s priest; their deep voices
joined in the hymn of their own native valleys, as with tearful eyes
they sang the songs that reminded them of home. The service over, George
addressed them in a short speech: some words of advice and guidance
for the coming day; reminding them that ere another morning shone, many
might be summoned before the tribunal to be examined, and from, thence
led forth to death; exhorting them to fidelity to each other and loyalty
to their glorious cause. Then came the games of their country, which
they played with all the enthusiasm of liberty and happiness. These were
again succeeded by hours passed in hearing and relating stories of their
beloved Bretagne,--of its tried faith and its ancient bravery; while,
through all, they lived a community apart from the other prisoners, who
never dared to obtrude upon them: nor did the most venturesome of the
police spies ever transgress a limit that might have cost him his life.

Thus did two so different currents run side by side within the walls of
the Temple, and each regarding the other with distrust and dislike.

While thus I felt a growing interest for these bold but simple children
of the forest, my anxiety for my own fate grew hourly greater. No answer
was ever returned to my letter to the minister, nor any notice taken
of it whatever; and though each day I heard of some one or other being
examined before the "Tribunal Special" or the Prefet de Police, I seemed
as much forgotten as though the grave enclosed me. My dread of anything
like acquaintance or intimacy with the other prisoners prevented my
learning much of what went forward each day, and from which, from some
source or other, they seemed well informed. A chance phrase, an odd word
now and then dropped, would tell me of some new discovery by the police
or some recent confession by a captured conspirator; but of what the
crime consisted, and who were they principally implicated, I remained
totally ignorant.

It was well known that both Moreau and Pichegru were confined in a
part of the tower that opened upon the terrace, but neither suffered to
communicate with each other, nor even to appear at large like the other
prisoners. It was rumored, too, that each day one or both were submitted
to long and searching examinations, which, it was said, had hitherto
elicited nothing from either save total denial of any complicity
whatever, and complete ignorance of the plots and machinations of
others.