y child!" he cried, "for having had the courage to speak the
truth, and shame thy old father and me, who dared not say a word."

"The girl amazes me," said Schneider, with a look of astonishment. "I
never saw her, it is true, till yesterday; but I used no force: her
father gave her to me with his free consent, and she yielded as gladly.
Speak, Edward Ancel, was it not so?"

"It was, indeed, by my free consent," said Edward, trembling.

"For shame, brother!" cried old Jacob. "Sir, it was by Edward's free
consent and my niece's; but the guillotine was in the court-yard!
Question Schneider's famulus, the man Gregoire, him who reads 'The
Sorrows of Werter.'"

Gregoire stepped forward, and looked hesitatingly at Schneider, as he
said, "I know not what took place within doors; but I was ordered to put
up the scaffold without; and I was told to get soldiers, and let no one
leave the house."

"Citizen St. Just," cried Schneider, "you will not allow the testimony
of a ruffian like this, of a foolish girl, and a mad ex-priest, to weigh
against the word of one who has done such service to the Republic: it is
a base conspiracy to betray me; the whole family is known to favor the
interest of the emigres."

"And therefore you would marry a member of the family, and allow the
others to escape; you must make a better defence, citizen Schneider,"
said St. Just, sternly.

Here I came forward, and said that, three days since, I had received an
order to quit Strasburg for Paris immediately after a conversation with
Schneider, in which I had asked him his aid in promoting my marriage
with my cousin, Mary Ancel; that he had heard from me full accounts
regarding her father's wealth; and that he had abruptly caused my
dismissal, in order to carry on his scheme against her.

"You are in the uniform of a regiment of this town; who sent you from
it?" said St. Just.

I produced the order, signed by himself, and the despatches which
Schneider had sent me.

"The signature is mine, but the despatches did not come from my office.
Can you prove in any way your conversation with Schneider?"

"Why," said my sentimental friend Gregoire, "for the matter of that, I
can answer that the lad was always talking about this young woman:
he told me the whole story himself, and many a good laugh I had with
citizen Schneider as we talked about it."

"The charge against Edward Ancel must be examined into," said St. Just.
"The marriage cannot take place