nspiracy, and then, once launched on that fatal incline, unable to
stop herself. Had she rolled to the scaffold?

The young man saw in his own mind a whole world, and he peopled it. He
wandered in the shade of those Norman groves; he saw the Breton hero
and Madame Bryond among the gorse and shrubbery; he inhabited the old
chateau of Saint-Savin; he shared in the diverse acts of all those many
personages, picturing to himself the notary, the merchant, and those
bold Chouans. His mind conceived the state of that wild country where
lingered still the memory of the Comtes de Bauvan, de Longuy, the
exploits of Marche-a-Terre, the massacre at La Vivetiere, the death of
the Marquis de Montauran--of whose prowess Madame de la Chanterie had
told him.

This sort of vision of things, of men, of places was rapid. When he
remembered that this drama must relate to the dignified, noble, deeply
religious old woman whose virtue was acting upon him so powerfully as
to be upon the point of metamorphosing him, Godefroid was seized with a
sort of terror, and turned hastily to the second document which Monsieur
Alain had given him. This was entitled:--

Summary on behalf of Madame Henriette Bryond des Tours-Minieres,
nee Lechantre de la Chanterie.

"No longer any doubt!" murmured Godefroid.

We are condemned and guilty; but if ever the Sovereign had reason
to exercise his right of clemency it is surely in a case like
this.

Here is a young woman, about to become a mother, and condemned to
death.

From a prison cell, with the scaffold before her, this woman will
tell the truth.

The trial before the Criminal Court of Alencon had, as in all
cases where there are many accused persons in a conspiracy
inspired by party-spirit, certain portions which were seriously
obscure.

The Chancellor of His Imperial and Royal Majesty knows now the
truth about the mysterious personage named Le Marchand, whose
presence in the department of the Orne was not denied by the
government during the trial, but whom the prosecution did not
think proper to call as witness, and whom the defence had neither
the power nor the opportunity to find.

That personage is, as the prosecuting officer, the police of
Paris, and the Chancellor of His Imperial and Royal Majesty well
know, the Sieur Bernard-Polydor Bryond des Tours-Minieres, the
correspondent, since 1794, of the Comte de Lille,--known elsewh