"Your highness forgets that it means perpetual imprisonment for you if you do not place yourself at the head of this movement?" "It is because it means for me the escape from a danger that I do not choose to sacrifice you, sir. When I learned that you were taken prisoner by Rutler I was going to rush to your assistance in order to release you." "My God, James! think of the prison! of eternal confinement! but it is not possible! and what will become of me, if I should be forbidden to accompany you? No, no! you will not reject the sacrifice which this generous man offers to make!" "Angela!" said the duke, in a tone of reproach; "Angela! and this generous man, shall we abandon him shamefully when he is devoted to us--to escape imprisonment, shall we condemn him to an eternal captivity?" "Him?" "Doubtless! is he not the possessor of a state secret? Will not De Chemerant be furious at seeing himself tricked. I tell you, he cannot escape prison when the trick shall be discovered." "Confound it! my duke, attend to your own affairs!" cried Croustillac, "and do not take the bread out of my mouth, as they say. Prisoner of state! that disgusts you, but do you not know that that would be an assured retreat for me, a refuge for my old days? To be frank, the life of an adventurer palls upon me; there must be an end to it. I would have something more sure; judge, then, if that would not suit me? Prisoner of state! can I not secure that? I beg of you not to take from me the last resource of my old age; do not destroy my future." "Listen to me, you brave and worthy man," responded Monmouth, affectionately pressing his hand. "I am not deceived by your ingenious pretenses." "Your highness, I swear----" "Listen, I beg of you; when you have heard me you will no longer be surprised at my refusal. You will see that I cannot accept your generous offer without being doubly culpable. You will understand the sad memories, not to say remorse, that your devoted offer and the present chain of circumstances awake in me. And you, Angela, my dearly beloved, you shall at last learn a secret that until this present moment I have hidden from you; it needed circumstances as grave as these in which I am now placed to force me to make this sad revelation." CHAPTER XXVII. THE MARTYR. "James! James! what are you saying? you terrify me!" exclaimed Angela, as she witnessed the duke's emotion. "You know," said the duke to Croustillac, "in consequence of what political events I was arrested and confined to the Tower of London in 1685?" "You will excuse me, your highness, if I know not a word of it; I am as ignorant as a fish of contemporaneous history, which, be it said in passing, and without boasting, rendered my part outrageously difficult to play; for I was always afraid I should make some ridiculous statement, and thus compromise, not my reputation as a scholar--I am no priest--but your fortune which I so imprudently assumed."