rds and the smile that accompanied them made up for it.

"Yes. Come back early, Barry. We shall feel short of a protector while
you are away."

And she held out her hand, which I kissed with a glare at the captain,
who only laughed, and said,--

"Don't forget the provisions."

Little I thought as I groped my way down the tumble-down staircase how
many weary months were to elapse before I was to hold that gentle little
hand in mine again.

I had reached the stables, and was rubbing down a spent horse, when I
became aware that a woman was standing at the gate. I recognised her at
once as the woman who had pointed us out that morning when we entered
our house, and my heart filled with forebodings as I saw her.

It was a relief when my employer presently ordered me to take a horse
round to the house of a citizen in the suburbs. The woman had gone when
I started, and after half-an-hour's trot I almost dismissed her from my
mind. My orders were, after delivering the horse at its destination, to
return on foot, calling on my way at the hay merchant's with an order.
This I duly performed; and was hastening back by way of the Rue Saint
Honore, when two muskets were suddenly crossed in front of me, and a
harsh voice said,--

"Regnier, you are arrested by order of the Committee of Public Safety."

"On what charge?" faltered I.

"On the accusation of the Citoyenne Souchard, who denounces you as the
friend of royalism and of the miscreant Bailly."

"I am no friend of either," I exclaimed. "I do not--"

"Silence! march!" said the soldier.

Resistance was hopeless, escape impossible. In a daze I marched on,
pointed at and hooted at by the passers-by, amid cries of,--

"_A bas les mouchards! Mort aux aristocrates_!" [Saint Patrick! that I
should be taken for an aristocrat.] "_Vive la guillotine_!"

I cared not what became of me now, but when presently my conductors
actually turned towards the Island of the City, and I caught sight of
the high roofs of the houses on the Quai Necker, a wild hope of seeing
my little mistress once more took hold of me. Alas! it was but for a
moment. The cold muzzle of the soldier's gun recalled me to myself.

I longed to know if the accuser, who seemed to know my name and all my
movements, had joined the names of the ladies in my denunciation. If
so, woe betide them and all of us. In the midst of my trouble the one
thought that cheered me, despite the pang of jealousy that cam