was proposed, however, on a dark night, to get away to some point on
the river, where a boat should be stationed--though that was a difficult
matter, for the river was well patrolled and boats were scarce--and
drift quietly down the stream, till a good distance below the city. Mr.
Stevens said he had delayed the attempt on the faint hope of fetching me
along. Money, he said, was needed, for Clark and all were very poor, and
common necessaries were now at exorbitant prices in the country. Tyranny
and robbery had made corn and clothing luxuries. All the old tricks of
Bigot and his La Friponne, which, after the outbreak the night of my
arrest at the Seigneur Duvarney's, had been somewhat repressed, were in
full swing again, and robbery in the name of providing for defense was
the only habit.

I managed to convey to Mr. Stevens a good sum of money, and begged him
to meet me every day upon the ramparts, until I also should see my way
to making a dart for freedom. I advised him in many ways, for he was
more bold than shrewd, and I made him promise that he would not tell
Clark or the others that I was to make trial to go with them. I feared
the accident of disclosure, and any new failure on my part to get away
would, I knew, mean my instant death, consent of King or no consent.

One evening, a soldier entered my room, whom in the half-darkness I did
not recognize, till a voice said, "There's orders new! Not dungeon now,
but this room Governor bespeaks for gentlemen from France."

"And where am I to go, Gabord?"

"Where you will have fighting," he answered.

"With whom?"

"Yourself, aho!" A queer smile crossed his lips, and was followed by a
sort of sternness. There was something graver in his manner than I had
ever seen. I could not guess his meaning. At last he added, pulling
roughly at his mustache, "And when that's done, if not well done, to
answer to Gabord the soldier; for, God take my soul without bed-going,
but I will call you to account! That Seigneur's home is no place for
you."

"You speak in riddles," said I. Then all at once the matter burst upon
me. "The Governor quarters me at the Seigneur Duvarney's?" I asked.

"No other," answered he. "In three days to go."

I understood him now. He had had a struggle, knowing of the relations
between Alixe and myself, to avoid telling the Governor all. And now,
if I involved her, used her to effect my escape from her father's house!
Even his peasant brain saw my dif