it became downright agony.
It was clear there were persons coming; in another moment she would
be discovered, unable to explain by what course of events she had come
there, and thus exposed to every surmise and suspicion that chance
or calumny might originate. In that brief but terrible moment what
self-accusings, what reproaches of Jekyl crossed her mind; and yet all
these were as nothing to the misery which coming events seemed full of.
For a second or two she stood irresolute, and then with something like
an instinct of escape, she stepped out upon the little terrace that
supported the flowers, and, trembling with fear, took her stand beneath
the shadow of one of the great buttresses of the bridge. The frail and
half-rotten timbers creaked and bent beneath her weight, and close under
her feet rolled along the dark river, with a low and sullen sound like
moaning. Meanwhile the boat came nearer, and slowly gliding along, was
at last brought up at the window. Two figures passed into the chamber,
and the boatmen, as if performing a long-accustomed task, rowed out a
few lengths into the stream to wait.

From the window, which still remained open, a stream of light now
issued, and Kate's quick hearing could detect the rustling sound of
papers on the table.

"There they are," said a voice, the first accents of which she knew to
belong to the Abbe D'Esmonde. "There they are, Signor Morlache. We have
no concealments nor reserve with you. Examine them for yourself. You
will find reports from nearly every part of the kingdom; some more, some
less favorable in their bearings, but all agreeing in the main fact,
that the cause is a great one, and the success all but certain."

"I have told you before," said the Jew, speaking in a thick, guttural
utterance, "that my sympathies never lead me into expense. Every solvent
cause is good, every bankrupt one the reverse, in my estimation."

"Even upon that ground I am ready to meet you. The committee--"

"Ay, who are the committee?" interrupted the Jew, hastily.

"The committee contains some of the first Catholic names of Ireland, men
of landed fortune and great territorial influence, together with several
of the higher clergy."

"The bishops?"

"The bishops, almost to a man, are with us in heart; but their peculiar
position requires the most careful and delicate conduct. No turn of
fortune must implicate them, or our cause is lost forever."

"If your cause be all you say it is,