l,
by telling De Chemerant who you are, would you save me? I am not much of
a lawyer but it seems to me that that is the question, is it not,
madame?"

"He is right, my love," said Angela, looking at her husband
beseechingly.

"To proceed," said Croustillac proudly. "Now, you say to this good
Chemerant, 'Sir, I am the Duke of Monmouth, and the chevalier here is
only a scapegoat.' So be it; so far all goes well. But at this stage the
good Chemerant will reply, 'Your highness, do you or do you not consent
to head this insurrection in England?"

"Never! never!" cried the duke.

"Very well, your highness, now I know what insurrection has cost you.
Now I have the honor of knowing the duchess; like you I say, 'Never!'
only what will the good Chemerant say to this? The good Chemerant will
say, 'You are my prisoner,' is it not so?"

"Unhappily it is very likely," said Monmouth.

"Alas! it is only too true!" said Angela.

"'As to this rascal, this schemer,' the good Chemerant will continue,
addressing himself to me," said Croustillac, "'as to this imposter, this
sharper, as he has impudently imposed upon me, so that I confided to him
a half-dozen secrets of state, each more important than the other,
particularly as to how the confessors of the great kings have played the
game of the poisoned shoulder-knot with their penitents, he shall be
treated as he deserved.' Now the said Chemerant, so much the more
furious that I had caused him to make such a fool of himself, will not
handle me very gently, and I may consider myself very lucky if he leaves
me to perish in a dungeon, instead of hanging me quickly (seeing his
full power), which would be another method of reducing me very
effectually to silence."

"Oh! do not speak so, the idea is frightful," cried Angela.

"You see well, then, generous madman, the imminent danger to which you
are exposed," said the duke to him tenderly.

"Now, your highness," said the Gascon with imperturbable calm, "as I
said a short time ago, to madame, as I believed her madly in love with a
certain fellow of leathern tint, it is clear that one does not devote
oneself to people to the sole end of being crowned with roses and
caressed by sylvan nymphs. It is the danger that constitutes the
sacrifice. But that is not the question. In delivering yourself up as
prisoner to the good Chemerant, do you in any way spare me prison or
scaffold, sir?"

"But, chevalier----"

"But, sir, I shall pursue y