re, commanded from France, have bided their time,
till an accident has given them a cue to dispose of me without openly
breaking the accepted law of nations. They could not decently hang a
hostage, for whom they had signed articles; but they have got their
chance, as they think, to try me for a spy.

"Here is the case. When I found that they were determined and had ever
determined to violate their articles, that they never intended to set
me free, I felt absolved from my duty as an officer on parole, and I
therefore secretly sent to Mr. Washington in Virginia a plan of Fort Du
Quesne and one of Quebec. I knew that I was risking my life by so doing,
but that did not deter me. By my promise to Doltaire, I could not tell
of the matter between us, and whatever he has done in other ways, he has
preserved my life; for it would have been easy to have me dropped off by
a stray bullet, or to have accidentally drowned me in the St. Lawrence.
I believe this matter of the letters to be between myself and him and
Bigot--and perhaps not even Bigot, though he must know that La Pompadour
has some peculiar reason for interesting herself in a poor captain
of provincials. You now can see another motive for the duel which was
brought about between your brother and myself.

"My plans and letters were given by Mr. Washington to General Braddock,
and the sequel you know: they have fallen into the hands of my enemies,
copies have gone to France, and I am to be tried for my life. Preserving
faith with my enemy Doltaire, I can not plead the real cause of my long
detention; I can only urge that they had not kept to their articles, and
that I, therefore, was free from the obligations of parole. I am sure
they have no intention of giving me the benefit of any doubt. My real
hope lies in escape and the intervention of England, though my country,
alas! has not concerned herself about me, as if indeed she resented the
non-delivery of those letters to Doltaire, since they were addressed to
one she looked on as a traitor, and held by one whom she had unjustly
put under suspicion.

"So, dear Alixe, from that little fort on the banks of the river Kelvin
have come these strange twistings of my life, and I can date this dismal
fortune of a dungeon from that day The Man made his prophecy from the
wall of my mud fort.

"Whatever comes now, if you have this record, you will know the private
history of my life.... I have told all, with unpractised tongue, bu