PAUL.

[_Taking the key_.]

How can I repay this deed?

JEAN.

Trust me--that is all.

PAUL.

[_Extending his hand_.]

I will--I do!

JEAN.

[_Kissing_ PAUL'S _hand_.]

I'm yours in life or death.

[_Goes to door_.]

Till to-night!

[_Exit_.

PAUL.

[_Alone_.]

Saved!--Thank God!--Their freedom in my hand!--

[_Pausing_.]

And yet she does not come.--Can it be that she believes me
guilty--esteems me lower than the foulest worm?

[_Enter_ DIANE.]

No, no,--I was right!

[_Going toward her_.]

I knew you'd come.

DIANE.

[_Checking him_.]

Stop!--Let me look at you and say farewell.

PAUL.

Then you really think me guilty?

DIANE.

If an angel had accused you, I would say it was a lie.

PAUL.

Diane! Diane!--My loyal wife!

[_He embraces her_.

DIANE.

[_Shrinking from him_.]

No, no! I am not worthy of your love! I must save my father's life, no
matter what it costs me.

PAUL.

Courage, dear heart! I hold here salvation for you both.

DIANE.

You?

PAUL.

Yes! This very night your father shall fly with us to England.

DIANE.

Ah! Then I am free! I need owe him nothing!

PAUL.

Owe whom nothing?

[_The tramp of_ SOLDIERS _is heard outside_.

DIANE.

Hark!--The Guard!--Take care!

_Enter the_ DUKE, _with_ GUARD _and_ POTIN.

DUKE.

[_Contemptuously to_ PAUL.]

You here, traitor?

DIANE.

[_Aside to the_ DUKE.]

You must not call him that. He did not betray. The proof is this--that
he has come to save you.

DUKE.

And so make my debt to him a means of reaching you;--but I would not
accept my life from hands unclean with treachery.

PAUL.

There's not a drop of traitor's blood within my veins!

DUKE.

Yet you signed the warrant for my arrest.

PAUL

Then another hand than mine--unknown to me--filled in your name.

DUKE.

Plausible trickster!--We have here double proof that you are guilty.

[_Enter_ GOUROC _in background_.]

The evidence of the man to whom you gave the warrant, commanding him
to take it to the Guard.

PAUL.

There's no such man alive--or dead!

DUKE.

Potin, advance.

[POTIN _comes forward sullenly_.]

Repeat what you swore in court.--From whom did you receive the warrant
for my arrest?

POTIN.

[_After a struggle_.]

I received it from--

[_Hesitates_.

GOUROC.

[_Aside to_ POTIN.]

Take care!--If I denounce--you die!

DUK