e, "listen to me."

The request was needless. The young officer stood upright before her,
awaiting her words as if to devour them.

"Felton," said Milady, with a solemnity full of melancholy, "imagine
that your sister, the daughter of your father, speaks to you. While yet
young, unfortunately handsome, I was dragged into a snare. I resisted.
Ambushes and violences multiplied around me, but I resisted. The
religion I serve, the God I adore, were blasphemed because I called upon
that religion and that God, but still I resisted. Then outrages were
heaped upon me, and as my soul was not subdued they wished to defile my
body forever. Finally--"

Milady stopped, and a bitter smile passed over her lips.

"Finally," said Felton, "finally, what did they do?"

"At length, one evening my enemy resolved to paralyze the resistance
he could not conquer. One evening he mixed a powerful narcotic with my
water. Scarcely had I finished my repast, when I felt myself sink by
degrees into a strange torpor. Although I was without mistrust, a vague
fear seized me, and I tried to struggle against sleepiness. I arose. I
wished to run to the window and call for help, but my legs refused their
office. It appeared as if the ceiling sank upon my head and crushed me
with its weight. I stretched out my arms. I tried to speak. I could only
utter inarticulate sounds, and irresistible faintness came over me. I
supported myself by a chair, feeling that I was about to fall, but this
support was soon insufficient on account of my weak arms. I fell upon
one knee, then upon both. I tried to pray, but my tongue was frozen. God
doubtless neither heard nor saw me, and I sank upon the floor a prey to
a slumber which resembled death.

"Of all that passed in that sleep, or the time which glided away while
it lasted, I have no remembrance. The only thing I recollect is that I
awoke in bed in a round chamber, the furniture of which was sumptuous,
and into which light only penetrated by an opening in the ceiling. No
door gave entrance to the room. It might be called a magnificent prison.

"It was a long time before I was able to make out what place I was in,
or to take account of the details I describe. My mind appeared to strive
in vain to shake off the heavy darkness of the sleep from which I could
not rouse myself. I had vague perceptions of space traversed, of the
rolling of a carriage, of a horrible dream in which my strength had
become exhausted; but all