ks at it, but this night I go wandering into the
great unknown. Enough of this. I sent for you, Fritz, to ask my last
favour."

The face of the stolid Dutchman was all broken with emotion.

"'Tis yours, Robert, if the thing is mine to grant."

"I want Montagu spared. You must get his pardon before I die, else I shall
not pass easy in mind. This one wrong I must right before the end. 'Twas I
drove him to rebellion. You will get him pardoned and see to it that his
estates are not confiscated?"

"I promise to do my best. It shall be attended to."

"To-day?"

"This very hour if it can be arranged."

"And you, Cumberland, will do your share."

The Duke nodded, frowning to hide his emotion.

Volney fell back on the pillows. "Good! Where is the priest?"

A vicar of the Church of England came forward to offer the usual
ministrations to the dying. Volney listened for a minute or two with
closed eyes, then interrupted gently.

"Thank you. That will suffice. I'll never insult my Maker by fawning for
pardon in the fag hour of a misspent life."

"The mercy of God is without limits----"

"I hope so. That I shall know better than you within the space of
four-and-twenty hours. I'm afraid you mistake your mission here. You came
to marry Antony, not to bury Caesar." Then, turning to me, he said with a
flare of his old reckless wit: "Any time this six weeks you've been
qualifying for the noose. If you're quite ready we'll have the obsequies
to-night."

He put Aileen's hand in mine. The vicar married us, the Prince of Wales
giving away the bride. Aileen's pale face was shot with a faint flush, a
splash of pink in either alabaster cheek. When the priest had made us man
and wife she, who had just married me, leaned forward impulsively and
kissed our former enemy on the forehead. The humorous gleam came back to
his dulling eyes.

"Only one, Montagu. I dare say you can spare that. The rest are for a
better man. Don't cry, Aileen. 'Fore Heaven, 'tis a good quittance for
you."

He looked at the soft warmth and glow of her, now quickened to throbbing
life, drew a long breath, then smiled and sighed again, her lover even to
the last.

A long silence fell, which Sir Robert broke by saying with a smile, "In
case Selwyn calls show him up. If I am still alive I'll want to see him,
and if I'm dead he'll want to see me. 'Twill interest him vastly."

Once more only he spoke. "The shadow falls," he said to Aileen, and
presently doz