ossible! and what will become of me, if I should be forbidden to
accompany you? No, no! you will not reject the sacrifice which this
generous man offers to make!"

"Angela!" said the duke, in a tone of reproach; "Angela! and this
generous man, shall we abandon him shamefully when he is devoted to
us--to escape imprisonment, shall we condemn him to an eternal
captivity?"

"Him?"

"Doubtless! is he not the possessor of a state secret? Will not De
Chemerant be furious at seeing himself tricked. I tell you, he cannot
escape prison when the trick shall be discovered."

"Confound it! my duke, attend to your own affairs!" cried Croustillac,
"and do not take the bread out of my mouth, as they say. Prisoner of
state! that disgusts you, but do you not know that that would be an
assured retreat for me, a refuge for my old days? To be frank, the life
of an adventurer palls upon me; there must be an end to it. I would have
something more sure; judge, then, if that would not suit me? Prisoner of
state! can I not secure that? I beg of you not to take from me the last
resource of my old age; do not destroy my future."

"Listen to me, you brave and worthy man," responded Monmouth,
affectionately pressing his hand. "I am not deceived by your ingenious
pretenses."

"Your highness, I swear----"

"Listen, I beg of you; when you have heard me you will no longer be
surprised at my refusal. You will see that I cannot accept your generous
offer without being doubly culpable. You will understand the sad
memories, not to say remorse, that your devoted offer and the present
chain of circumstances awake in me. And you, Angela, my dearly beloved,
you shall at last learn a secret that until this present moment I have
hidden from you; it needed circumstances as grave as these in which I am
now placed to force me to make this sad revelation."

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE MARTYR.

"James! James! what are you saying? you terrify me!" exclaimed Angela,
as she witnessed the duke's emotion.

"You know," said the duke to Croustillac, "in consequence of what
political events I was arrested and confined to the Tower of London in
1685?"

"You will excuse me, your highness, if I know not a word of it; I am as
ignorant as a fish of contemporaneous history, which, be it said in
passing, and without boasting, rendered my part outrageously difficult
to play; for I was always afraid I should make some ridiculous
statement, and thus compromise, not my