h me. Those brutes were sure, sooner or later, to bring
you to me, that you might see the caged fox worn down to imbecility,
eh? That you might add your tears to their persuasion, and succeed where
they have failed."

He laughed lightly with an unstrained note of gaiety, only Marguerite's
sensitive ears caught the faint tone of bitterness which rang through
the laugh.

"Once I know that the little King of France is safe," he said, "I can
think of how best to rob those d--d murderers of my skin."

Then suddenly his manner changed. He still held her with one arm closely
to, him, but the other now lay across the table, and the slender,
emaciated hand was tightly clutched. He did not look at her, but
straight ahead; the eyes, unnaturally large now, with their deep purple
rims, looked far ahead beyond the stone walls of this grim, cruel
prison.

The passionate lover, hungering for his beloved, had vanished; there
sat the man with a purpose, the man whose firm hand had snatched men and
women and children from death, the reckless enthusiast who tossed his
life against an ideal.

For a while he sat thus, while in his drawn and haggard face she could
trace every line formed by his thoughts--the frown of anxiety, the
resolute setting of the lips, the obstinate look of will around the firm
jaw. Then he turned again to her.

"My beautiful one," he said softly, "the moments are very precious. God
knows I could spend eternity thus with your dear form nestling against
my heart. But those d--d murderers will only give us half an hour, and I
want your help, my beloved, now that I am a helpless cur caught in their
trap. Will you listen attentively, dear heart, to what I am going to
say?

"Yes, Percy, I will listen," she replied.

"And have you the courage to do just what I tell you, dear?"

"I would not have courage to do aught else," she said simply.

"It means going from hence to-day, dear heart, and perhaps not meeting
again. Hush-sh-sh, my beloved," he said, tenderly placing his thin hand
over her mouth, from which a sharp cry of pain had well-nigh escaped;
"your exquisite soul will be with me always. Try--try not to give way to
despair. Why! your love alone, which I see shining from your dear eyes,
is enough to make a man cling to life with all his might. Tell me! will
you do as I ask you?"

And she replied firmly and courageously:

"I will do just what you ask, Percy."

"God bless you for your courage, dear. You wi