his imprisonment
and dangerous position, and made me promise to keep him informed of
the variations in her state of health. This I did, but the bulletins
were not of a very satisfactory nature, and in Oakley's pale and
haggard countenance upon the day of trial, attributed by the
spectators to uneasiness about his own fate, I read the painful and
wearing anxiety the illness of his mistress occasioned him.

The sentence was no sooner published, than every effort was made to
procure Oakley's pardon, or, failing that, a commutation of his
punishment. Colonel de Bellechasse used all the interest he could
command; Monsieur de Berg set his friends to work; and I, on my part,
did everything in my power to obtain mercy for the unfortunate young
man. All our endeavours were fruitless. The minister of war refused to
listen to the applications by which he was besieged. In a military
view, the crime was flagrant, subversive of discipline, and especially
dangerous as a precedent in an army where promotion from the ranks
continually placed between men, originally from the same class of
society and long comrades and equals, the purely conventional barrier
of the epaulet. The court-martial, taking into consideration the
peculiar character of the offence, had avoided the infliction of an
ignominious punishment. Oakley was not sentenced to the _boulet_, or
to be herded with common malefactors; his doom was to simple
imprisonment. And that doom the authorities refused to mitigate.

Some days had elapsed since Oakley's condemnation. Returning weary and
dispirited from a final attempt to interest an influential personage
in his behalf, I was startled by a smart tap upon the shoulder, and
looking round, beheld the shrewd, good-humoured countenance of Mr
Anthony Scrivington, a worthy man and excellent lawyer, who had long
had entire charge of my temporal affairs. Upon this occasion, however,
I felt small gratification at sight of him, for I had a lawsuit
pending, on account of which I well knew I ought to have been in
England a month previously, and should have been but for this affair
of Oakley's, which had interested and occupied me to the exclusion of
my personal concerns. My solicitor's unexpected appearance made me
apprehend serious detriment from my neglect. He read my alarm, upon my
countenance.

"Ah!" said he, "conscience pricks you, I see. You know I have been
expecting you these six weeks. No harm done, however; we shall win the