ill be put ashore and left to support life like a second
Robinson Crusoe, or in his despair seek death."

"Well, the plan really is not impracticable, and has been devised with
equal boldness and calculation. Only I should like to know why so much ado
is made, instead of adopting the shorter process, that is, murdering the
emperor."

"For two reasons! The conspirators consider their task too sacred to
profane it by assassination. They wish to rid Europe of the unhallowed yoke
which weighs upon it in the person of the Emperor Napoleon. They are
convinced that they are summoned to the work; that they shall thereby
render the world and mankind a service full of blessing; but they will not
anticipate fate; they will leave it to God to end a life which they merely
desire to render harmless to God and men. This is the first motive for not
killing the emperor, the second is that they believe a speedy death would
be no fit punishment for the crime which Napoleon has perpetrated on
humanity, while a perpetual, hopeless captivity, embittered by the
omnipresent, ever alert consciousness of ruined greatness, of fame buried
in dust and silence, would be a lasting penance more terrible to an
ambitious land-robber than death could ever be."

"They are right, by the eternal God, they are right!" cried Schulmeister;
"I believe that the emperor would prefer a speedy death a hundred times to
such slow torture; and to you, Leonore, to you and to me will now fall the
vast, the priceless happiness of preserving the emperor from such
martyrdom. I say the priceless happiness, but I shall take good care that
the emperor pays me for it as dearly as possible, and--so far as it can be
done--balances the immense weight of our service by its compensation. By
heaven, half a million francs really seems a trivial reward, and I don't
know whether we can be satisfied with it."

"I shall be satisfied," cried Leonore, with an enthusiastic glance, "only
when you fulfill the vow which you made; when, after I have made you rich,
you make me free and permit me to go with the man whom I love wherever I
desire, taking care that you do not betray by a word, a hint, who I am, and
what I was."

"I will fulfill my oath to you," said Schulmeister earnestly, "for you have
performed yours. You have discovered a conspiracy, and through this
discovery saved the emperor from a terrible misfortune, and given me the
right to demand a high price. You will make me rich; y