ours, and had not sat down
for an instant during the whole night, neither her voice nor her body
betrayed any fatigue. Only her head drooped upon her bosom, which was
throbbing violently, and seemed to listen to the sighs exhaling from it.
Suddenly she lifted up her head, and raising her arms toward heaven,
cried, 'O servitude! servitude!' At these words tears, rolling from
beneath her mask, fell among the folds of her black dress.

"'Why do you weep?' asked Franz, approaching her.

"'To-morrow,' she answered, 'at midnight, before the Arsenal;' and went
out by the side door at the left, which closed again heavily. At the
same moment the Angelus sounded.

"Franz, astonished by the unexpected noise of the bell, turned and saw
that all the tapers were extinguished. He remained for some time
motionless from surprise, then left the church by the great door which
the sacristan had just opened, and returned slowly home, endeavoring to
guess who this woman, so bold, so artistic, so powerful, with such charm
in her speech, such majesty in her appearance, could be.

"The next night at midnight the count was before the Arsenal. He found
the Mask, who was waiting for him as on the previous night, and who,
without saying anything, began to walk rapidly before him. Arrived
before one of the side doors on the right, she stopped, inserted in the
keyhole a golden key, which Franz saw glitter in the moonbeams, opened
the door without making any noise, and entered first, signing to Franz
to follow her. The latter hesitated an instant. To penetrate into the
Arsenal at night by the aid of a false key was to expose one's self to a
trial by a court-martial, if one were discovered; and it was almost
impossible to avoid discovery in a place guarded by sentinels. But
seeing the Mask on the point of closing the door upon him, he suddenly
decided to pursue the adventure to the close, and entered. The masked
woman first led him across several courts, then through corridors and
galleries, all the doors of which she opened with her golden key, and
ended by bringing him into vast halls filled with arms of all kinds and
times, which had served, in the wars of the republic, either its
defenders or its enemies. These halls were lighted by ships' lanterns
placed at equal distances between the trophies. She showed the count the
most curious and celebrated arms, telling him the names of those to whom
they had belonged and of the battles in which they had