Voban; There was no excuse for him to remain
longer; so I gave him a message to Alixe, and slipped into his hand a
transcript from my journal. Then he left me, and I sat and thought upon
the strange events of the evening which he had described to me. That he
was bent on mischief I felt sure, but how it would come, what were his
plans, I could not guess. Then suddenly there flashed into my mind my
words to him, "blow us all to pieces," and his consternation and strange
eagerness. It came to me suddenly: he meant to blow up the Intendance.
When? And how? It seemed absurd to think of it. Yet--yet--The grim
humour of the thing possessed me, and I sat back and laughed heartily.

In the midst of my mirth the cell door opened and let in Doltaire.

XV. IN THE CHAMBER OF TORTURE

I started from my seat; we bowed, and, stretching out a hand to the
fire, Doltaire said, "Ah, my Captain, we meet too seldom. Let me
see: five months--ah yes, nearly five months. Believe me, I have not
breakfasted so heartily since. You are looking older--older. Solitude to
the active mind is not to be endured alone--no."

"Monsieur Doltaire is the surgeon to my solitude," said I.

"H'm!" he answered, "a jail surgeon merely. And that brings me to a
point, monsieur. I have had letters from France. The Grande Marquise--I
may as well be frank with you--womanlike, yearns violently for those
silly letters which you hold. She would sell our France for them. There
is a chance for you who would serve your country so. Serve it, and
yourself--and me. We have no news yet as to your doom, but be sure it is
certain. La Pompadour knows all, and if you are stubborn, twenty deaths
were too few. I can save you little longer, even were it my will so to
do. For myself, the great lady girds at me for being so poor an agent.
You, monsieur"--he smiled whimsically--"will agree that I have been
persistent--and intelligent."

"So much so," rejoined I, "as to be intrusive."

He smiled again. "If La Pompadour could hear you, she would understand
why I prefer the live amusing lion to the dead dog. When you are gone, I
shall be inconsolable. I am a born inquisitor."

"You were born for better things than this," I answered.

He took a seat and mused for a moment. "For larger things, you mean,"
was his reply. "Perhaps--perhaps. I have one gift of the strong man--I
am inexorable when I make for my end. As a general, I would pour men
into the maw of death as corn into