one night and make a run for freedom. Clark had had a notable plan. A wreck of several transports had occurred at Belle Isle, and it was thought to send him down the river with a sloop to bring back the crew, and break up the wreck. It was his intention to arm his sloop with Lieutenant Stevens and some English prisoners the night before she was to sail, and steal away with her down the river. But whether or not the authorities suspected him, the command was given to another.

It was proposed, however, on a dark night, to get away to some point on the river, where a boat should be stationed, — though that was a difficult matter, for the river was well patrolled and boats were scarce, — and drift quietly down the stream, till a good distance below the city. Mr. Stevens said he had delayed the attempt on the faint hope of fetching me along. Money, he said, was needed, for Clark and all were very poor, and common necessaries were now at exorbitant prices in the country. Tyranny and robbery had made corn and clothing luxuries. All the old tricks of Bigot and his La Friponne, which, after the outbreak the night of my arrest at the Seigneur Duvarney’s, had been somewhat repressed, were in full swing again, and robbery in the name of providing for defense was the only habit.

I managed to convey to Mr. Stevens a good sum of money, and begged him to meet me every day upon the ramparts, until I also should see my way to making a dart for freedom. I advised him in many ways, for he was more bold than shrewd, and I made him promise that he would not tell Clark or the others that I was to make trial to go with them. I feared the accident of disclosure, and any new failure on my part to get away would,

I knew, mean my instant death, consent of King or no consent.

One evening, a soldier entered my room, whom in the half-darkness I did not recognize, till a voice said, “ There ’s orders new for dickey-bird, aho ! ”

“ What are they, Gabord ? ” said I, most glad to see him. “ You always come with crisis.”

“ Not dungeon now, but this room Governor bespeaks for gentlemen from France; he tires of this prison-making here.”

“ And where go I, Gabord ? ”

“ Where you will have fighting,” he answered.

“ With whom ? ”

“ Yourself, aho ! ” A queer smile crossed his lips, and was followed by a sort of sternness. There was something graver in his manner than I had ever seen. I could not guess his meaning. At last he added, pulling roughly at his mustache, “And when that’s done, if not well done, to answer to Gabord the soldier ; for, God take my soul without bedgoing, but I will call you to account.”

“ You speak in riddles,” said I. Then all at once the matter burst upon me.

“ The Governor quarters me at the Seigneur Duvarney’s ? ” I asked.

“ No other,” answered he. “ In three days to go.”

I understood him now. He had had a struggle, knowing of the relations between Alixe and myself, to avoid telling the Governor all. And now, if I involved her, used her to effect my escape from her father’s house ! Even his peasant brain saw my difficulty, the danger to my honor — and hers. In spite of the joy I felt at being near her, seeing her, I shrank from the situation. If I escaped from the Seigneur Duvarney’s, it would throw suspicion upon him, upon Alixe, and that made me stand abashed. Besides, if the Seigneur and his wife suspected Alixe’s love for me — But what then ? said I to myself. I had the right to love her, the right— Yet no, what right had I to anything — a prisoner under a foul suspicion, a man condemned to death ! But I had done nothing ; my conscience was clear of dishonor save in the minds of my foes. Yet inside the Seigneur Duvarney’s house I should now feel unhappy, bound to certain calls of honor concerning his daughter and himself. I stood long, thinking, Gabord watching me.

Finally, “ Gabord,” said I, “ you and I have fought; you have known me these two years better than any other. Tell me, as you are a man, if I am worth a woman’s love or a man’s respect.”

“ I ’m but a common soldier,” he replied, “ and I may not know, yet I ’ve seen no better gentleman in the world.”

“ I thank you, Gabord,” I answered. “ I want no other man to speak for me. Then see : I give you my word of honor that I will not put Mademoiselle or Monsieur Duvarney in peril.”

“ You will not try to escape ? ”

“ Not to use them for escape. To elude my guards, to light my way to liberty — yes — yes — yes ! ”

“ But that mends not. Who ’s to know the lady did not help you ? ”

“ You. You are to be my jailer again there?”

He nodded, and fell to pulling his mustache. “ ’T is not enough.” he said decisively.

“ Come, then,” said I, “I will strike a bargain with you. If you will grant me one thing, I will give my word of honor not to escape from the Seigneur’s house.”

“ Sing on.”

“ As you say, I am not to go to the Seigneur’s for three days yet. Arrange that Mademoiselle may come to me tomorrow at dusk,— at six o’clock, when all the world dines, — and I will give my word. No more do I ask you — only that.”

“ Done,” said he. “ It shall be so.”

“You will fetch her yourself?” I asked.

“ Gabord will fetch her on the stroke of six. Guard changes then, and Governor sits at dinner.”

Here our talk ended. He went, and I plunged deep into my great plan ; for all at once, as we had talked, came a thing to me which I shall make clear erelong. I set my wits to work. Once since my coming to the Château I had been visited by the English chaplain who had been a prisoner at the citadel the year before. He was now on parole, and had freedom to come and go in the town. The Governor had said he might visit me on a certain day every week, at a fixed hour, and the next day at five o’clock was the time appointed for his second visit. Gabord had promised to bring Alixe to me at six.

The following morning I met Mr. Stevens on the ramparts. I told him it was my purpose to escape the next night, if possible. If not, I must, go to the Seigneur Duvarney’s, where I should be on parole — to Gabord. I bade him fulfill my wishes to the letter, for on his boldness and my own, and the courage of his men, I depended for escape. He declared himself ready to risk all, and die in the attempt, if need be, for he was sick of idleness. He could, he said, mature his plans that day, if he had more money. I gave him secretly a small bag of gold, and then I made explicit note of what I required of him : that he should tie up in a loose but safe bundle a sheet, a woman’s skirt, some river grasses and reeds, some phosphorus, a pistol and a knife, and some saltpetre and other chemicals ; and that evening, about nine o’clock, which was the hour the guard changed, he was to tie this bundle to a string which I let down from my window, and I would draw it up. Then, the night following, the others must steal away to that place near Sillery, — the west side of the town was always ill guarded, — and wait there with a boat. He should see me at a certain point on the ramparts, and, well armed, we also would make our way to Sillery, and from the spot called the Anse du Foulon drift down the river in the dead of night.

He promised to do all as I wished. When he left me, I walked for full two hours, feeling stronger every moment, and more eager for my expedition. I felt that the great crisis had come, and I laughed to think of the part I was about to play.

When I was taken back to the Château, I employed myself in writing a letter to Voban, in which I told him that he would find a little bag of gold hidden under a certain tree at Sillery, which stood beside a windmill, and that he must keep this for my use in the future, or for his purposes if he ever needed it; for I knew that so long as Bigot ruled his life and safety were in peril, especially since Doltaire was gone. I also told him that if he chose rather to go with me he would find me by that same tree the next night at eleven o’clock. I did not fear to tell him these things, for he was too old a friend ; and Alixe should bear the letter, which would insure it not miscarrying.

The rest of the day I spent in fashioning strange toys out of willow rods. I had got these rods from my guards, to make whistles for their children, and they had carried away many of them. But now, with pieces of a silk handkerchief tied to the whistle and filled with air, I made a toy which, when squeezed, sent out a weird lament. Once when my guard came in, I pressed one of these things in my pocket, and it gave forth a sort of smothered cry, like a sick child. At this he started, and looked round the room in trepidation ; for, of all peoples, these Canadian Frenchmen are the most superstitious, and may be worked on without limit. The cry had seemed to come from a distance. I looked around, also, and appeared serious, and he asked me if I had heard the thing before.

“ Once or twice,” said I.

“ Then you are a dead man,” said he ; “ ’t is a warning, that! ”

“Maybe it is not I, but one of you,” I answered. Then, with a sort of hush, “ Is’t like the cry of La Jongleuse ? ” I added. La Jongleuse is their fabled witch, or spirit, of disaster.

He nodded his head, crossed himself, mumbled a prayer, and turned to go, but came back. “ I ’ll fetch a crucifix,” he said. “ You are a heathen, and you bring her here. She is the devil’s dam.”

He left with a scared face, and I laughed to myself quietly, for I saw success ahead of me. True to his word, he brought a crucifix and put it up — not where he wished, but, at my request, opposite the door, upon the wall. He crossed himself before it, and was most devout.

It looked singular to see this big, rough soldier, who was in most things a swaggerer, so childlike in all that touched his religion. With this you could fetch him to his knees; with it I would cow him that I might myself escape.

At half past five the chaplain came, having been delayed by the guard to have his order indorsed by Captain Lancy of the Governor’s household. To him I told my plans so far as I thought he should know them, and then I explained what I wished him to do. He was grave and thoughtful for some minutes, but at last consented. He was a pious man, and of as honest a heart as I have known, albeit narrow and confined, which sprang perhaps from his provincial practice and his theological cutting and trimming. We were in the midst of a serious talk, wherein I urged him upon matters which shall presently be set forth, when there came a noise outside. I begged him to retire to the alcove where my bed was, and draw the curtain for a few moments, nor come forth until I called. He did so, yet I thought it hurt his sense of dignity to be shifted to a bedroom.

As lie disappeared the door opened, and Gabord and Alixe entered. “ One half hour,” said Gabord, and went out again.

Alixe started forward to me with a warm word, but I put my finger on my lips, and pointed to the bedroom. We embraced, and were lost in a happy silence for a minute, and then she said : —

“ I have not been idle, Robert, but I could not act, for my father and mother suspect my love for you. I have come but little to the Château without them, and I was closely watched. I knew not how the thing would end, but I kept up my workings with the Governor, which is easier now Monsieur Doltaire is gone, and I got you the freedom to walk upon the ramparts. Well, once before my father suspected me, I said that if his Excellency disliked your being in the Château, you could be as well guarded in my father’s house, with sentinels always there, until you could, in better health, be taken to the common jail again. What was my surprise when yesterday came word to my father that he should make ready to receive you as a prisoner ; being sure that he, his Excellency’s cousin, and the father of the man you had injured, and the most loyal of Frenchmen, would guard you diligently, thus securing the country and its Governor ; for he would now use all extra room in the Château for the entertainment of gentlemen and officers lately come from France. And so in two days you are to come to us.

“ When my father got the news, he was thrown into dismay. He knew not what to do. On what ground could he refuse the Governor? Yet he felt it his duty to do so, on thinking of me. Again, on what ground could he refuse this boon to you, to whom we all owe the blessing of his life ? On my brother’s account? But my brother has written to my father justifying you, and magnanimously praising you as a man, while hating you as an English soldier. On my account ? But he could not give this reason to the Governor. As for me, I was silent, i waited — and I wait ; I know not what will be the end. Meanwhile preparations go on to receive you.”

Had ever prisoner a more singular history, or lover a more difficult position ? Beaming with joy at our meeting as Alixe was, she was much troubled also. Yet I could see that her mood was more tranquil since Doltaire was gone. A certain restlessness had vanished ; there was now a soft firmness, a greater calm even in her perplexity. Her manner had much dignity, and every movement a peculiar grace and elegance. She was dressed in a soft cloth of a gray tone, touched off with red and slashed with gold, and a cloak of gray, trimmed with fur, with bright silver buckles, hung loosely on her, thrown off at one shoulder. There was a sweet disorder in the hair, which indeed was prettiest when freest.

When she had finished speaking, she looked at me, as I thought, with a little anxiety.

“ Alixe,” I said, “ we have come to the cross-roads, and the way we choose now is for all time.”

She looked up, startled, yet governing herself, and her hand sought mine and nestled there. “ I feel that, too,” she replied. “ What is it, Robert ? ”

“ I cannot in honor escape from your father’s house. I cannot steal his daughter and his safety too ” —

“ You must escape,” she interrupted firmly.

“ From here, from the citadel, from anywhere but your house ; and so I will not go to it.”

” You will not go to it ? ” she repeated slowly and strangely. “ How may you not ? You are a prisoner. If they make my father your jailer ” — She laughed.

“ I owe that jailer and that jailer’s daughter ” —

“ You owe them your safety and your freedom. Oh, Robert, I know, I know what you mean. But what care I what the world may think by and by, or tomorrow, or to-day ! I have a conscience clear of offense.”

“ Your father ” — I persisted.

She nodded. “ Yes, yes, you speak truth, alas ! And yet you must be freed. And”—here she got to her feet, and with flashing eyes spoke out — “ and you shall be set free. Let come what will, I owe my first duty to you, though all the world chatter ; and I will not stir from that. As soon as I can make it possible, you shall escape, Robert.”

“ You shall have the right to set me free,” said I, “if I must go to your father’s house. And if I do not go there, but out to my own good country, you shall still have the right before all the world to follow, or to wait till I come to fetch you.”

“ I do not understand you, Robert,” said she. “ I do not ” — Here she broke off, looking, looking at me, and trembling a little.

Then I stooped and whispered softly in her ear; she gave a little cry, and drew back from me ; yet instantly her hand came out and caught my arm.

“ Robert, Robert! I cannot, I dare not ! ” she cried softly. “ No, no, it may not be,” she added in a whisper of fear.

I went to the alcove, drew back the curtain, and asked Mr. Wainfleet to step forth.

“ Sir,” said I picking up my Prayer Book and putting it in his hands, “ I beg you to marry this lady and myself.”

He paused, dazed. “ Marry you — here — now ? ” he asked shakingly.

“ Before ten minutes go round, this lady must be my wife,” said I.

“ Mademoiselle Duvarney, you ” — he began.

“ Be pleased, dear sir, to open the book at ’ Wilt thou have? ” said I. “ The lady is a Catholic, she has not the consent of her people ; but when she is my wife, made so by you, whose consent need we ask ? Can you not tie us fast enough, a man and woman of sense sufficient, but you must pause here ? Is the knot you tie safe against picking and stealing ?“

I had touched his vanity and his ecclesiasticism. “ Married by me,” he replied, “ once chaplain to the Bishop of London, you have a knot that no sword can cut. I am in full orders. My parish is in Boston itself.”

“ You will hand a certificate to my wife to-morrow, and you will uphold this marriage against all gossip ? ” asked I.

“ Against all France and England,” he answered, roused now.

“ Then come,” I urged.

“ But I must have a witness,” he interposed, opening the book.

“ You shall have one in due time,” said I. “ Go on. When the marriage is performed, and at the point where you shall proclaim us man and wife, I will have a witness.”

I turned to Alixe, and found her pale and troubled. “ Oh, Robert, Robert!” she cried, “ it cannot be. Now, now I am afraid, for the first time in my life, dear, the first time ! ”

“ Dearest lass in the world,” I said, “ it must be. I shall not go to your father’s. To-morrow night, I make my great stroke for freedom, and when I am free I shall return to fetch my wife.”

“ You will try to escape from here tomorrow ? ” she asked, her face flushing finely.

“ I will escape or die,” I answered ; “ but I shall not think of death. Come, heart of my heart, come and say with me that we shall part no more — in spirit no more ; that, whatever comes, you and I have fulfilled our great hope, though under the shadow of the sword.”

At that she put her hand in mine with a great pride and sweetness, and said, "I am ready, Robert. I give my heart, my life, and my honor to you — forever.”

Then, with great sweetness and solemnity she turned to the clergyman : “ Sir, my honor is also in your hands. If you have mother or sister, or any care of souls upon you, I pray you, in the future act as becomes good men.”

“ Mademoiselle,” he said earnestly, “ I am risking my freedom, maybe my life, in this ; do you think ” —

But here she took his hand and pressed it, “ Ah, I ask your pardon. I am of a different faith from you, and I have known how men forget when they should remember.” She smiled at him so perfectly that he drew himself up with pride.

“ Make haste, sir,” said I. “ Jailers are curious folk.”

The room was not yet lighted, the evening shadows were creeping in, and up out of the town came the ringing of the vesper bell from the church of the Recollets. For a moment there was stillness in the room and all around us, and then the chaplain began in a low voice : “ I require and charge you both ” — and so on. In a few moments I had made the great vow, and had put on Alixe’s finger a ring which the clergyman drew from his own hand. Then we knelt down, and I know we both prayed with the good man, most fervently, that we might “ ever remain in perfect love and perfect peace together.”

Rising, he paused, and I went to the door and knocked upon it. It was opened by Gabord. “ Come in, Gabord,” said I. “ There is a thing that you must hear.”

He stepped back and got a light, and then entered, holding it up, and shutting the door. A strange look came upon his face when he saw the chaplain, and a stranger when, stepping beside Alixe, I took her hand, and Mr. Wainfleet declared us man and wife. He stood like one dumfounded, and he did not stir as Alixe, turning to me, let me kiss her on the lips, and then went to the crucifix on the wall and kissed the feet of it, and stood for a moment, praying. Nor did he move or make a sign till she came back and stood beside me.

“ A pretty scene ! ” he burst forth then with anger; “ but, by God! no marriage is it ! ”

Alixe’s hand tightened on my arm, and she drew close to me.

“ A marriage that will stand at Judgment Day, Gabord,” said I.

“ But not in France or here. ’T is mating wild, with end of doom.”

“ It is a marriage our great Archbishop at Lambeth Palace will uphold against a hundred popes and kings,” said the chaplain with importance.

“ You are no priest, but holy peddler ! ” cried Gabord roughly. “ This is a mating as the birds mate, not as Christian men, and fires of hell shall burn — aho ! I will see you all go down, and hand of mine shall not be lifted for you ! ”

He puffed out his cheeks, and his great eyes rolled so like fire-wheels that I almost fell a-laughing.

“ You are a witness to this ceremony,” said the chaplain. “ And you shall answer to your God, but you must speak the truth for this man and wife.”

“ Man and wife ? ” laughed Gabord wildly. “ May I die and be damned to ” —

Like a flash Alixe was beside him, and put to his lips most swiftly the little wooden cross that Mathilde had given her. “ Gabord, Gabord,” she said in a sweet, sad voice, “ when you may come to die, a girl’s prayers will be waiting at God’s feet for you.”

He stopped, and stared at her. Her hand lay on his arm, and she continued :

No night gives me sleep, Gabord, but I pray for the jailer who has been kind to an ill-treated gentleman.”

“ A juggling gentleman, that cheats Gabord before his eyes, and smuggles in a mongrel priest! ” he blustered.

I waved my hand at the chaplain, or I think he would have put his Prayer Book to rougher use than was its wont, and I was about to answer, but Alixe spoke instead, and to greater purpose than I could have done. Her whole mood changed, her face grew still and proud, her eyes flashed bravely, so that I had a spirit of great elation.

“ Soldier,” she said, “ vanity speaks in you there, not honesty. No gentleman here is a juggler. No kindness you may have done warrants insolence. Do not presume. To bring great misery on us you have the power, and you may have the will, but, by God’s help, both he and I, my husband and myself, shall be delivered from cruel hands. At any moment I may stand alone in the world, friends, people, the Church, and all the land against me : if you desire to haste that time, to bring me to disaster, because you would injure my husband,” — how sweet the name sounded on her lips ! — “ then act, but do not insult us. But no, no,” she broke off softly, “ you spoke in temper, you meant it not, you were but vexed with us for the moment. Dear Gabord,” she added, “ did we not know that if we had asked you first, you would have refused us ? You care so much for me, you would have feared my linking my life and fate with one ” —

“ With one the death-man has in hand, to pay price for wicked deed,” he interrupted.

“ With one innocent of all dishonor, a gentleman wronged every way. Gabord, you know it so, for you have guarded him and fought with him, and you are an honorable gentleman,” she added gently.

“ No gentleman I,” he burst forth, but jailer base, and soldier born upon a truss of hay. But honor is an apple any man may eat since Adam walked in garden. ’T is honest foe, here,” he continued magnanimously, and nodded towards me.

“ We would have told you all,” she said, “ but how dare we involve you, or how dare we tempt you, or how dare we risk your refusal ? It was love and truth drove us to this ; and God will bless this mating as the birds mate, even as He gives honor to Gabord who was born upon a truss of hay.”

“ Aho ! ” said Gabord, puffing out his cheeks, and smiling on her with a look half sour, and yet with a doglike fondness, "’t is poor nesting for wren and dickey-bird ; but Gaburd’s mouth is shut till ’s head is off, and then to tell the tale to Twelve Apostles! ”

Through his wayward, illusive speech we caught his meaning. He would keep faith with us, and be best proof of this marriage, at risk of his head even.

As we spoke, the chaplain was writing in the blank fore-pages of the Prayer Book. Presently he said to me, handing me the pen, which he had picked from a table, “ Inscribe your names here. It is a rough record of the ceremony, but it will suffice before all men, when tomorrow I have given Mistress Stobo another record.”

We wrote our names, and then the pen was handed to Gabord. He took it, and at last, with many flourishes and aho’s, and by dint of puffings and rolling eyes, he wrote his name so large that it filled as much space as the other names and all the writing, and was indeed like a huge indorsement across the record.

When this was done, Alixe held out her hand to him. “ Will you kiss me, Gabord ? ” she said.

The great soldier was all taken back. He flushed like a schoolboy, yet a big humor and pride looked out of his eyes.

“ I owe you for the sables, too,” she said. “ But kiss me, not on my ears, as the Russian count kissed Gabord, but on both cheeks.”

This won him to our cause utterly, and I never think of Gabord, as I saw him last in the sway and carnage of battle, fighting with wild uproar and covered with wounds, but the memory of that moment, when he kissed my young wife, comes back to me.

“ Go nest, go nest,” he said, in his whimsical metaphors, “ and happy be, and hunter’s arm kill not! ”

At that he turned to leave. “ Gabord shall hold the door for minutes ten, aho I ” he added ; and he waited for the chaplain, who blessed us then with tears in his eyes, and smiled a little to my thanks and praises and purse of gold, and to Alixe’s sweet gratitude. With lifting chin — good honest gentleman, who afterwards proved his fidelity and truth — he said that he would die to uphold this sacred ceremony. And so he made a little speech, as if he had a pulpit round him, and he wound up with a benediction which sent my dear girl to tears and soft trembling : —

“ The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace now and evermore .”

A moment afterwards the door closed, and for ten minutes I looked into my wife’s eyes, my dear wife’s face, and, looking, told her my plans for escape. Little time was there for tale of love, but yet we read all through a rich volume of confidence and affection ; and when Gabord opened the door upon us, we had passed through years of understanding and resolve. Our parting was brave — a bravery on her side that I do not think any other woman could match. She was quivering with the new life come upon her, yet she was self - controlled ; she moved as in a dream, yet I knew her mind was alert, vigilant, and strong ; she was aching with thought of this separation, with the peril that faced us both, yet she carried a quiet joy in her face, a tranquil gravity of bearing.

“ What God hath joined ” — said I gravely at the last.

“Let no man put asunder,” she answered softly and solemnly.

“ Amen,” said Gabord, and turned his head away.

Then the door shut upon me, and though I am no Catholic, I have no shame in saying that I kissed the feet on the crucifix which her lips had blessed.

Gilbert Parker.