elf, without criminating those I would not name?"

"That matters but little. Doubtless, you have powerful friends,--rich
ones, perhaps, and in office; they will bear you harmless."

"Alas! you are wrong. I have not in all the length and breadth of France
one who, if a word would save me from the scaffold, would care to speak
it. I am a stranger and an alien."

"Hal" said a fair-haired, handsome youth, starting from the grass where
he had been sitting, "what would I not give now, if your lot was mine.
They 'd not make my heart tremble if I could forget the cabin I was born
in."

"Hush, Philippe!" said the other, "the weapon is not in their armory to
make a Vendean tremble--But, hark! there is the drum for the inspection.
You must present yourself each day at noon, at the low postern yonder,
and write your name; and mark me, before we part, it cannot serve us, it
may ruin you, if we are seen to speak together. Trust no one here' Those
whom you see yonder are half of them _moutons_."

"How?" said I, not understanding the phrase.

"Ay, it was a prison word I used," resumed he. "I would say they are but
spies of the police, who, as if confined for their offences, are only
here to obtain confessions from unguarded, unsuspecting prisoners. Their
frankness and sincerity are snares that have led many to the guillotine:
beware of them. You dare not carry your glass to your lip, but the
murmured toast might be your condemnation. Adieu!" said he; and as he
spoke he turned away and left the place, followed by the rest.

The disgust I felt at first for the others was certainly not lessened by
learning that their guilt was stained by treachery the blackest that can
disgrace humanity; and now, as I walked among them, it was with a sense
of shrinking horror I recoiled from the very touch of the wretches whose
smiles were but lures to the scaffold.

"Ha! our lost and strayed friend," said one, as I appeared, "come hither
and make a clean breast of it. What amiable weaknesses have introduced
you to the Temple?"

"In truth," said I, endeavoring to conceal my knowledge of my
acquaintances' real character, "I cannot even guess, nor do I believe
that any one else is wiser than myself."

"_Parbleu!_, young gentleman," said the Abbe, as he spied me
impertinently through his glass, "you are excessively old-fashioned for
your years. Don't you know that spotless innocence went out with the
Bourbons? Every one since that dies in the glor