id the woman, "beware!--you know that, whether in flight
or at the place of death, I would brave all to be by your side,--you
know THAT! Speak!"

"Well, Fillide; did I ever doubt your fidelity?"

"Doubt it you cannot,--betray it you may. You tell me that in flight you
must have a companion besides myself, and that companion is a female. It
shall not be!"

"Shall not!"

"It shall not!" repeated Fillide, firmly, and folding her arms across
her breast. Before Glyndon could reply, a slight knock at the door was
heard, and Nicot opened the latch and entered.

Fillide sank into her chair, and, leaning her face on her hands,
appeared unheeding of the intruder and the conversation that ensued.

"I cannot bid thee good-day, Glyndon," said Nicot, as in his
sans-culotte fashion he strode towards the artist, his ragged hat on his
head, his hands in his pockets, and the beard of a week's growth upon
his chin,--"I cannot bid thee good-day; for while the tyrant lives, evil
is every sun that sheds its beams on France."

"It is true; what then? We have sown the wind, we must reap the
whirlwind."

"And yet," said Nicot, apparently not heeding the reply, and as if
musingly to himself, "it is strange to think that the butcher is as
mortal as the butchered; that his life hangs on as slight a thread; that
between the cuticle and the heart there is as short a passage,--that, in
short, one blow can free France and redeem mankind!"

Glyndon surveyed the speaker with a careless and haughty scorn, and made
no answer.

"And," proceeded Nicot, "I have sometimes looked round for the man born
for this destiny, and whenever I have done so, my steps have led me
hither!"

"Should they not rather have led thee to the side of Maximilien
Robespierre?" said Glyndon, with a sneer.

"No," returned Nicot, coldly,--"no; for I am a 'suspect:' I could not
mix with his train; I could not approach within a hundred yards of his
person, but I should be seized; YOU, as yet, are safe. Hear me!"--and
his voice became earnest and expressive,--"hear me! There seems danger
in this action; there is none. I have been with Collot d'Herbois and
Bilaud-Varennes; they will hold him harmless who strikes the blow; the
populace would run to thy support; the Convention would hail thee as
their deliverer, the--"

"Hold, man! How darest thou couple my name with the act of an assassin?
Let the tocsin sound from yonder tower, to a war between Humanity and
the Tyrant, a