idle," returned D'Aulney; "I never feared you, even in
your greatest strength; and think you, that I can _now_ be intimidated
by your words?"

"What is the purport of this interview?" asked La Tour, impatiently;
"and why am I compelled to endure your presence? speak, and briefly, if
you have aught to ask of me; or go, and leave me to the solitude, which
you have so rudely disturbed."

"I spoke to you of freedom," replied D'Aulney; "but since you persist in
believing my intentions evil, it would be useless to name the terms on
which I offer it."

"You can offer no terms," said La Tour, "which comport with the honor of
a gentleman and a soldier to accept."

"Are you ignorant," asked D'Aulney, "that you are proscribed, that an
order is issued for your arrest, and that a traitor's doom awaits you,
in your native land?"

"It is a calumny, vile as your own base heart," exclaimed La Tour; "and
so help me, heaven, as I shall one day prove its falsehood."

"You have been denounced at a more impartial tribunal than mine," said
D'Aulney, deliberately unrolling a parchment which he carried, and
pointing to the seal of France; "these characters," he added, "are
traced by high authority; and need you any farther proof, that your
honors are wrested from you, and your name consigned to infamy?"

"Your malice has invented this," said La Tour, glancing his eye
indignantly over the contents of the scroll; "but even this shall not
avail you; and, cunningly as you have woven your treacherous web around
me, I shall yet escape the snare, and triumph over all your
machinations!"

"It is vain to boast of deeds, which you may never be at liberty to
perform," replied D'Aulney; "your escape from this prison is impossible,
and, of course, your fate is entirely at my disposal. But, grossly as
you have injured me, I am willing to reconcile past differences; not
from any hope of personal advantage, but to preserve the peace of the
colony, and sustain the honor of the government."

"That mask of disinterestedness and patriotism," said La Tour,
scornfully, "is well assumed; but, beshrew me! if it does not hide some
dark and selfish purpose. Reconcile!" he added, in a tone of bitterness;
"that word can never pass current with us; my hatred to you is so
strong, so deeply-rooted, that nothing could ever compel me to serve
you, even if, by so doing, I might advance my own fortunes to the height
of princely grandeur."

"Your choice is too limit