, Etienne, Etienne, they will kill you. Lorenzo is there."

"The old greybeard?"

"No, no, a young dark man. He loved me, and I thought I loved him
until--until I learned what love is, Etienne. He will never forgive you.
He has a heart of stone."

"Let them do what they like. They cannot rob me of the past, Lucia. But
you--what about you?"

"It will be nothing, Etienne. Only a pang for an instant and then all
over. They mean it as a badge of infamy, dear, but I will carry it like
a crown of honour since it was through you that I gained it."

Her words froze my blood with horror. All my adventures were
insignificant compared to this terrible shadow which was creeping over
my soul.

"Lucia! Lucia!" I cried. "For pity's sake tell me what these butchers
are about to do. Tell me, Lucia! Tell me!"

"I will not tell you, Etienne, for it would hurt you far more than
it would me. Well, well, I will tell you lest you should fear it was
something worse. The president has ordered that my ear be cut off, that
I may be marked for ever as having loved a Frenchman."

Her ear! The dear little ear which I had kissed so often. I put my hand
to each little velvet shell to make certain that this sacrilege had not
yet been committed.

Only over my dead body should they reach them. I swore it to her between
my clenched teeth.

"You must not care, Etienne. And yet I love that you should care all the
same."

"They shall not hurt you--the fiends!"

"I have hopes, Etienne. Lorenzo is there. He was silent while I was
judged, but he may have pleaded for me after I was gone."

"He did. I heard him."

"Then he may have softened their hearts."

I knew that it was not so, but how could I bring myself to tell her?
I might as well have done so, for with the quick instinct of woman my
silence was speech to her.

"They would not listen to him! You need not fear to tell me, dear, for
you will find that I am worthy to be loved by such a soldier. Where is
Lorenzo now?"

"He left the hall."

"Then he may have left the house as well."

"I believe that he did."

"He has abandoned me to my fate. Etienne, Etienne, they are coming!"

Afar off I heard those fateful steps and the jingle of distant keys.
What were they coming for now, since there were no other prisoners to
drag to judgment? It could only be to carry out the sentence upon my
darling.

I stood between her and the door, with the strength of a lion in my
limbs. I would tear