ry
hand on his colleague's shoulder.

"I tell you, citizen, that this is no use," he said firmly. "Unless you
are prepared to give up all thoughts of finding Capet, you must try and
curb your temper, and try diplomacy where force is sure to fail."

"Diplomacy?" retorted the other with a sneer. "Bah! it served you well
at Boulogne last autumn, did it not, citizen Chauvelin?"

"It has served me better now," rejoined the other imperturbably. "You
will own, citizen, that it is my diplomacy which has placed within your
reach the ultimate hope of finding Capet."

"H'm!" muttered the other, "you advised us to starve the prisoner. Are
we any nearer to knowing his secret?"

"Yes. By a fortnight of weariness, of exhaustion and of starvation, you
are nearer to it by the weakness of the man whom in his full strength
you could never hope to conquer."

"But if the cursed Englishman won't speak, and in the meanwhile dies on
my hands--"

"He won't do that if you will accede to his wish. Give him some good
food now, and let him sleep till dawn."

"And at dawn he'll defy me again. I believe now that he has some scheme
in his mind, and means to play us a trick."

"That, I imagine, is more than likely," retorted Chauvelin dryly;
"though," he added with a contemptuous nod of the head directed at the
huddled-up figure of his once brilliant enemy, "neither mind nor body
seem to me to be in a sufficiently active state just now for hatching
plot or intrigue; but even if--vaguely floating through his clouded
mind--there has sprung some little scheme for evasion, I give you my
word, citizen Heron, that you can thwart him completely, and gain all
that you desire, if you will only follow my advice."

There had always been a great amount of persuasive power in citizen
Chauvelin, ex-envoy of the revolutionary Government of France at the
Court of St. James, and that same persuasive eloquence did not fail now
in its effect on the chief agent of the Committee of General Security.
The latter was made of coarser stuff than his more brilliant colleague.
Chauvelin was like a wily and sleek panther that is furtive in its
movements, that will lure its prey, watch it, follow it with stealthy
footsteps, and only pounce on it when it is least wary, whilst Heron was
more like a raging bull that tosses its head in a blind, irresponsible
fashion, rushes at an obstacle without gauging its resisting powers,
and allows its victim to slip from beneath its w