all his limbs. Was it possible? Did he understand
her? Did Dionysia herself come and suggest to him that act of supreme
despair, from which his counsel had so strongly dissuaded him?

"What do you mean?" he said with trembling voice.

"You must escape."

"Escape?"

"Nothing so easy. I have considered the whole matter thoroughly. The
jailers are in our pay. I have just come to an understanding with
Blangin's wife. One evening, as soon as night falls, they will open the
doors to you. A horse will be ready for you outside of town, and relays
have been prepared. In four hours you can reach Rochelle. There, one
of those pilot-boats which can stand any storm takes you on board, and
carries you to England."

Jacques shook his head.

"That cannot be," he replied. "I am innocent. I cannot abandon all I
hold dear,--you, Dionysia."

A deep flush covered the young girl's cheeks. She stammered,--

"I have expressed myself badly. You shall not go alone."

He raised his hands to heaven, as if in utter despair.

"Great God! Thou grantest me this consolation!"

But Dionysia went on speaking in a firmer voice.

"Did you think I would be mean enough to forsake the friend who
is betrayed by everybody else? No, no! Grandpapa and my aunts will
accompany me, and we will meet you in England. You will change your
name, and go across to America; and we will look out, far in the West,
for some new country where we can establish ourselves. It won't be
France, to be sure. But our country, Jacques, is the country where we
are free, where we are beloved, where we are happy."

Jacques de Boiscoran was moved to the last fibre of his innermost heart,
and in a kind of ecstasy which did not allow him to keep up any longer
his mask of impassive indifference. Was there a man upon earth who could
receive a more glorious proof of love and devotion? And from what a
woman! From a young girl, who united in herself all the qualities of
which a single one makes others proud,--intelligence and grace, high
rank and fortune, beauty and angelic purity.

Ah! she did not hesitate like that other one; she did not think of
asking for securities before she granted the first favor; she did not
make a science of duplicity, nor hypocrisy her only virtue. She gave
herself up entirely, and without the slightest reserve.

And all this at the moment when Jacques saw every thing else around him
crumbled to pieces, when he was on the very brink of utter despair,