ou refuse to answer
me, a different system to that which has hitherto been pursued will
be adopted. You will be removed from this comfortable room and
placed in the dungeons. Once there, you must either speak or die,
for few men are robust enough to exist there for many weeks.

"I am sorry, sir, but I have my duty to do. Will you speak, or will
you change your room?"

"I will change my room," Rupert said, quietly. "I may die; but if
by any chance I should ever see the light again, be assured that
all Europe shall know how officers taken in war are treated by the
King of France."

The governor shrugged his shoulders, made a sign to the gaoler, who
opened the door, and as the governor left four other warders
entered the room. Rupert smiled, he knew that this display of force
was occasioned by the fact that his gaoler, entering his room
suddenly, had several times caught him balancing the weighty table
on his arm or performing other feats which had astounded the
Frenchman. The work at the cell wall had always been done at night.

"I am ready to accompany you," Rupert said, and without another
word followed his conductor downstairs.

Arrived at a level with the yard, another door was unlocked, and
the party descended down some stairs, where the cold dampness of
the air struck a chill to Rupert's heart. Down some forty feet, and
then a door was unlocked, and Rupert saw his new abode. It was of
about the same size as the last, but was altogether without
furniture. In one corner, as he saw by the light of a lantern which
the gaoler carried, was a stone bench on which was a bundle of
straw. The walls streamed with moisture, and in some places the
water stood in shallow pools on the floor; the dungeon was some
twelve feet high; eight feet from the ground was a narrow loophole,
eighteen inches in height and about three inches wide. The gaoler
placed a pitcher of water and a piece of bread on the bench, and
then without a word the party left.

Rupert sat quiet on the bench for an hour or two before his eyes
became sufficiently accustomed to the darkness to see anything, for
but the feeblest ray of light made its way through so small a
loophole in a wall of such immense thickness.

"The governor was right," he muttered to himself. "A month or two
of this place would kill a dog."

It was not until the next day that the gaoler made his appearance.
He was not the same who had hitherto attended him, but a
powerful-looking r