day the
resolutions of the night. Your complaints rent my heart; your reproaches
tortured my soul. I felt at last that I was irretrievably lost--that I
loved you boundlessly, and that I was anxious to prove it to you. But my
husband watched me with lynx-eyed vigilance; he was constantly at my
side, now threatening, in the fury of his jealousy, to assassinate me
should I leave him, and now imploring me with tearful eyes to spare his
honor and pity his love. I felt that I would have either to die, or
renounce my married life, and enter upon a new existence--an existence
of true happiness if you love me, but of suffering and self-reproach if
you despise, me!"

"I love you," said Napoleon, with a proud and confident air. "Proceed."

"I have finished," she said. "My trusty lady's maid prepared every thing
for my escape, and four days ago, when my husband believed me at church,
I and my maid entered a travelling-coach and continued our journey day
and night until we arrived at Castle Finkenstein."

"And this disguise?" asked Napoleon, pointing at the costume she was
wearing.

Mary blushed and smiled. "I had it made by a tailor at Warsaw, who
prepared the suits the imperial pages wore at that ball. I had not
sufficient courage to enter this castle as a lady, only men living in it
at the present time. I desired to enter your room without recognition or
insult. I left my carriage at the neighboring village, and walked hither
on foot. At the castle-gate, I inquired for Constant, your _valet de
chambre_, and requested the servants to call him. I confided my secret
to him, and he conducted me to this room. And thus, my beloved friend, I
am here; I am lying at your feet, and imploring you to kill me if you do
not love me, for I cannot live without your love!" She glided from the
divan to the floor, and looked up to the emperor with clasped hands and
imploring eyes.

Napoleon bent over her and drew her smilingly into his arms. "You shall
live," he said, "for I love you and pledge you my imperial word that I
will never desert you!"

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE DANTZIC CHOCOLATE.

On the following day the emperor's face did not retain a trace of the
gloom which had filled his marshals with so much uneasiness. His
features were radiant with happiness, and a strange fire was burning in
his dark-blue eyes. He ordered his guard to be drawn up in line in the
castle-yard, and to the delight of the soldiers it was announced that
Nap