e aside and told me so. 'Hark ye, Jean,' he whispered,
'hark ye: your master has my brother's written confession and the real
will; but I have provided for your safety, and if he pleases it, for
Montreuil's. The packet is not to be opened till the seventh day; fly
before then. But I know," added Desmarais, "where the packet is placed;"
and he took Montreuil aside, and for a while I heard not what they said;
but I did overhear Desmarais at last, and I learned that it was your
_bridal night_.

What felt I then? The same tempestuous fury,--the same whirlwind and
storm of heart that I had felt before, at the mere anticipation of such
an event? No; I felt a bright ray of joy flash through me. Yes, joy; but
it was that joy which a conqueror feels when he knows his mortal foe is
in his power and when he dooms that enemy to death. "They shall perish,
and on this night," I said inly. "I have sworn it; I swore to Isora
that the bridal couch should be stained with blood, and I will keep
the oath!" I approached the pair; they were discussing the means for
obtaining the packet. Montreuil urged Desmarais to purloin it from the
place where you had deposited it, and then to abscond; but to this plan
Desmarais was vehemently opposed. He insisted that there would be no
possible chance of his escape from a search so scrutinizing as that
which would necessarily ensue, and he evidently resolved not _alone_
to incur the danger of the theft. "The Count," said he, "saw that I was
present when he put away the packet. Suspicion will fall solely on me.
Whither should I fly? No: I will serve you with my talents, but not with
my life." "Wretch," said Montreuil, "if that packet is opened, thy life
is already gone." "Yes," said Desmarais; "but we may yet purloin the
papers, and throw the guilt upon some other quarter. What if I admit you
when the Count is abroad? What if you steal the packet, and carry away
other articles of more seeming value? What, too, if you wound me in the
arm or the breast, and I coin some terrible tale of robbers, and of
my resistance, could we not manage then to throw suspicion upon common
housebreakers,--nay, could we not throw it upon Oswald himself? Let us
silence that traitor by death, and who shall contradict our tale?
No danger shall attend this plan. I will give you the key of the
escritoire: the theft will not be the work of a moment." Montreuil at
first demurred to this proposal, but Desmarais was, I repeat, resolved