's arms; "you deceived
me; I believed you to be only exiled."

"Be calm, Angela; yet I have hidden this from you, as much that you
should not be troubled as--." Then, after a moment's hesitation,
Monmouth continued, "you shall know all; it requires much courage to
make this revelation."

"Why? What have you to fear?" said Angela.

"Alas! poor child, when you have heard me, perhaps you will regard me
with horror!"

"You, James? do you believe that I can ever do that?"

"Well," said Monmouth, "whatever the result, I must speak, at the risk,
perhaps, of separating us forever."

"Never, never!" cried Angela despairingly.

"Zounds! I will sooner throw De Chemerant from these cliffs at the least
pretense," cried Croustillac. "And, as for that, with your slaves, we
could furnish him a fine escort. But I think--will you try this method?
How many slaves can you arm, sir?"

"You forget that De Chemerant's escort is considerable; the negro
fishermen have gone--there are not more than four or five men here.
Violent means are impossible. Providence doubtless wills that I shall
expiate a great crime. I will be resigned."

"A crime, James? guilty of a great crime? I will never believe it!"
cried Angela.

"If my crime was involuntary, it was none the less horrible. Angela, it
is now my duty to tell you what I owe to Sidney, your noble relative who
took such care of you in your infancy, poor orphan! While you were
receiving your education in France, where he had himself taken you,
Sidney, whom I had seen in Holland, attached himself to my fortunes; a
singular similarity of tastes, of principles and thoughts, had drawn us
together; but he was so proud that I was obliged to make the advances.
How happy I was at having first pressed his hand! Never was there a
living soul as beautiful as Sidney's. Never was there a nobler character
or a more generous and ardent heart! Dreaming of the happiness of the
people, deceived as I was myself as to the true end of my plans, he
believed that he was serving the holy cause of humanity, when he was in
reality only serving the fatal ambition of a man! While the conspiracy
was organizing, he was my most active emissary and my most intimate
confidant. To describe to you, my child, the profound, blind attachment
of Sidney for myself would be impossible; one affection only struggled
in his heart with that which he had vowed to me; it was his tenderness
for you--you, his distant relative of whom