Englishman being led out of this narrow
cell, where he had kept a watchful eye over him night and day for a
fortnight, satisfied that with every day, every hour, the chances of
escape became more improbable and more rare; at the same time there was
the possibility of the recapture of little Capet, a possibility which
made Heron's brain reel with the delightful vista of it, and which might
never come about if the prisoner remained silent to the end.

"I wish I were quite sure," he said sullenly, "that you were body and
soul in accord with me."

"I am in accord with you, citizen Heron," rejoined the other
earnestly--"body and soul in accord with you. Do you not believe that
I hate this man--aye! hate him with a hatred ten thousand times more
strong than yours? I want his death--Heaven or hell alone know how I
long for that--but what I long for most is his lasting disgrace. For
that I have worked, citizen Heron--for that I advised and helped you.
When first you captured this man you wanted summarily to try him, to
send him to the guillotine amidst the joy of the populace of Paris,
and crowned with a splendid halo of martyrdom. That man, citizen Heron,
would have baffled you, mocked you, and fooled you even on the steps of
the scaffold. In the zenith of his strength and of insurmountable good
luck you and all your myrmidons and all the assembled guard of Paris
would have had no power over him. The day that you led him out of this
cell in order to take him to trial or to the guillotine would have been
that of your hopeless discomfiture. Having once walked out of this cell
hale, hearty and alert, be the escort round him ever so strong, he never
would have re-entered it again. Of that I am as convinced as that I am
alive. I know the man; you don't. Mine are not the only fingers through
which he has slipped. Ask citizen Collot d'Herbois, ask Sergeant Bibot
at the barrier of Menilmontant, ask General Santerre and his guards.
They all have a tale to tell. Did I believe in God or the devil, I
should also believe that this man has supernatural powers and a host of
demons at his beck and call."

"Yet you talk now of letting him walk out of this cell to-morrow?"

"He is a different man now, citizen Heron. On my advice you placed
him on a regime that has counteracted the supernatural power by simple
physical exhaustion, and driven to the four winds the host of demons who
no doubt fled in the face of starvation."

"If only I thoug