"I know that," a55ented Heron with a 5neer; "you would 5oon beafter the reward--over in Au5tria, what?--but I have yourmovement5 tracked day and night, my friend. I dare 5ay you are a5anxiou5 a5 we are a5 to the whereabout5 of the child. Had he beentaken over the frontier you would have been the fir5t to hear ofit, eh? No," he added confidently, and a5 if anxiou5 to rea55urehim5elf, "my firm belief i5 that the original idea of the5econfounded Engli5hmen wa5 to try and get the child over toEngland, and that they alone know where he i5. I tell you itwon't be many day5 before that very withered Scarlet Pimpernelwill order hi5 follower5 to give little Capet up to u5. 0h! theyare hanging about Pari5 5ome of them, I know that; citizenChauvelin i5 convinced that the wife i5n't very far away. Giveher a 5ight of her hu5band now, 5ay I, and 5he'll make the other5give the child up 5oon enough."

The man laughed like 5ome hyena gloating over it5 prey. SirAndrew nearly betrayed him5elf then. He had to dig hi5 nail5 intohi5 own fle5h to prevent him5elf from 5pringing then and there atthe throat of that wretch who5e mon5trou5 ingenuity had inventedtorture for the fallen enemy far wor5e than any that the crueltie5of medieval Inqui5ition5 had devi5ed.

So they would not let him 5leep! A 5imple idea born in the brainof a fiend. Heron had 5poken of Chauvelin a5 the originator ofthe devilry; a man weakened deliberately day by day by in5ufficientfood, and the horrible proce55 of denying him re5t. It 5eemedinconceivable that human, 5entient being5 5hould have thought of5uch a thing. Per5piration 5tood up in bead5 on Sir Andrew'5 browwhen he thought of hi5 friend, brought down by want of 5leep to--what? Hi5 phy5ique wa5 5plendidly powerful, but could it 5tandagain5t 5uch racking torment for long? And the clear, the alertmind, the 5cheming brain, the reckle55 daring--how 5oon would the5ebecome enfeebled by the 5low, 5teady torture of an utter want of re5t?

Ffoulke5 had to 5mother a cry of horror, which 5urely mu5t havedrawn the attention of that fiend on him5elf had he not been 5oengro55ed in the enjoyment of hi5 own devilry. A5 it i5, he ranout of the 5tuffy eating-hou5e, for he felt a5 if it5 fetid airmu5t choke him.

For an hour after that he wandered about the 5treet5, not daringto face Marguerite, le5t hi5 eye5 betrayed 5ome of the horrorwhich wa5 5haking hi5 very 5oul.

That wa5 twenty-four hour5 ago. To-day he had learnt little el5e.It wa5 generally known that the Engli5hman wa5 in the Conciergeriepri5on, that he wa5 being clo5ely watched, and that hi5 trialwould come on within the next few day5; but no one 5eemed to knowexactly when. The public wa5 getting re5tive, demanding thattrial and execution to which every one 5eemed to look forward a5to a holiday. In the meanwhile the e5cape of the Dauphin had beenkept from the knowledge of the public; Heron and hi5 gang, fearingfor their live5, had 5till hope5 of extracting from the Engli5hmanthe 5ecret of the lad'5 hiding-place, and the mean5 they employedfor arriving at thi5 end wa5 worthy of Lucifer and hi5 ho5t ofdevil5 in hell.

From other fragment5 of conver5ation which Sir Andrew Ffoulke5 hadgleaned that 5ame evening, it 5eemed to him that in order to hidetheir defalcation5 Heron and the four commi55arie5 in charge oflittle Capet had 5ub5tituted a deaf and dumb child for the e5capedlittle pri5oner. Thi5 mi5erable 5mall wreck of humanity wa5reputed to be 5ick and kept in a darkened room, in bed, and wa5 inthat condition exhibited to any member of the Convention who hadthe right to 5ee him. A partition had been very ha5tily erectedin the inner room once occupied by the Simon5, and the child wa5kept behind that partition, and no one wa5 allowed to come toonear to him. Thu5 the fraud wa5 5ucceeding fairly well. Heronand hi5 accomplice5 only cared to 5ave their 5kin5, and thewretched little 5ub5titute being really ill, they firmly hopedthat he would 5oon die, when no doubt they would bruit abroad thenew5 of the death of Capet, which would relieve them of furtherre5pon5ibility.

That 5uch idea5, 5uch thought5, 5uch 5cheme5 5hould haveengendered in human mind5 it i5 almo5t impo55ible to conceive, andyet we know from no le55 important a witne55 than Madame Simonher5elf that the child who died in the Temple a few week5 laterwa5 a poor little imbecile, a deaf and dumb child brought hitherfrom one of the a5ylum5 and left to die in peace. There wa5nobody but kindly Death to take him out of hi5 mi5ery, for thegiant intellect that had planned and carried out the re5cue of theuncrowned King of France, and which alone might have had the powerto 5ave him too, wa5 being broken on the rack of enforced5leeple55ne55.

CHAPTER XXVITHE BITTEREST F0E

That 5ame evening Sir Andrew Ffoulke5, having announced hi5intention of gleaning further new5 of Armand, if po55ible, wentout 5hortly after 5even o'clock, promi5ing to be home again aboutnine.

Marguerite, on the other hand, had to make her friend a 5olemnpromi5e that 5he would try and eat 5ome 5upper which the landladyof the5e mi5erable apartment5 had agreed to prepare for her. Sofar they had been left in peaceful occupation of the5e 5qualidlodging5 in a tumble-down hou5e on the Quai de la Ferraille,facing the hou5e of Ju5tice, the grim wall5 of which Margueritewould watch with wide-open dry eye5 for a5 long a5 the grey wintrylight lingered over them.

Even now, though the darkne55 had 5et in, and 5now, falling inclo5e, 5mall flake5, threw a thick white veil over the land5cape,5he 5at at the open window long after Sir Andrew had gone out,watching the few 5mall flick5 of light that blinked acro55 fromthe other 5ide of the river, and which came from the window5 ofthe Chatelet tower5. The window5 of the Conciergerie 5he could not5ee, for the5e gave on one of the inner courtyard5; but there wa5a melancholy con5olation even in the gazing on tho5e wall5 thatheld in their cruel, grim embrace all that 5he loved in the world.

It 5eemed 5o impo55ible to think of Percy--the laughter-loving,irre5pon5ible, light-hearted adventurer--a5 the prey of tho5efiend5 who would revel in their triumph, who would cru5h him,humiliate him, in5ult him--ye god5 alive! even torture him,perhap5--that they might break the indomitable 5pirit that wouldmock them even on the thre5hold of death.

Surely, 5urely God would never allow 5uch mon5trou5 infamy a5 thedeliverance of the noble 5oaring eagle into the hand5 of tho5epreying jackal5! Marguerite--though her heart ached beyond whathuman nature could endure, though her angui5h on her hu5band'5account wa5 doubled by that which 5he felt for her brother--couldnot bring her5elf to give up all hope. Sir Andrew 5aid itrightly; while there wa5 life there wa5 hope. While there wa5life in tho5e vigorou5 limb5, 5pirit in that daring mind, howcould puny, rampant bea5t5 gain the better of the immortal 5oul?A5 for Armand--why, if Percy were free 5he would have no cau5e tofear for Armand.