e. And now here is your letter."

I opened the billet hastily, and read the few lines it contained, which
evidently were written in a feigned hand.

"Your life is in danger; any delay may be your ruin. Address
the minister at once as to the cause of your detention, and
for the charges under which you are committed; demand
permission to consult an advocate, and when demanded it
can't be refused. Write to Monsieur Baillot, of 4 Rue
Chantereine, in whom you may trust implicitly, and who has
already instructions for your defence. Accept the enclosed,
and believe in the faithful attachment of a sincere friend."

A billet de hanque for three thousand francs was folded in the note, and
fell to the ground as I read it.

"_Parbleu!_ I'll not ask you to tear this, though," said the jailer, as
he handed it to me. "And now let me see you destroy the other."

I read and re-read the few lines over and over, some new meaning
striking me at each word, while I asked myself from whom it could have
come. Was it De Beauvais? or dare I hope it was one dearest to me of all
the world? Who, then, in the saddest hour of my existence, could step
between me and my sorrow, and leave hope as my companion in the dreary
solitude of a prison?

"Again I say be quick," cried the jailer; "my being here so long may be
remarked. Tear it at once."

He followed with an eager eye every morsel of paper as it fell from my
hand, and only seemed at ease as the last dropped to the ground; and
then, without speaking a word, unlocked the door and withdrew.

The shipwrecked sailor, clinging to some wave-tossed raft, and watching
with bloodshot eye the falling day, where no friendly sail has once
appeared, and at last, as every hope dies out one by one within him, he
hears a cheer break through the plashing of the sea, calling on him
to live, may feel something like what were my sensations, as once more
alone in my cell I thought of the friendly voice that could arouse me
from my cold despair, and bid me hope again.

What a change came over the world to my eyes! The very cell itself no
longer seemed dark and dreary; the faint sunlight that fell through the
narrow window seemed soft and mellow; the voices I heard without struck
me not as dissonant and harsh; the reckless gayety I shuddered at, the
dark treachery I abhorred,--I could now compassionate the one and openly
despise the other; and it was with that stout deter