the day is gone, and I must take to the road again. My heart
is lighter since I seen you; and it will be lighter again when I give
you this wamin',--God knows if you 'll mind it. You think yourself safe
now since you joined the sodgers; you think they trust you, and that
Barton's eye is n't on ye still. There is n't a word you say is n't
noted down,--not a man you spake to isn't watched. You don't know it;
but I know it. There 's more go to the gallows in Ireland over their
wine, than with the pike in their hands. Take care of your friends, I
say."

"You wrong them. Darby; and you wrong me. Never have I heard from one
here a single word that could offend the proudest heart among us."

"Why would they? what need of it? Ar'n't we down, down? ar'n't we hunted
like wild beasts? is the roof left to shelter us? dare we walk the
roads? dare we say 'God save ye!' when we meet, and not be tried for
pass words? It 's no wonder they pity us; the hardest heart must melt
sometimes."

"As to myself," said I,--for there was no use in attempting to reason
with him further,--"my every wish is with the cause as warmly as on the
day we parted. But I look to France--"

"Ay, and why not? I remember the time your eye flashed and your cheek
grew another color when you spoke of that."

"Yes, Darby," said I, after a pause; "and I had not been here now,
but that the only means I possessed of forwarding myself in the French
service are unfortunately lost to me."

"And what was that?" interrupted he, eagerly.

"Some letters which the poor Captain de Meudon gave me," said I,
endeavoring to seem as much at ease as I could.

Darby stooped down as I spoke, and ripping open the lining of his cloak,
produced a small parcel fastened with a cord, saying, "Are these what
you mean?"

I opened it with a trembling hand, and to my inexpressible delight,
discovered Charles's letter to the head of the Ecole Polytechnique,
together with a letter of credit and two cheques on his banker. The note
to his sister was not, however, among them.

"How came you by these papers, Darby?" inquired I, eagerly.

"I found them on the road Barton travelled, the same evening you made
your escape from the yeomanry; you remember that? They were soon missed,
and an orderly was sent back to search for them. Since that, I 've kept
them by me; and it was only yesterday that I thought of bringing them to
you, thinking you might know something about them."

"There 's a mar