aware how slyly murder, as well as fraud, can lurk beneath
urbane tones and laced ruffles.

"I have no enemy," said I, "but one; and the hangman will do my office
upon him; but point out to me the exact spot where at this moment he is
concealed, and you shall have full leave to quit this country forever.
That enemy is Julian Montreuil!"

"Ah, ah!" said Desmarais, musingly, and in a tone very different from
that in which he usually spoke; "must it be so, indeed? For twenty years
of youth and manhood I have clung to that man, and woven my destiny
with his, because I believed him born under the star which shines on
statesmen and pontiffs. Does dread Necessity now impel me to betray
him?--him, the only man I ever loved. So--so--so! Count Devereux, strike
me to the core: I will _not_ betray Bertrand Collinot!"

"Mysterious heart of man!" I exclaimed inly, as I gazed upon the low
brow, the malignant eye, the crafty lip of this wretch, who still
retained one generous and noble sentiment at the bottom of so base a
breast. But if it sprang there, it only sprang to wither!

"As thou wilt," said I; "remember, death is the alternative. By thy
birth-star, Jean Desmarais, I should question whether perfidy be not
_better luck_ than hanging: but time speeds; farewell; I shall meet thee
on thy day of trial."

I turned to the door to summon Oswald to his prisoner. Desmarais roused
himself from the revery in which he appeared to have sunk.

"Why do I doubt?" said he, slowly. "Were the alternative his, would he
not hang me as he would hang his dog if it went mad and menaced danger?
My very noble and merciful master," continued the Fatalist, turning to
me, and relapsing into his customary manner, "it is enough! I can refuse
nothing to a gentleman who has such insinuating manners. Montreuil _may
be_ in your power this night; but that rests solely with me. If I speak
not, a few hours will place him irrevocably beyond your reach. If I
betray him to you, will Monsieur swear that I shall have my pardon for
past _errors_?"

"On condition of leaving England," I answered, for slight was my
comparative desire of justice against Desmarais; and since I had agreed
with Gerald not to bring our domestic records to the glare of day,
justice against Desmarais was not easy of attainment; while, on the
other hand, so precarious seemed the chance of discovering Montreuil
before he left England, without certain intelligence of his movements,
that I was