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

XII

LEFT alone, I grew numb and faint, and sat down on my couch with a feeling that rest was the thing I most desired on earth. The reaction from the tense hour I had spent, and the change from the iron climate above to the moist, malarious air of the dungeon also had their influence ; so that, as I sat there, my eyes closed, and Gabord’s last remark, which kept sounding painfully in my ear, floated away in fading echoes, and died. I was roused by the opening of the door. Doltaire entered. He advanced towards me with the manner of an admired comrade, and, with no trace of what would mark him as my foe, said, as he sniffed the air : —

“ Monsieur, I have been selfish. I asked myself to breakfast with you, yet, while I love the new experience, I will deny myself in this. You shall breakfast with me, as you pass to your new lodgings. You must not say no,” he added, as though we were in some salon. “ I have a sleigh here at the door, and a fellow has already gone to fan my kitchen fires and forage for the table. Come,” he went on, “ let me help you with your cloak.”

He threw my cloak around me, and turned towards the door. I had not spoken a word, for what with weakness, the announcement that I was to have new lodgings, and the sudden change in my affairs, I was like a child walking in its sleep. I could do no more than bow to him and force a smile, which must have told more than aught else of my state, for he stepped to my side and offered me his arm. I drew back from that with thanks, for there passed through me a quick hatred of myself that I should take favors of the man who had moved for my destruction, and to steal from me my promised wife, her life and character weighing little with him while working for his ends. Yet what folly to refuse advantages thus placed in my way! It was my duty to live if I could, to escape if that were possible, to use every means to foil my enemies. It was all a game; why should I not accept advances at my enemy’s hands, and match dissimulation with dissimulation ?

When I refused his arm, he smiled comically, and raised his shoulders deprecatingly.

“ You forget your dignity, monsieur,” I said presently as we walked on, Gabord meeting us and lighting us through the passages ; “ you voted me a villain, a spy, at my trial! ”

“ Technically and publicly, you are a spy, a vulgar criminal,” he replied ; “ privately, you are a foolish, blundering gentleman.”

“ A soldier, also, you will admit, who keeps his compact with his enemy.”

“ Otherwise we should not breakfast together this morning,” he answered.

“What difference would it make to this government if our private matter had been dragged in ? Technically, you still would have been the spy. But I will say this, monsieur, to me you are a man better worth torture than death.”

I grasped his meaning fully. On the one hand, he wanted the papers for the Grande Marquise ; on the other, he guessed a little of my love for Alixe, and the jealousy of race and nature roused all the cruelty in him, which would, no doubt, have sent me to my death long ago had he not had a sense of humor — to see a longer sport.

“ Do you ever stop to think of how this may end for you ? ” I asked quietly.

He seemed pleased with the question. “ I have thought it might be interesting,” he answered ; “ else, as I said, you should long ago have left this naughty world. Is it in your mind that we shall cross swords one day ? ”

“ I feel it in my bones,” said I, “that I shall kill you.”

At that moment we stood at the entrance to the citadel, where a good pair of horses and a sleigh awaited us. We got in, the robes were piled around us, and the horses started off at a long trot. I was muffled to the ears, but I could see how white and beautiful was the world, how the frost glistened in the trees, how the cedars were weighted down with snow, and how snug the châteaux looked with the smoke curling up from their hunched chimneys.

Presently Doltaire replied to my last remark. “ Conviction is the executioner of the stupid,” said he. “ When a man is not great enough to let change and chance guide him, he gets convictions, and dies a fool.”

“ Conviction has made men and nations strong,” I rejoined.

“ Has made men and nations asses,” he retorted. “ The Mahometan has conviction, so has the Christian: they die fighting each other, and the philosopher sits by and laughs. Expediency, monsieur, expediency is the real wisdom, the true master of this world. Expediency saved your life to-day ; conviction would have sent you to a starry home.”

As he spoke a thought came in on me. Here we were in the open world, traveling together, without a guard of any kind. Was it not possible to make a dash for freedom ? The idea was put away from me, and yet it was a fresh accent of Doltaire’s character that he tempted me in this way. As if he divined what I thought, he said to me — for I made no attempt to answer his question : —

“ Men of sense never confuse issues, or choose the wrong time for their purposes. Foes may have unwritten truces.”

There was the matter in a nutshell. He had done nothing carelessly ; he was touching off our conflict with flashes of genius. He was the man who had roused in me last night the fiercest passions of my life, and yet this morning he had saved me from death, and, though he was still my sworn enemy, I was going to breakfast with him.

Already the streets of the town were filling ; for it was the day before Christmas, and it would be the great marketday of the year. Few noticed us as we sped along down St. Louis Street and Mountain Hill, past, the Bishop’s palace, and on round the base of the hill. I could not conceive whither we were going, until, passing the Hôtel Dieu, I saw in front the Intendance. I remembered the last time I was there, and what had happened then, and a thought flashed through me that perhaps this was another trap. But I put it from me, and soon afterwards Doltaire said, —

“ I have now a slice of the Intendance for my own, and we shall breakfast like squirrels in a loft.”

As we drove into the open space before the palace, a company of soldiers standing before the great door began to march down to the road by which we came. With them was a prisoner. I saw at once that he was a British officer, but I did not recognize his face. I asked his name of Doltaire, and found it was one Lieutenant Stevenson, of Roger’s Rangers, those brave New Englanders ; after an interview with Bigot, he was being taken to the common jail. To my request that I might speak with him Doltaire assented, and at a sign from my companion the soldiers stopped, and Stevenson and I fixed our eyes on each other, in his a puzzled, disturbed expression. He was well built, of intrepid bearing, with a fine openness of manner joined to handsome features. But there was a recklessness in his eye which seemed to me to come nearer the swashbuckling character of a young French seigneur than the wariness of a British soldier.

I spoke his name and introduced myself. His surprise and pleasure were pronounced, for he had thought (as he said) that by this time I would be dead. I could see too that he was perplexed by my being with Doltaire. There was an instant’s flash of his eye, as if a suspicion of my loyalty had crossed his mind ; but it was gone on the instant, and immediately Doltaire, who also had interpreted the look, smiled, and said he had carried me off to breakfast while the furniture of my former prison was being shifted to my new one. After a word or two more, with Stevenson’s assurance that the British had recovered front Braddock’s defeat and would soon be knocking at the portals of the Château St. Louis, we parted, and soon Doltaire and I got out at the high stone steps.

As I looked round, it came to me how in this new country had been planted the roots of monopoly : how here there would soon be but two classes, the peasant and the petty noble. In this space surrounding the Intendance was gathered the history of New France. This palace, large enough for the king of an European country with a population of a million, was the official residence of the commercial ruler of a province. It was the house of the miller, and across the way was the King’s storehouse, La Friponne, where the people were ground between the stones. The great square was already filling with people who had come to trade. Here were barrels of malt being unloaded ; there, great sacks of grain, bags of dried fruits, bales of home-made cloth, and loads of fine-sawn boards and timber. Moving about among the peasants were the regular soldiers in their white uniforms faced with blue, red, yellow, or violet, with black three-cornered hats, and black gaiters from foot to knee, and the militia in coats of white with black facings. Behind a great collar of dogskin a pair of jet-black eyes flashed out from under a pretty forehead ; and presently one saw these same eyes grown sorrowful or dull under heavy knotted brows, which told of a life too vexed by care and labor to keep alive a spark of youth’s romance. Now the bell in the tower above us rang a short peal, the signal for the opening of La Friponne, and the bustling crowd moved towards its doors. As I stood there on the great steps, I chanced to look along the plain, bare front of the palace to an annex at the end, and standing in a doorway opening on a pair of steps was Voban. I was amazed that he should be there — the man whose life had been spoiled by Bigot. At the same moment Doltaire motioned to him to return inside, which he did.

Doltaire laughed at ray surprise, and as he showed me inside the palace said, “ There is no barber in the world like Voban. Interesting ! Interesting! I love to watch his eye when he draws the razor down my throat. It would be so easy to fetch it across; but Voban, as you see, is not a man of absolute conviction. It will be sport, some day, to put Bigot’s valet to bed with a broken leg or a fit of spleen, and send Voban to shave him.”

“Where is Mathilde ? ” I asked, as if I knew nothing of her whereabouts.

“ Mathilde is where none may touch her, monsieur ; under the protection of the daintiest lady of New France. It is the lady’s whim ; and when a lady is charming, an Intendant, even, must not trouble her caprice.”

He did not need to speak more plainly. It was he who had prevented Bigot from taking Mathilde away from Alixe, and locking her up, or worse. I said nothing, however, and soon we were in a large room, sumptuously furnished, looking out on the great square. The morning sun stared in, some snowbirds twittered on the window-sill, and inside, a canary, in an alcove Hung with plants and flowers, sang as if it were the heart of summer. All was warm and comfortable, and it was like a dream that I had just come from the dismal chance of a miserable death. My cloak and cap and leggings had been taken from me when I entered, as courteously as though I had been King Louis himself, and a great chair was drawn solicitously to the fire. All this was done by the servant, after one quick look from Doltaire. The servant seemed to understand his master perfectly, to read one look as though it were a volume, —

“ The constant service of the antique world.”

Such was Doltaire’s influence. The closer you came to him, the more compelling was his fascination — an almost devilish attraction, notably selfish, yet capable of benevolence. I remember that once, two years before, I saw him lift a load from the back of a peasant woman and carry it home for her, putting into her hand a gold piece when he left her. At another time, an old man had fallen ill and died of a foul disease in a miserable upper room of a warehouse. Doltaire was passing at the moment when the body should be brought forth. The stricken widow of the dead man stood below, waiting, but no one would fetch the body down. Doltaire stopped and questioned her kindly, and in another minute he was driving the carter and another upstairs at the point of his sword. Together they brought the body down, and Doltaire followed it to the burying-ground ; keeping the gravedigger at his task when he would have run away, and saying the responses to the priest in the short service read above the grave.

I said to him then, for it was not long after I came to Quebec, “ You rail at the world and scoff at men and many decencies, and yet you do these things ! ”

To this he replied,— he was in my own lodgings, — “ The brain may call all men liars and fools, hut the senses feel the shock of misery which we do not ourselves inflict. Inflicting, we are prone to cruelty, as you have seen a schoolmaster begin punishment with tears, grow angry at the shrinking hack under his cane, and give way to a sudden lust of torture. I have little pity for those who can help themselves — let them fight or eat the leek. But the child and the helpless and the sick it is a pleasure to aid. I love the poor as much as I love anything. I could live their life, if I were put to it. As a gentleman, I hate squalor and the puddles of wretchedness : but I could have worked at the plough or the anvil ; I could have dug in the earth till my knuckles grew big and my shoulders hardened to a roundness, have eaten my beans and pork and pea-soup, and have been a healthy ox, munching the bread of industry and trailing the puissant pike, a diligent serf. I have no ethics, and yet I am on the side of the just when they do not put thorns in my bed to keep me awake at night.”

Upon the walls hung suits of armor, swords of beautiful make, spears, belts of wonderful workmanship, a tattered banner, sashes knit by ladies’ fingers, pouches, bandoleers, and many strong sketches of scenes that I knew well. Now and then a woman’s head in oils or pencil peeped out from the abundant ornaments. I recalled then another thing he said at that time of which I write : —

“ I have never juggled with my conscience — ‘ made believe ’ with it. My will was always stronger than my wish for anything, always stronger than temptation. I have chosen this way or that deliberately. I am ever ready to face consequences, and never to cry out. It is the ass who does not deserve either reward or punishment, who says that something carried him away, and, being weak, he fell. It is a poor man who is no stronger than his passions. I can understand the devil fighting God, and taking the long punishment without repentance, like a powerful prince as he was. I could understand a peasant, killing King Louis in the palace, being willing, if he had a hundred lives, to give them all, having done the deed he set out to do. If a man must have convictions of that sort, he can escape everlasting laughter — the final hell — only by facing the rebound of his wild deeds.”

These were strange sentiments in the mouth of a man who was ever the mannered courtier, and as I sat there alone, while he was gone elsewhere for some minutes, many such things he had said came back to me, suggested, no doubt, by this new, inexplicable attitude towards myself. I could trace some of his sentiments, perhaps vaguely, to the fact that — as I had come to know through the Seigneur Duvarney — his mother was of peasant blood, the beautiful daughter of a farmer of Poictiers, who had died soon after giving birth to Doltaire. His peculiar nature had shown itself in his refusal to accept a title. It was his whim to be the plain “ Monsieur; ” behind which was, perhaps, some native arrogancy which made him prefer that to being a noble whose position, well known, must ever interfere with his ambitions. Then, too, maybe, the peasant in him — never in his face or form, which were patrician altogether — spoke for more truth and manliness than he was capable of, and so he chose to be the cynical, irresponsible courtier, while many of his instincts had urged him to the peasant’s integrity. He had undisturbed, however, one instinct of the peasant — a directness, which was evident chiefly in the clearness of his thoughts.

As these things hurried through my mind, my body sunk in a kind of restfulness before the great fire, Doltaire came back.

“ I will not keep you from breakfast,” he said. “ Voban must wait, if you will pass by untidiness.”

A thought flashed through my mind. Maybe Voban had some word for me from Alixe! So I said instantly, “ I am not hungry. Perhaps you will let me wait yonder while Voban tends you. As you said, it should be interesting.”

“ You will not mind the disorder of my dressing-room? Well, then, this way, and we can talk while Voban toys with fate.”

So saying, he courteously led the way into another chamber, where Voban stood waiting. I spoke to him. and he bowed, but did not speak; and then Doltaire said: —

“ You see, Voban, your labor on Monsieur was wasted so far as concerns the world to come. You trimmed him for the glorious company of the apostles, and see, he breakfasts with Monsieur Doltaire; in the Intendance, too, my Voban, which, as you know, is wicked — a very nest of wasps! ”

I think I never saw more hate than shot out of Voban’s eyes at that moment; but the lids drooped over them at once, and he made ready for his work, as Doltaire, putting aside his coat, seated himself, laughing. There was no little daring, as there was cruelty, in thus torturing a man whose life had been broken by Doltaire’s associate. I wondered now and then if Doltaire were not really putting acid on the barber’s bare nerves for some other purpose than mere general cruelty. It flashed into my mind that even as he would have understood the peasant’s murder of King Louis, so he would have seen a logical end to a terrible game in Bigot’s death at the hand of Voban. Possibly he wondered that Voban did not strike, and he himself took a delight in showing him his own wrongs occasionally. Then, again, it ran through my mind that Doltaire might wish for Bigot’s death, to succeed him in his place. But this was put by as improbable, for the Intendant’s place was not his ambition, or, favorite of La Pompadour as he had been, he would, desiring, have long ago achieved that end. And moreover, every evidence went to show that he would be glad to return to France, for in his heart he foresaw the final ruin of the colony and the triumph of the British. He had once said in my hearing: —

“ Those swaggering Englishmen will keep coming on. They are too stupid to turn back. The eternal sameness of it all will so distress us we shall awake one morning, find them at our bedsides, give a kick, and die from sheer ennui. They ’ll use our flags to boil their fat puddings in, they ’ll roast oxen in the highways, and after our girls have married them they ’ll look like kitchen wenches! ”

But, indeed, beneath his dangerous irony there was a strain of impishness, and he would, if need be, laugh at his own troubles, and torture himself as he had tortured others. This morning he was full of an acid humor. As the razor came to his neck he said : —

“Voban, a barber must have patience. It is a sad thing to mistake friend for enemy. What is a friend ? Is it one who says sweet words ? ”

There was a pause, in which the shaving went on, and then he continued : —

“ Is it he who says, I have eaten Voban’s bread, and Voban shall therefore go to prison, or be hurried to Walhalla ? Or is it he who stays the iron hand, who puts nettles in Voban’s cold, cold bed, that he may rise early and go forth among the heroes? ”

I do not think Voban understood that, through some freak of purpose, Doltaire was telling him thus obliquely he had saved him from Bigot’s cruelty, from prison or death. Once or twice he glanced at me, hut not meaningly, for Doltaire was seated opposite a mirror, and could see each motion made by either of us. Presently Doltaire said to me idly : —

“ I dine to-day at the Seigneur Duvarney’s. You will be glad to hear that Mademoiselle bids fair to rival the charming Madame Cournal. Her followers are as many, so they say, and all in one short year she has suddenly thrown out a thousand new faculties and charms. Doubtless you remember she was gifted, but who would have thought she could have blossomed so! She was all light and softness and air; she is now all fire and skill as well. Matchless 1 matchless! Every day sees her with some new capacity, some fresh and delicate aplomb. She has set the town admiring, and jealous mothers prophesy trist ending for her. Her swift mastery of the social arts is weird, they say. La ! la ! The social arts ! A good brain, a gift of penetration, a manner, — which is a grand necessity, and it must be with birth, — and no heart to speak of, and the rest is easy. No heart — there is the thing ; with a good brain and senses all warm with life — to feel, but never to have the arrow strike home. You must never think to love and be loved, and be wise too. The emotions blind the judgment. Be heartless, be perfect with heavenly artifice, and, if you are a woman, have no vitriol on your tongue — you can rule at Versailles or Quebec. But with this difference : in Quebec you may be virtuous ; at Versailles you must not. It is a pity that you may not meet Mademoiselle Duvarney. She would astound you. She was a simple ballad a year ago ; to-morrow she may be an epic.”

He nodded at me reflectively, and went on: —

“ ‘ Mademoiselle,’ said the Chevalier la Darante to her at dinner, some weeks ago, ‘ if I were young, I should adore you.’ ‘ Monsieur,’ she answered, ‘ you use that “if” to shirk the responsibility.’ That put him on his mettle. ‘ Then, by the gods, I adore you now,’ he answered. ‘ If I were old, I should blush to hear you say so,’ was her reply. ‘ I empty out my heart, and away trips the disdainful nymph with a laugh,’ he rejoined gayly, the rusty old courtier; ‘ there’s nothing left but to fall upon my sword! ’ ‘ Disdainful nymphs are the better scabbards for distinguished swords,’ she said, with charming courtesy. Then, laughing softly, ‘ There is an Egyptian proverb which runs thus: “ If thou, Dol, son of Hoshti, hast emptied out thy heart, and it bring no fruit in exchange, curse not thy gods and die, but build a pyramid in the vineyard where thy love was spent, and write upon it, Pride hath no conqueror.” ’ It is a mind for a palace, is it not ? ”

I could see in the mirror facing him the provoking devilry of his eyes. I knew that he was trying how much he could stir me. He guessed my love for her, but I could see he was sure that she no longer — if she ever had — thought of me. Besides, with a lover’s understanding, I saw also that he liked to talk of her; it was a pleasant subject to him. A hundred thoughts were rushing through my mind. But one, and the chiefest, was that I wished the hour was at hand when he and I could settle our affairs once and for all. His eyes, in the mirror, did not meet mine, but were fixed, as on some distant and pleasing prospect, though there was, as always, a slight disdain at his mouth. But the eyes were clear, resolute, and strong, never wavering,— and I never saw them waver,— yet in them something distant and inscrutable. It was a candid eye, and he was candid in his evil; he made no pretense ; and though the means to his ends were wicked, they were never low. Presently, glancing round the room, I saw an easel on which was a canvas. He caught my glance.

“ Silly work for a soldier and a gentleman,” he said, “but silliness is a great privilege. It needs as much skill to carry folly as to be an ambassador. Now, you are often much too serious, Captain Stobo.”

At that he rose, and, after putting on his coat, came over to the easel and threw up the cloth. What was my astonishment to find there a portrait of Alixe ! It had been painted in by a few bold strokes, full of force and life, yet giving her face more of that look which comes to women bitterly wise in the ways of this world than I cared to see. The treatment was daring, and it cut me like a knife that the whole painting had a red glow: the dress was red, the light falling on the hair was red, the shine of the eyes was red also. It was fascinating, but weird, and, to me, distressful. There flashed through my mind the remembrance of Mathilde in her scarlet robe as she stood on the Heights that momentous night. I had no right to accuse him of producing this painful effect out of a shameful thought. I could do nothing and say nothing. I only stood and looked at the picture in silence. He kept gazing at it with a curious, half-quizzical smile, as if he were unconscious of my presence. At last he said, with a slight knitting of his brows : —

“ It is strange — strange. I sketched that in two nights ago, by the light of the fire, after I had come from the Château St. Louis — from memory, as you see. It never struck me where the effect was taken from, that singular glow over all the face and figure. But now I see it; it returns: it is the impression of color in the senses, left from the night that ladybug Mathilde flashed out on the Heights ! A fine effect, a fine effect! H’m! for another such one might give another such Mathilde ! ”

At that moment we were both startled by a sound behind us, and, wheeling, we saw Voban, a mad look in his face, in the act of throwing at Doltaire a short spear which he had caught up from a corner. The spear flew from his hand even as Doltaire sprang aside, drawing his sword with great swiftness. I thought he must have been killed, but the rapidity of his action saved him, for the spear passed his shoulder so close that it tore away a shred of his coat, and stuck in the wall behind him. In another instant Doltaire had his sword-point at Voban’s throat. The man did not cringe, did not speak a word, but his hands clinched, and the muscles of his face worked painfully. There was at first a fury in Doltaire’s face and a metallic hardness in his eyes, and I was sure he meant to pass his sword through the other’s body; but after standing for a moment, death hanging on his sword-point, he quietly lowered his weapon, and, sitting on a chair-arm, looked curiously at Voban, as one might sit and watch a mad animal within a cage. Voban did not stir, but stood rooted to the spot, his eyes, however, never moving from Doltaire. It was clear that he had looked for death, and now expected punishment and prison. Doltaire took out his handkerchief and wiped his cheek with it, for a sweat had gathered there. He turned to me soon, and said, in a singularly impersonal way, as though he were speaking of some animal: —

He had great provocation. The Duchess de Valois had a young panther once which she had brought up from the milk. She was inquisitive, and used to try its temper. It was good sport, but one day she took away its food, gave it to the cat, and pointed her finger at monsieur the panther. The Duchess de Valois never bared her breast thereafter to an admiring world — a panther’s claws leave scars.” He paused, and presently continued : “ You remember it, Voban; you were the Duke’s valet then — you see I recall you. Well, the panther lost his head, both figuratively and in fact. The panther did not mean to kill, maybe, but to kill the lady’s beauty was death to her. . . . Voban, yonder spear was poisoned ! ”

He wiped his face, and said to me, “ I think you saw that at the dangerous moment I had no fear; yet now when the game is in my own hands, my cheek runs with cold sweat. How easy to be charged with cowardice ! Like evaporation, the hot breath of peril passing suddenly into the cold air of safety leaves this ” — he wiped his cheek again.

He rose, moved slowly to Voban, and, pricking him with his sword, said, “ You are a bungler, barber. Now listen. I never wronged you; I have only been your blister. I prick your sores at home. Tut! tut! they prick them openly in the market-place. I gave you life a minute ago ; I give you freedom now. Some day I may ask that life for a day’s use, and then, Voban, then will you give it ? ”

There was a moment’s pause, and the barber answered, “ Monsieur, I owe you nothing. I would have killed you then ; you may kill me, if you will.”

Doltaire nodded musingly. Something was passing through his mind. I judged he was thinking that here was a man who as a servant would be invaluable.

“ Well, well, we can discuss the thing at leisure, Voban,” he said at last. “ Meanwhile you may wait here till Captain Stobo has breakfasted, and then you shall be at his service; and I would have a word with you, also.”

Then turning with a polite gesture to me, he led the way into the breakfastroom, and at once, half famished, I was seated at the table, drinking a glass of good wine, and busy with a broiled whitefish of delicate quality. We were silent for a time, and the bird in the alcove kept singing as though it were in Eden, while chiming in between the rhythms there came the silvery sound of sleighbells from the world without. I was in a sort of dream, and I felt there must be a rude awakening soon. After a while, Doltaire, who seemed thinking keenly, ordered the servant to take in a glass of wine to Voban.

He looked up at me after a little, as if he had come back from a long distance, and said, “ It is my fate to have as foes the men I would have as friends, and as friends the men I would have as foes. The cause of my friends is often bad ; the cause of my enemies is sometimes good. It is droll. I love directness, yet I have ever been the slave of complication. I delight in following my reason, yet I have been of the motes that stumble in the sunlight. I have enough cruelty in me, enough selfishness and will, to be a ruler, and yet I have never held an office in my life. I love true diplomacy, yet I have been comrade to the official liar, and am the captain of intrigue — la! la!”

“You have never had an enthusiasm, a purpose ? ” said I.

He laughed, a dry, ironical laugh. “ I have both an enthusiasm and a purpose,” he answered, “ or you would by now be snug in bed forever.”

I knew what he meant, though he could not guess I understood. He was referring to Alixe and the challenge she had given him. I did not feel that I had anything to get by playing a part of friendliness, and besides, he was a man to whom the boldest speaking was always palatable, even when most against himself.

“ I am sure neither would bear daylight,” said I.

“ Why, I almost blush to say that they are both honest — would at this moment endure a moral microscope. The experience, I confess, is new, and has the glamour of originality.”

“ It will not stay honest,” I retorted. “ Honesty is a new toy with you. You will break it on the first rock that shows.”

“I wonder,” he answered, “I wonder . . . and yet I suppose you are right. Some devilish incident will twist things out of gear, and then the old Adam must improvise for safety and success. Yes, I suppose my one beautiful virtue will get a twist.”

What he had said showed me his mind as in a mirror. He had no idea that I had the key to his enigmas. I felt as had Voban in the other room. I could see that he had set his mind on Alixe, and that she had roused in him what was perhaps the first honest passion of his life : that he was bent to win her. I knew — for he had talked of it many times — what his views on marriage were, and that he should think of Alixe at all in that connection showed the hold she had on him. But I saw also that, as he said, if the honest way was not easy, then he would come to other means. As he had told her, he was her hunter, and he would never give up.

What further talk we might have had I cannot tell, but while we were smoking and drinking coffee the door opened suddenly, and the servant said, “ His Excellency the Marquis de Vaudreuil.”

Doltaire got to his feet, a look of annoyance crossing his face ; but he courteously met the Governor, and placed a cliair for him. The Governor, however, said frostily, “ Monsieur Doltaire, it must seem difficult for Captain Stobo to know who is Governor in Canada, since he has so many masters. I am not sure who needs assurance most upon the point, you or he. This is the second time he has been feasted at the Intendance when he should have been in prison. I came too late that other time; now it seems I am opportune.”

Doltaire’s reply was smooth: “Your Excellency will pardon the liberty. The Intendance was a sort of halfway house between the citadel and the jail.”

“There is news from France,” the Governor said, “ brought from Gaspé. We meet in council at the Château in an hour. A guard is without to take Captain Stobo to the common jail.”

In a moment more, after a courteous good-by from Doltaire, and a remark from the Governor to the effect that I had spoiled his night’s sleep to no purpose. I was soon on my way to the common jail, where arriving, what was my pleased surprise to see Gabord ! He had been told off to be my especial guard, his services at the citadel having been deemed so efficient. He was outwardly surly. As rough as he was ever before the world, and without speaking a word to me, he had a soldier lock me in a cell.

XIII.

My new abode was more cheerful than the one I had quitted in the citadel. It was not large, but it had a window, well barred, through which came the good strong light of the northern sky. A wooden bench for my bed stood in one corner, and, what cheered me much, there was a small iron stove. Apart from warmth, its fire would be companionable, and to tend it a means of passing the time. Almost the first thing I did was to examine it. It was round, and shaped like a small bulging keg on end. It had a lid on top, and in the side a small door with bars for draught, suggesting to me in little the delight of a fireplace. A small pipe from the side carried away the smoke into a chimney in the wall. It seemed to me luxurious, after the year I had spent in my miserable dungeon, and my spirits came back apace.

There was no fire yet, and it was bitter cold, so that I took to walking up and down to keep warmth in me. I was ill nourished, and I felt the cold intensely. But I trotted up and down, plans of escape already running through my head. I was as far off as you can imagine from that event of the early morning, when I stood waiting, half frozen, to be shot by Lancy’s men. It is well for me that my spirits were ever capable of the quick rebound, else I might not now be writing these memoirs. I fell to thinking what joy this reprieve of mine would give to Alixe, and I was most curious to know what had occurred after she left me the night before. The night before — indeed, it seemed months since then, since I had held her in my arms, since her lips clung to mine in a warm sweetness, like a rose-leaf all dew and sun at once. Had she seen Doltaire ? She must have seen him, or she would, as she said, have told all to the Governor; and that she had not done so was clear. I was sure that she had met Doltaire, and had come to know without doubt that he could and would stay the execution. Well, I should know one day by letter or from her own lips. I heard sooner than I looked for as you shall see.

After I had been walking swiftly up and down for an hour or more, slapping my hands against my sides to keep them warm, — for it was so cold I ached and felt a nausea, — I was glad to see Gabord enter with a soldier carrying wood and shavings to light a fire in the stove. I do not think I could much longer have borne the chilling air, — a dampness, too, had risen from the floor, which had been washed that morning, — for my clothes were very light in texture and much worn. I had had but the one suit since I entered the dungeon, for my other suit, which was by no means smart, had been taken from me when I was first imprisoned in the citadel, the year before. As if many good things had been destined to come at once, soon afterwards another soldier entered with a knapsack, which he laid down on the bench. My delight was great when I saw it held my other poor suit of clothes, together with a rough set of woolens, a few handkerchiefs, two pairs of stockings, and a wool cap for night wear.

Gabord did not speak to me at all, but roughly hurried the soldier at his task of fire - lighting, and ordered the other to fetch a pair of stools and a jar of water. Meanwhile I stood near, watching, and stretched out my skinny hands to the grateful heat as soon as the fire was lighted. I had a boy’s delight in noting how the draught pumped the fire into violence, shaking the stove till it puffed and roared. I was so filled, that moment, with the domestic spirit that I thought a steaming kettle on the little stove would give me a tabby-like comfort.

“Why not a kettle on the hob?” I said gayly to Gabord suddenly.

“ Why not a cat before the fire, a bit of bacon on the coals, a pot of mulled wine at the elbow, and a wench’s chin to chuck, baby-bumbo ! ” said Gabord in a mocking voice, which made the soldiers laugh at my expense. “ And a spinet, too, for ducky dear, Scarrat; a piece of cake and cherry wine, and a soul to go to heaven ! Tonnerre ! ” he added, with an oath, “ these English prisoners want the world for a sou, and they ’d owe that till judgment day.”

I felt at once the meaning of his words, for he turned his back on me and went to the window and tried the stanchions, seeming much concerned about them, and muttering to himself. Instantly I drew out from my pocket two gold pieces, and gave them to the soldier Scarrat; and the other soldier coming in just then, I did the same with him ; and I could see that their respect for me mightily increased. Gabord, still muttering, turned to us again, and began to berate the soldiers for their laziness. As the two men turned to go, Scarrat, evidently feeling that something was due for the gold I had given him, said to Gabord, “ Shall Monsieur have the kettle for his fire ? ”

Gabord took a step forward as if to strike the soldier, but stopped short, blew out his cheeks, and laughed in a loud, mocking way.

“ Ay, ay, fetch Monsieur the kettle, and fetch him flax to spin, and a pinch of snuff, and hot flannels for his stomach, and every night at sundown you shall feed him with pretty biscuits soaked in milk. Ah, go to the devil and fetch the kettle, fool! ” he added roughly again, and quickly the place was empty save for him and myself.

“ Those two fellows are to sit outside your cage door, dickey-bird, and two are to march beneath your window yonder, so you shall not lack care if you seek to go abroad. Those are the new orders.”

“ And you, Gabord,” said I, “ are you not to be my jailer ? ” I said it sorrowfully, for I had a genuine feeling for him, and I could not keep that from my voice. I had no way of showing gratitude to him, for I did not dare give him gold. It was kindness in him to make it easy for me to fee his subordinates. He did not encourage bribery that I might find escape easier, but that they should not offer the unnecessary insult which he, of course, could not prevent; for if I complained to him he must remain silent, else they might suspect his attitude towards me, and my state would in the end be worse, and his own person in peril.

When I had spoken so feelingly, he stood for a moment, flushing and puffing, as if confused by the compliment in the tone, and then he answered, “I ’m to keep you safe till word comes from the King what’s to be done with you.”

Then he suddenly became surly again, standing with legs apart and keys dangling ; for Scarrat entered with the kettle, and put it on the stove. “You will bring blankets for Monsieur,” he added, “ and there ’s an order on my table for tobacco, which you will send your comrade for.”

In a moment we were left alone.

“ You ’ll live like a stuffed pig here, dormouse,” he said, “ though ’t will be cold o’ nights.” Then, “ There’s no wise man’s wit like to a speck of a girl’s in this world. Last night a lady gets an order to visit all the prisoners in this jail to-day, it being the time of the Great Birth. And down she comes here with her mother an hour agone, bringing all sorts of gifts, and she comes again this afternoon ; and who ’s to say her nay that carries an order from the Governor, if she says, ‘ Open dickey-bird’s cage ’ — aho ? ”

I asked if I might see her alone.

He shrugged his shoulders ; then said, “ There are no orders. I must abide by old rules, but it may not be alone, I think.”

“ I do not fear to have you present,” said I.

This pleased him. “ The view is good from window,” he answered quickly. “ I cannot hear when I whistle ‘ Prenezgarde, Cavalier joli.’ ”

After another pass or two of words he left me, and I hastened to make a better toilet than I had done for a year. My old rusty suit which I exchanged for the one I had worn seemed almost sumptuous, and the woolen wear comforted my weakened body. Within an hour my cell looked snug, and I sat cosily by the fire, feeding it now and then with knots, and listening for steps without. The door at last opened suddenly, and I started up; but it was only Scarrat with blankets and some tobacco. He put them down without a word, and the other stood at the door, armed and on guard. I said nothing to Scarrat, but nodded my thanks, and he left, looking less malicious than on my first coming. It would have been easy to point a moral on the union of gold and complaisance, but I was too well content with the morning’s events to reflect upon the mercenary spirit in humanity. I had a more pleasant prospect. I did not smoke yet; I reserved that until after Alixe should be gone.

I did not know who had provided me with tobacco, but I suspected it was her gift, as it proved to be.

It must have been about four o’clock when there was a turning of keys and a shooting of bolts, the door opened, and Alixe stepped within, followed by Gabord, who, with a gruff “Monsieur!” closed the door after them, Alixe stood just inside the door, her eyes most bright, her face shining — so handsome, so full of nobility in carriage, such a deep look coming from her. Afterwards, when doubts and fears would cross my mind in bitter trials, when that she should stand firm for me and for her own truth and virtue seemed a task for angels, I would conjure lier up as she stood there that moment, seeing me as one risen from the dead, and that perfect welcome in her eyes, that aspect of sincerity. Had she not proved her love ? Did she not prove it then and after ? I saw her lips frame my name thrice, though no word came forth, and my heart was bursting to cry out and clasp her to my breast. But still with that sweet, serious look on me, she put out her hand and stayed me.

Gabord, looking not at us at all, went straight to the window, and, standing on a stool, began again to examine the stanchions and to whistle. Then I stepped forward, and Alixe met me. She would not let me clasp her to my breast — she shrank from that in the presence of a stranger. But I took her hands and held them, and spoke her name softly, and she smiled up at me with so perfect a grace that I thought there never was aught like it in the world.

She was the first to break the sweet spell. I placed a seat for her and sat down by her. She held out her fingers to the fire, and then, after a moment, she told me the story of last night’s affair; not without some sighing and a little shrinking, too. for I could see how many things tried her in the hard part she had to play. As on the night before, her story was broken by a few questionings on my part, and by pauses on hers, together with whispered fears that Gabord could hear what we said. Though Gabord turned his head once or twice towards us, that was a matter of form, and I am sure he heard nothing. First she made me tell her briefly of the events of the morning, of which she knew, hut not fully. This done, she began. I will set down her story as a whole, and you must understand as you read that it was told as women tell a story, with all little graces and diversions, and those small details with which even momentous things are enveloped in their eyes. I loved her all the more because of these, and I saw, as Doltaire had said, how admirably poised was her intellect, how acute her wit, how delicate and astute a diplomatist she was becoming; and yet, through all, preserving a simplicity of character almost impossible of belief. She had that faculty of seeing from thing to thing, of shaping thought to thought, of divining connections where all was obscurity to others, which is a kind of genius. I felt, as I looked at her, how that power, whose force I am sure she was far too modest to estimate, in one of lesser character might make havoc instead of blessing. Such qualities, in her directed to good ends, in wicked women have made them more tyrannical than kings or queens; and once Alixe said to me, breaking off as her story went on, “ Oh, Robert, when I see what power I have to dissimulate — for it is that, call it by what name you will — when I see how I enjoy accomplishing against all difficulty, how I can blind even so skilled a diplomatist as Monsieur Doltaire, I almost tremble. I see how, if God had not given me something here ” — she placed her hand upon her heart — “ that saves me, I might be like Madame Cournal, and far worse, farworse than she. For I love power — I do love it; I can see that! ”

She did not know that it was her strict honesty with herself that was her good safeguard.

But here is the story she told me : —

“ When I left you, Robert, last night, I went at once to my home, and was glad to get in without being seen. At nine o’clock we were to be at the Château, and while my sister Georgette was helping me with my toilette — oh, how I wished she would go and leave me quite alone! —my head was in a whirl, and now and then I could feel my heart draw and shake like a half-choked pump, and there was a strange pain behind my eyes. Georgette is of such a warm disposition, so kind always to me, whom she would yield to in everything, so simple in her affections, that I seemed standing there by her like an intrigante, as one who had got wisdom at the price of something I had lost. But do not think, Robert, that for one instant I was sorry I played a part, and have done so for a long year and more. I would do it and more again, if it were for you. No, no, do not take my hand yet, dear, or I shall never tell my story. I shall only wish to sit and let my heart steep itself in gratitude.

“ Georgette could not understand why it was I stopped all at once and caught her head to my breast, as she sat by me where I stood arranging my gown. I do not know quite why I did it, but perhaps it was from my yearning that never should she have a lover in such sorrow and danger as mine, and that never should she have to learn to mask her heart as I have done. Ah, sometimes I fear, Robert, that when all is over, and you are free, and you see what the world and all this playing at hide - and - seek have made me, you will feel that such as Georgette, who have never looked inside the hearts of wicked people, and read the tales therein for knowledge to defeat wickedness — that such as she were better fitted for your life and love. No, no, please do not touch me — not till you have heard all I am going to tell.”

After a moment she continued quietly ; yet her eye flashed out now and then, and now and then, also, something in her thoughts as to how she, a weak, powerless girl, had got her ends against astute evil men, sent a little laugh to her lips; for she had by nature as merry a heart as serious: —

“ At nine o’clock we came to the Château from Ste. Anne Street, where our winter home is — yet how much do I prefer the Manor House ! There were not many guests to supper, and Monsieur Doltaire was not among them. I affected a genial surprise, and asked the Governor if one of the two vacant chairs at the table was for Monsieur ; and looking a little as though he would reprove me — for he does not like to think of me as interested in Monsieur — he said it was, but that Monsieur was somewhere out of town, and there was no surety that he would come. The other chair was for the Chevalier la Darante, one of the oldest and best of our nobility, who pretends great roughness and barbarism, but is a kind and honorable gentleman, though odd in his ways. He was one of your judges, Robert; and though he condemned you, he said that you had some reason on your side. And I will show you how he stood for you last night.

“ I need not tell you how the supper passed, while I was planning — planning to reach the Governor if Monsieur Doltaire did not come ; and if he did come, how to play my part so he should suspect nothing but a vain girl’s caprice, and maybe heartlessness. Moment after moment went by, and he came not. I almost despaired. Presently the Chevalier la Darante entered, and, after apology, for he had been detained by an accident to his servant, he took the vacant chair beside me. I was glad of this. I had gone in upon the arm of a rusty gentleman of the Court, who is over here to get his health again, and does it by gaming and drinking at the Château Bigot. The Chevalier la Darante soon began to talk to me, and be spoke of you, saying that he had heard of your duel with my brother, and that formerly you had been much a guest at our house. I answered him with what carefulness I could, and brought round the question of your death, by hint and allusion getting him to speak of the mode of execution.

“ Upon this point he spoke his mind strongly, saying that it was a case where the penalty should be the musket, not the rope. It was no subject for the supper-table, and the Governor felt this, and I feared he would show displeasure ; but other gentlemen took up the matter, and he could not easily change the talk at the moment. The feeling was strong against you. My father stayed silent, but I could see he watched the effect upon the Governor. I knew that he himself had tried to get the mode of execution changed, but the Governor had been immovable. The Chevalier la Darante spoke most strongly, for he is afraid of no one, and he gave the other gentlemen raps upon the knuckles.

“ ‘ I swear,’ he said at last,’I am sorry now I gave in to his death at all, for it seems to me that there is much cruelty and hatred behind the case against him. He seemed to me a gentleman of force and fearlessness, and what he said had weight. Why was the gentleman not exchanged long ago ? He was here three years before he was tried on this charge. Ay, there ’s the point. Other prisoners were exchanged — why not he ? If the gentleman is not given a decent death, after these years of captivity, I swear I will not leave Kamaraska again to set foot in Quebec.’

“ At that the Governor gravely said, ‘ These are matters for our Council, dear Chevalier.’ To this the Chevalier replied,

‘ I meant not reflection on your Excellency, but you are good enough to let the opinions of gentlemen not so wise as you weigh with you in your efforts to be just; and I have ever held that one wise autocrat was worth a score of juries.’ There was an instant’s pause, and then my father said quietly, ‘ If his Excellency had always councilors and colleagues like the Chevalier la Darante, his path would be easier, and Canada happier and richer.’ This settled the matter, for the Governor, looking at them both for a moment, suddenly said. ‘ Gentlemen, you shall have your way, and I thank you for your confidence. If the ladies will pardon a sort of council of state here! ’ he added. You can guess that to ladies who see so little how men manage great affairs such a scene had interest, and what it was to myself you know well. The Governor called a servant, and ordered pen, ink, and paper ; and there before us all he wrote an order to Gabord, your jailer, to be delivered before midnight.

“ He had begun to read it aloud to us, when the curtains of the entrance-door parted, and Monsieur Doltaire stepped inside. The Governor did not hear him, and Monsieur stood for a moment listening. When the reading was finished, he gave a dry little laugh, and came down to the Governor, apologizing for his lateness, and bowing to the rest of us. He did not look at me at all, but once he glanced keenly at my father, and I felt sure that he had heard my father’s words to the Governor.

“ ‘ Have the ladies been made councilors ? ’ he asked lightly, and took his seat, which was opposite to mine. ‘ Have they all conspired to give a criminal one less episode in his life for which to blush ? . . . May I not join the conspiracy ? ’ he added, glancing round, and lifting a glass of wine. Not even yet had he looked at me. Then he waved his glass the circuit of the table, and said, ‘ I drink to the councilors, and applaud the conspirators,’ and as he raised his glass to his lips his eyes came abruptly to mine and stayed, and he bowed profoundly. He drank, still looking, and then turned again to the Governor. I felt my heart stand still. Did he suspect my love for you. Robert ? Had he discovered something ? Was Gabord a traitor to us ? Had I been watched, detected ? I could have shrieked at the suspense. I was like one suddenly faced with a dreadful accusation, with which was a great fear. But I held myself still — oh, so still, so still — and as in a dream I heard the Governor say pleasantly, “ I would I had such conspirators always by me. I am sure you would wish them to take more responsibility than you will now assume in Canada.’ Doltaire bowed and smiled, and the Governor went on : ' I am sure you will approve of Captain Stobo being shot instead of hanged. But indeed it has been my good friend the Chevalier la Darante who has given me the best council I have held in many a day.’

“ To this Monsieur Doltaire replied, ‘ A council unknown to statute, but approved of those who stand for etiquette with one’s foes at any cost. For myself, it is so unpleasant to think of the rope ’ ” (here Alixe hid her face in her hands for a moment) “ ‘ that I should eat no breakfast to-morrow, if the gentleman from Virginia were to hang.’ It was impossible to tell from his tone what was in his mind, and I dared not think of his failure to interfere as he had promised me. As yet lie had done nothing, I could see, and in eight or nine hours more you were to die. He did not look at me again for some time, but talked to my mother and my father and the Chevalier la Darante, commenting on affairs in France and the wav between our countries, but saying nothing of where he had been during the past week. He seemed paler and thinner than when I last saw him, and I felt that something had happened to him. You shall hear soon what it was.

“ At last he turned from the Chevalier to me, and said, ‘ When did you hear from your brother, mademoiselle ? ’ I told him ; and he added, ‘ I have had a letter since, and after supper, if you will permit me, I will tell you of it.’ Turning to my father and my mother, he assured them of Juste’s well-being, and afterwards engaged in talk with the Governor, to whom he seemed to defer. When we all rose to go to the salon, he offered my mother his arm, and I went in upon the arm of the good Chevalier. In a few moments Monsieur Doltaire came to me, and remarked cheerfully, ‘ In this farther corner where the spinet sounds most we can talk best; ’ and we went near to the spinet, where Madame Lotbinière was playing. ‘ It is true,’ he began, ‘ that I have had a letter from your brother. He begs me to use influence for his advancement. You see he writes to me instead of to the Governor. You can guess how I stand in France. Well, we shall see what I may do. . . . Have you not wondered concerning me this week ? ’ he asked ; and I said to him, ‘ I scarce expected you till after to-morrow, when you would plead some accident as cause for not fulfilling your pretty little boast.’ He looked at me sharply for a minute, and then said, ‘ A pretty little boast, is it ? H’m ! you touch great things with light fingers.’ I nodded. ‘ Yes,’ said I, ‘ when I have no great faith.’ ‘ You have marvelous coldness for a girl that promised warmth in her youth. Even I, who am old in these matters, cannot think of this Stobo’s death without a twinge, for it is not like an affair of battle ; but you seem to think of it in its relation to my “ boast,” as you call it. Is it not so ? ’

“ I scarcely knew what to reply, but the natural thing came to me, and I said with apparent indignation, ‘ No, no, you must not make me out so cruel. I am not. No woman likes to hear of a fellow-creature being hanged or shot, and I am not so hard-hearted as you think. My brother is well—I have no feeling against Captain Stobo on his account; and as for spying—well, it is only a painful epithet for what is done here and everywhere all the time.’ ‘ Dear me, dear me,’ he said lightly, ‘ what a mind you have for argument! —a born casuist; and yet, like all women, you would let your sympathy rule you in matters of state. But come,’ he added, ‘ where do you think I have been? ’ It was hard to answer him gayly, and yet it must be done, and so I said, ‘You have probably put yourself in prison, that you should not keep your boast.’ ‘ I have been in prison,’ he answered, ‘ and I was on the wrong side, with no key.’ I did not understand him, and I questioned him. ‘ I was locked in a chest-room of the Intendance,’ he explained, ‘ but as yet I do not know by whom, nor am I sure why. After two days without food or drink, I managed to get out through the barred window. I spent three days in my room, ill, and here I am. You must not speak of this — you will not?’ he asked me. ‘To no one.’ I answered gayly, ‘ but my other self.’ ‘Where is your other self?’ he asked. ‘ In here,’ I said, touching my bosom. I did not mean to turn my head away when I said it, but indeed I felt I could not look him in the eyes at the moment, for I was thinking of you.

“ He mistook me ; he thought I was coquetting with him, and he leaned forward to speak in my ear, so that I could feel his breath on my cheek. I turned faint, for I saw how terrible was this game I was playing ; but oh, Robert, Robert,” — her hands fluttered towards me, then drew back, — “ it was for your sake, for your sake, that I let his hand rest on mine an instant, as he said, ‘ I am going hunting there to find your other self. Shall I know the face if I see it ? ’ I drew my hand away, for it was torture to me, and I hated him, but I only said a little scornfully, ‘ You do not stand by your words. You said ’ — here I laughed a little disdainfully — ‘ that you would meet the first test to prove your right to follow the second boast.’

“ He got to bis feet, and said in a low, firm voice, ‘Your memory is excellent, your aplomb perfect. You are young to know it all so well. But you bring your own punishment,’ he added, with a wicked smile, ‘ and you shall pay hereafter. I am going to the Governor. Bigot has arrived, and is with Madame Cournal yonder. You shall have proof in half an hour.’

“ At that he left me. An idea occurred to me. If he succeeded in staying your execution, you would in all likelihood be placed in the common jail. I would try to get an order from the Governor to visit the jail to distribute gifts to the prisoners, as my mother and I had done before on the day before Christmas. I asked my mother if I might beg the order of his Excellency, and she consented. So, while Doltaire was passing with Bigot and the Chevalier la Darante into another room, I asked the Governor ; and that very moment, at my wish, he had his secretary write the order, which he countersigned and handed me, with a gift of gold for the prisoners. As he left my mother and myself, Monsieur Doltaire came back with Bigot, and, approaching the Governor, they led him away, engaging at once in serious talk. One thing I noticed: as Doltaire and Bigot came up, I could see Doltaire eying the Intendant askance, as though he would read treachery. For I feel sure that it was Bigot who contrived to have Doltaire shut up in the chest-room. I cannot guess the reason, quite, unless it be true, what gossips say, that Bigot is jealous of the notice Madame Cournal has given Doltaire, who visits much at her house.

“ Well, they asked me to sing, and so I did ; and can you guess what it was ? Even the vouageurs’ song,

‘ Brothers, we go to the Scarlet Hills,

(Little gold sun, come out of the dawn !) ’

I know not how I sang it, for my heart, my thoughts, were far away in a whirl of clouds and mist, as you may see a flock of wild ducks in the haze upon a river, flying they know not whither, save that they follow the sound of the stream. I was just ending the song when Monsieur Doltaire leaned over me, and said in my ear, ‘ To-morrow I shall invite Monsieur Stobo from the scaffold to my breakfast - table — or, better still, invite myself to his own.’ His hand caught mine, as I gave a little cry ; for when I felt sure of your reprieve, I could not, Robert, I could not keep it back. He thought I was startled at his hand-pressure, and did not guess the real cause.

“ ‘ I have met one challenge, and I shall meet the other,’he said quickly. ‘ It is not so much a matter of power, either; it is that engine opportunity. You and I should go far in this wicked world,’he added. ‘ We think together, we see through ladders. I admire you, mademoiselle. Some men will say they love you ; and they should, or they have no taste ; and the more they love you, the better pleased am I — if you are best pleased with me. But it is possible for men to love and not to admire. It is a foolish thing to say that reverence must go with love. I know men who have lost their heads and their souls for women whom they knew infamous. But when one admires where one loves, then in the ebb and flow of passion the heart is safe, for admiration holds when the sense is cold.’

“ You know well, Robert, how clever he is ; how, listening to him, you must admit his talent and his power. But oh, believe that, though I am full of wonder at his cleverness, I cannot bear him very near me.”

She paused. I looked most gravely at her, as well one might who saw so sweet a maid employing her heart thus, and the danger that faced her. She misread my look a little, maybe, for she said at once : —

“ I must be honest with you, and so I tell you all — all, else the part I play were not possible to me. To you I can speak plainly, pour out my soul. Do not fear for me. I see a battle coming between that man and me, but I shall fight it stoutly, worthily, so that, in this, at least, I shall never have to blush for you that you loved me. Be patient, Robert, and never doubt me ; for that would make me close the doors of my heart, though I should never cease to aid you, never weary in labor for your well-being. If these things, and fighting all these wicked men, to make Doltaire help me to save you, have schooled to action some worse parts of me, there is yet in me that which shall never be brought low, never be dragged to the level of Versailles or the Château Bigot — never! ”

She looked at me with such dignity and pride that my eyes filled with tears, and, not to be stayed, I reached out and took her hands, and would have clasped her to my breast, but she held back from me.

“You believe in me, Robert?” she said most earnestly. “ You will never doubt me? You know that I am true and loyal.”

“ I believe in God, and you,” I answered firmly and reverently, and then I took her in my arms and kissed her. I did not care at all whether or no Gabord saw ; but indeed he did not, as Alixe told me afterwards, for, woman-like, even in this sweet crisis she had an eye for such details.

“ What more said he ? ” I asked, my heart beating hard in the joy of that embrace.

“No more, or little more, for my mother came that instant and brought me to talk with the Chevalier la Darante, who wished to ask me for next summer to Kamaraska or Isle aux Coudres, where be has manor houses. Before I left Monsieur Deltaire, he said, ‘ I never made a promise but I wished to break it. This one shall balance all I ’ve broken, for I ’ll never unwish it.’

“ My mother heard this, and so I summoned all my will, and said gayly,

‘ Poor broken crockery ! You stand a tower among the ruins.’ This pleased him, and he answered, ‘ On the tower base is written, This crockery outlives all others.’ My mother looked sharply at me, but said nothing, for she has come to think that I am heartless and cold to men and to the world, selfish in many things.”

At this moment Gabord turned round, saying, “ ’T is time to be done. Madame comes.”

“ It is my mother,” said Alixe, standing up, and hastily placing her hands in mine. “ I must be gone. Good-by, goodby.”

There was no chance for further adieu, and I saw her pass out with Gabord ; but she turned at the last, and said in English, for she knew it a little now, “ Believe, and remember.”

Then the door closed, and she was gone. But from my window, not long after, I saw her and her mother pass across the yard and through a gateway, which closed after them. She did not look back ; perhaps for fear of her mother’s suspicion.

Gilbert Parker.