turned and looked at Angers, who still
slept. "And then?"

"And then, as I have said to you before, to the coast, to board the
Parroquet, which will lie off the island Saint Jerome three days
from now to carry us away into freedom. It is all arranged by our
'Underground Railway.'"

"And you tell me all this--why?" the girl said falteringly.

"Because you said that you would not let a hunted fugitive starve; that
you would give us horses, with which we could travel the Brocken Path
across the hills. Here is the plan of the river that you drew; at this
point is the King's Cave which you discovered, and is known only to
yourself."

"I ought not to have given it to you; but--"

"Ah, you will not repent of a noble action, of a great good to
me--Marie?"

"Hush, monsieur. Indeed, you may not speak to me so. You forget. I am
sorry for you; I think you do not deserve this--banishment; you are
unhappy here; and I told you of the King's Cave-that was all."

"Ah no, that is not all! To be free, that is good; but only that I may
be a man again; that I may love my art--and you; that I may once again
be proud of France."

"Monsieur, I repeat, you must not speak so. Do not take advantage of my
willingness to serve you."

"A thousand pardons! but that was in my heart, and I hoped, I hoped--"

"You must not hope. I can only know you as M. Laflamme, the--"

"The political convict; ah, yes, I know," he said bitterly: "a convict
over whom the knout is held; who may at any moment be shot down like
a hare: who has but two prayers in all the world: to be free in France
once more, and to be loved by one--"

She interrupted him: "Your first prayer is natural."

"Natural?--Do you know what song we sang in the cages of the ship that
carried us into this evil exile here? Do you know what brought tears
to the eyes of the guards?--What made the captain and the sailors turn
their heads away from us, lest we should see that their faces were wet?
What rendered the soldiers who had fought us in the Commune more human
for the moment? It was this:

"'Adieu, patrie!
L'onde est en furie,
Adieu patrie,
Azur!
Adieu, maison, treille au fruit mer,

Adieu les fruits d'or du vieux mur!
Adieu, patrie,
Ciel, foret, prairie;
Adieu patrie,
Azur.'"

"Hush, monsieur!" the girl said with a swift gesture. He looked and saw
that Angers was waking. "