ernor, but he, alas! is
no friend of yours. And what way there is to move him I know not; he has
no wish, I fancy, but that you shall go to your fate."

"You mean Monsieur Doltaire?" said I quietly.

"Doltaire," he answered. "I have tried to find him, for he is the secret
agent of La Pompadour, and if I had one plausible reason to weigh with
him-- But I have none, unless you can give it. There are vague hints of
things between you and him, and I have come to ask if you can put any
fact, any argument, in my hands that would aid me with him. I would go
far to serve you."

"Think not, I pray you," returned I, "that there is any debt unsatisfied
between us."

He waved his hand in a melancholy way. "Indeed, I wish to serve you for
the sake of past friendship between us, not only for that debt's sake."

"In spite of my quarrel with your son?" asked I.

"In spite of that, indeed," he said slowly, "though a great wedge was
driven between us there."

"I am truly sorry for it," said I, with some pride. "The blame was in no
sense mine. I was struck across the face; I humbled myself, remembering
you, but he would have me out yes or no."

"Upon a wager!" he urged, somewhat coldly.

"With the Intendant, monsieur," I replied, "not with your son."

"I can not understand the matter," was his gloomy answer.

"I beg you not to try," I rejoined; "it is too late for explanations,
and I have nothing to tell you of myself and Monsieur Doltaire. Only,
whatever comes, remember I have begged nothing of you, have desired
nothing but justice--that only. I shall make no further move; the axe
shall fall if it must. I have nothing now to do but set my house in
order, and live the hours between this and sunrise with what quiet I
may. I am ready for either freedom or death. Life is not so incomparable
a thing that I can not give it up without pother."

He looked at me a moment steadily. "You and I are standing far off from
each other," he remarked. "I will say one last thing to you, though you
seem to wish me gone and your own grave closing in. I was asked by the
Governor to tell you that if you would put him in the way of knowing the
affairs of your provinces from the letters you have received, together
with estimate of forces and plans of your forts, as you have known them,
he will spare you. I only tell you this because you close all other ways
to me."

"I carry," said I, with a sharp burst of anger, "the scars of wounds an
insolent