as woman-like--tender and
full of compassion now--she ran to the stricken man.

"I hope I have," said St. Genis sullenly. "He deserved the death of a
cur."

"Father, dear," said Crystal authoritatively, "will you call to Jeanne
to bring water, a sponge, towels--quickly: also some brandy."

She paid no heed to St. Genis: and she had already forgotten de
Marmont's dastardly attitude toward herself. She only saw that he was
helpless and in pain: she knelt by his side, pillowed his head on her
lap, and with soothing, gentle fingers felt his shoulders, his arms, to
see where he was hurt. He opened his eyes very soon and encountered
those tender blue eyes so full of sweet pity now: "It is only my head, I
think," he said.

Then he tried to move, but fell back again with a groan of pain: "My leg
is broken, I am afraid," he murmured feebly.

"I had best fetch a doctor," rejoined M. le Comte.

"If you can find one, father, dear," said Crystal. "M. de Marmont ought
to be moved at once to his home."

"No! no!" protested Victor feebly, "not home! to the Trois Rois . . .
the diligence. . . . I must go to England to-night . . . the Emperor's
orders."

"The doctor will decide," said Crystal gently. "Father, dear, will you
go?"

Jeanne came with water and brandy. De Marmont drank eagerly of the one,
and then sipped the other.

"I must go," he said more firmly, "the diligence starts at nine
o'clock."

Again he tried to move, and a great cry of agony rose to his throat--not
of physical pain, though that was great too, but the wild, agonising
shriek of mental torment, of disappointment and wrath and misery,
greater than human heart could bear.

"The Emperor's orders!" he cried. "I must go!"

Crystal was silent. There was something great and majestic, something
that compelled admiration and respect in this tragic impotence, this
failure brought about by uncontrolled passion at the very hour when
success--perhaps--might yet have changed the whole destinies of the
world. De Marmont lying here, helpless to aid his Emperor--through the
furious and jealous attack of a rival--was at this moment more worthy of
a good woman's regard than he had been in the flush of his success and
of his arrogance, for his one thought was of the Emperor and what he
could no longer do for him. He tried to move and could not: "The
Emperor's orders!" came at times with pathetic persistence from his
lips, and Crystal--woman-like--tried to soothe and