hat of all things upon the earth, he hated
Your person most: that he would pawn his fortunes
To hopeless restitution, so he might
Be called your vanquisher.

SHAKSPEARE.

The first hours of misfortune are generally the most tedious; and the
night which succeeded the imprisonment of La Tour appeared to him almost
endless in duration. A small and closely grated window sparingly
admitted the light and air of heaven; and, through its narrow openings,
he watched the last beams of the moon, and saw the stars twinkle more
faintly in the advancing light of morning, before he sought that repose,
which entire exhaustion rendered indispensable.

He was aroused at a late hour on the following morning, from feverish
slumber, by the opening of his door; and, starting up, he, with equal
surprise and displeasure, recognized M. d'Aulney in the intruder. A
glance of angry defiance was the only salutation which he deigned to
give; but it was unnoticed by D'Aulney, who had apparently resolved to
restrain the violence, which they had mutually indulged on the preceding
day.

"I come to offer you freedom, M. de la Tour," he said, after a moment's
hesitation, "and on terms which the most prejudiced could not but
consider lenient."

"Freedom from life, then!" La Tour scornfully replied; "I can expect no
other liberty, while it is in your power to hold me in bondage."

"Beware how you defy my power!" replied D'Aulney; "or provoke the wrath
which may burst in vengeance on your head. You are my prisoner, De la
Tour; and, as the representative of royalty here, the command of life or
death is entrusted to my discretion."

"I deny that command," said La Tour, "and bid you exercise it at your
peril. Prove to me the authority which constitutes you my judge; which
gives you a right to scrutinize the actions of a compeer; to hold in
duresse the person of a free and loyal subject of our king;--prove this,
and I may submit to your judgment, I may crave the clemency, which I now
despise--nay, which I would not stoop to receive from your hands."

"You speak boldly, for a rebel and a traitor!" said D'Aulney,
contemptuously; "for one whose office is annulled, and whose name is
branded with infamy!"

"Come you hither to insult me, false-hearted villain?" exclaimed La
Tour, passionately; "prisoner and defenceless, though I now am, you may
yet have cause to repent the rashness which brings you to my presence!"

"Your threats are