t you are
pale; you look tired out. It is often so in spring-time in this
country. What you should do is to get to bed at once, and have
Lucie bring you a tisane when you are ready for sleep. Go, that is
wise."

It was such a relief to be alone, to lie broken and wretched, but
safe and by myself, in my own chamber, that for the moment this
sufficed me; then sleep came to me, and when I awoke, quieted and
refreshed, the house was still, and Lucy lay sleeping in her cot
near by.

With the waking, came back the whole dreadful scene through which
I had just passed, and in my ears rang the warnings of le pere Jean
touching my safety. Alas! I realised the danger only too vividly,
and I trembled in the darkness at the pictures I could not help
forming in my mind. There seemed no outlet and no end to my misery.
Even the thought of facing the mother, who saw naught but the
chivalrous soldier in her son, and the sister, who so firmly believed
in the tenderness and magnanimity of her brother, was a torture to
me. In Lucy it would be impossible as well as dishonourable to
confide, and, with the priest gone, I stood alone against a danger
the very existence of which would be a degradation to reveal.

Suddenly I remembered Gabriel and the promise which I had dismissed
so lightly at the time of its making, and at once a way of escape
opened before me.

I did not hesitate a moment; slipping noiselessly out of bed, I
dressed myself, and taking my heavy cloak and shoes in my hand, I
stole out of my room and into the kitchen, where I felt for the
box with the steel and flint beside the fireplace, and then opening
the door, I stood alone in the quiet night.

I was country-born, if not country-bred, which served me in good
stead now; for the night had not the terrors for me I had feared,
and I marvelled at my courage as I went on. I had only one anxiety
in mind, and that was lest the beacon should not be in a fit state
for firing. Thinking of nothing else, I hurried down the path by
the Little River until I reached the Beacon Point, where, to my
relief, I found the pile of wood dry and undisturbed.

I knelt beside it; but at first my hands trembled so I could not
strike a spark; however, the very effort steadied me, and, gathering
some small twigs, in a few minutes I had my tinder alight, the
twigs caught, with them I lighted others, and when I rose to my
feet the flame was curling up through the skilfully piled branches,
and in a