who will release you from your
watch, and relieve you forever from your enemy by bearing him to
prison. The answer of the one to whom I sent your paper has come; he is
condemned."

"Very well, Sophie," said Marietta, concealing the paper in her bosom.
"When the count leaves, you shall receive your reward. Now listen; the
soldiers are coming. As soon as you hear them on the steps, you must tap
at my door, that I may know they have arrived."

She hastened back to Ranuzi, but she no longer smiled--she no longer
approached him with open arms--but she advanced toward him with
flashing eyes, with her arms folded haughtily across her breast, and her
countenance pale with passion.

"Ranuzi, the hour of revenge has come! You have most shamefully betrayed
and deceived me--you have mocked my love--you have trodden my heart
under foot. Lies were upon your lips--lies were in your heart. And
whilst you swore to me that you loved no other, you had already betrayed
me to a woman. I am acquainted with Madame du Trouffle, and I know that
you visit her every evening. This was the conference with the Catholic
fathers, for whose sake you left me. Oh, I know all--all! I will not
reproach you; I will not tell you of the martyrdom I suffered--of the
wretched days and nights through which I wept and sighed, until at
length I overcame the love I had borne you. That suffering is passed.
But you have not forgotten that I once said to you: 'Should you forsake
me, or turn faithlessly from me, I will be revenged.'"

"I have not forgotten," said Ranuzi, "and I know that you will fulfil
your promise, but before you do so--before you point me out to the
government as a dangerous spy--you will listen to my defence, and
only then if you are not satisfied, will you condemn me, and revenge
yourself."

"I have all-sufficient proof," she said. "Day by day, hour by hour, have
these proofs been forced upon me, as the contents of the poisoned cup
are forced upon the condemned man. My love and happiness are dead, but
you also shall die--you also shall suffer as I have done. My love was
insufficient to keep for me a place in your memory; perhaps my revenge
will do so. When you are wretched and miserable, think of me and
repent."

"Repent of what?" he asked, proudly. "I have done nothing of which I am
ashamed--nothing of which I repent. I have offered up my entire life,
my every thought and desire, to a holy, a noble cause. To it I have
subjected all my fee