weeping.

"Oh, will you make my duty the harder?" she said. "God knows I would
gladly die to save you."

"It is not dying that will save us. The only way is to save yourself."

"Monsieur, you shall not drive me to sin by your temptations! Heaven
will save you both in spite of yourselves. That will be my reward for
putting this sin from me."

"You persist in calling it a sin, Madame: very well. But is it not
selfish to go free from sin at the expense of others? If one can save
others by a sin of one's own, is it not nobler to take that sin upon
one's soul? Nay, is it not the greater sin to let others suffer, that
one's own hands may be clean?"

"Oh, you tempt me with worldly reasoning, Monsieur. Kind mother of
Christ," she said, fixing her eyes upon the image of Mary, "what shall I
do? Be thou my guide--speak to my soul--tell me what to do!"

After a moment, the Countess again turned to me, still perplexed,
agitated, unpersuaded.

"Madame," said I, "when one considers how soon the Count de Lavardin
must surely suffer for crimes of which you know nothing, your death at
his hands seems the more grievous a fate. Do you know that he is a
traitor?--that his treason will soon be known to the King's ministers?
If his jealousy had only waited a short while, or if my discovery had
occurred a little earlier, his death would have spared you all this. But
now, if you are not starved or slain before he is arrested, he will
surely kill you when he finds himself about to be taken.--My God, I had
not thought of that when I resolved to go to Paris at once! Oh, Madame,
fly now while there is chance! I assure you that doom is hovering over
the Count's head; if you stay here, I cannot go to Paris; but Hugues
shall go with this paper in my stead."

"What is the paper, Monsieur? What do you mean by this talk of the Count
and treason?" she asked in sheer wonder.

"It is a proof of the Count's participation in the late conspiracy. I
found it in the room where I was imprisoned. And come what may, I will
see that it goes to Paris for the inspection of the Duke de Sully. And
then there will be a short shrift for the Count de Lavardin, I promise
you."

"But in that case, it would be you that caused his death, Monsieur!" she
exclaimed.

"The executioner would cause his death--and the law. I should be but the
humble instrument of heaven to bring it to pass."

"But you would be the instrument of my husband's death, Monsieur! That
must