ug._ And wilt thou; O! wilt thou, Bertrand, at last extend a pitying
arm to raise the wretch, thy former hate had stricken to the ground?
I have been despoiled of fortune, fame, and health: my brain has been
distracted by thy cruelty: yet now preserve me from this worst extreme
of fate: let me not die the slave of Longueville, all my injuries, all
my sufferings are forgotten, and this one gracious act shall win thy
pardon for a thousand sins.

_Bert._ Lady! my o'er weighed conscience heaves impatiently to cast its
load. (_sinks on his knee_) Lo! at your injured feet I kneel, and
solemnly pronounce a vow, the tyrant Longueville shall mar your peace no
more.

[The cottage-door silently opens, and _Sanguine_ looks in--he
makes a sign to _Longueville_ who follows, and they glide to the
further end of the cottage unperceived; where they remain in
anxious observation of the characters in front.]

_Eug._ Rise! your penitence wears nature's stamp, and I believe it
honest.

_Bert._ Oh! lady, your words redeem me from despair: but say, to ease a
heart that aches with wonder: say, by what prodigy you 'scaped the
flames of that tremendous night, when all believed you perished?

_Eug._ (_shuddering._) Ah! what hast thou said? my dream of confidence
dissolves, and now I turn from thee again with horror! Again I view thy
murderous poniard reared to strike! Again my wounded infant shrieks upon
my bosom, and the fiery gulf yawns redly at my feet! begone? begone! for
now I hate thee!

_Bert._ Ah, not to me--to Longueville ascribe the horrors of that night.
(_Aside_) What shall I say? I dare not own to her that De Valmont lives.
Hear me, lady; scarce was your lord's untimely fall reported, when the
cruel Longueville in secret plotted to remove his infant heir, the only
bar that held him from a rich succession; by hellish means he won me to
his cause: _his_ hand it was that oped the castle gates at midnight to
the foe, and when the fierce Huguenots rushed shouting through the
halls, still _his_ hand it was that fired the chamber where you slept in
peace: to save your child you rushed distracted to the rampart's edge;
just as I followed to complete my prey, a falling turret crossed my
path, and presently the general fabric sank in ruin.

_Eug._ A wayward destiny that night was mine; at once both saved and
lost! a hidden passage dug beneath the rampart, twining through many a
cavern'd maze, at distance opened to the w