have
loved her; that is useless, like all the rest. Give me your hand once
more, and then--let them do their duty. Turn your head away; it will
soon be over!"

Almost ere he asked it, his friend's hands closed upon both is own,
keeping the promise made so long before in the old years gone; great,
tearless sobs heaved the depths of his broad chest; those gentle, weary
words had rent his very soul, and he knew that he was powerless here;
he knew that he could no more stay this doom of death than he could stay
the rising of the sun up over the eastern heavens. The clear voice of
the officer in command rang shrilly through the stillness.

"Monsieur, make your farewell. I can wait no longer."

The Seraph started, and flung himself round with the grand challenge of
a lion, struck by a puny spear. His face flushed crimson; his words were
choked in his throbbing throat.

"As I live, you shall not fire! I forbid you! I swear by my honor and
the honor of England that he shall not die like a dog. He is of my
country; he is of my Order. I will appeal to your Emperor; he will
accord me his life the instant I ask it. Give me only an hour's
reprieve--a few moments' space to speak to your chiefs, to seek out your
general--"

"It is impossible, monsieur."

The curt, calm answer was inflexible; against the sentence and its
execution there could be no appeal.

Cecil laid his hand upon his old friend's shoulders.

"It will be useless," he murmured. "Let them act; the quicker the
better."

"What! you think I would look on and see you die?"

"Would to Heaven you had never known I lived----"

The officer made a gesture to the guard to separate them.

"Monsieur, submit to the execution of the law, or I must arrest you."

Lyonnesse flung off the detaining hand of the guard, and swung round so
that his agonized eyes gazed close into the adjutant's immovable face,
which before that gaze lost its coldness and its rigor, and changed to
a great pity for this stranger who had found the friend of his youth in
the man who stood condemned to perish there.

"An hour's reprieve; for mercy's sake, grant that!"

"I have said, it is impossible."

"But you do not dream who is--"

"It matters not."

"He is an English noble, I tell you--"

"He is a soldier who has broken the law; that suffices."

"O Heaven! have you no humanity?"

"We have justice."

"Justice! If you have justice, let your chiefs hear his story; let
his name be ma