tremble! Above you there is the king; above the king there
is God!'

"However perfect master he was over himself, my persecutor allowed a
movement of anger to escape him. I could not see the expression of his
countenance, but I felt the arm tremble upon which my hand was placed.

"'Then you shall not leave this place,' said he.

"'Very well,' cried I, 'then the place of my punishment will be that of
my tomb. I will die here, and you will see if a phantom that accuses is
not more terrible than a living being that threatens!'

"'You shall have no weapon left in your power.'

"'There is a weapon which despair has placed within the reach of every
creature who has the courage to use it. I will allow myself to die with
hunger.'

"'Come,' said the wretch, 'is not peace much better than such a war as
that? I will restore you to liberty this moment; I will proclaim you a
piece of immaculate virtue; I will name you the Lucretia of England.'

"'And I will say that you are the Sextus. I will denounce you before
men, as I have denounced you before God; and if it be necessary that,
like Lucretia, I should sign my accusation with my blood, I will sign
it.'

"'Ah!' said my enemy, in a jeering tone, 'that's quite another thing. My
faith! everything considered, you are very well off here. You shall want
for nothing, and if you let yourself die of hunger that will be your own
fault.'

"At these words he retired. I heard the door open and shut, and I
remained overwhelmed, less, I confess it, by my grief than by the
mortification of not having avenged myself.

"He kept his word. All the day, all the next night passed away without
my seeing him again. But I also kept my word with him, and I neither ate
nor drank. I was, as I told him, resolved to die of hunger.

"I passed the day and the night in prayer, for I hoped that God would
pardon me my suicide.

"The second night the door opened; I was lying on the floor, for my
strength began to abandon me.

"At the noise I raised myself up on one hand.

"'Well,' said a voice which vibrated in too terrible a manner in my ear
not to be recognized, 'well! Are we softened a little? Will we not pay
for our liberty with a single promise of silence? Come, I am a good
sort of a prince,' added he, 'and although I like not Puritans I do them
justice; and it is the same with Puritanesses, when they are pretty.
Come, take a little oath for me on the cross; I won't ask anything more
of you.'