There is nothing more contagious than enthusiasm. The partisans of Monmouth had one by one come up on deck and grouped themselves around the two noblemen--all wishing in their turn to press the hand which had touched that of the prince. "Ah! gentlemen, I suspect that his grace puts off the honor of seeing you. He fears the emotion inseparable from such a moment." "And we, then!" cried Dudley. "It is now about forty days since we left Rochelle, is it not? Well, may I die if I have slept more than three or four hours any night, and then the sleep, at once agitated and pleasant, that one sleeps on the eve of a duel--when one is sure of killing one's man. At least, that is the effect of this impatience on me. And you, Percy?" said the robust gladiator to Mortimer. "On me, Dick?" responded the latter; "it has a contrary effect on me; every moment I wake with a start. It seems to me that I should sleep thus the eve of the day that I was going to be shot." "As for me," said another gentleman, "I know the duke only from his portrait." "I only from his renown." "I, as soon as I knew that it concerned marching against the Orange faction--I quitted all, friends, wife, child." "So did we----" "Ah, sir, it is also for James of Monmouth," said another, "that is a name which is like the sound of a trumpet." "It suffices to pronounce this name in Old England," said another, "to drive all these Holland rats into their marshes." "Beginning with this William----" "On my honor, gentlemen," said De Chemerant, "you make me almost proud of having succeeded so well in an enterprise which, I dare to say, is a very delicate one. I do not wish to attribute to my reasoning, to my influence, the resolution of the prince--but believe, at least, gentlemen, that I have known how to make good use with him of the enthusiasm with which his memory has inspired you." "And so, our friend, we will never forget what you have done! You have brought him here to us--our duke!" cried Mortimer cordially. "For that alone we owe you eternal gratitude," added Dudley. "To see him! to see him," cried Mortimer in a new access of feeling, "to see him again whom we believed to be dead--to see him indeed face to face--to again find before our eyes this proud and noble figure--to see it again in the midst of the fire--the--the--ah, well--yes, I weep--I weep," cried the brave Mortimer, no longer restraining his emotion; "yes, I weep like a child, and a thousand thunderbolts crush those who do not comprehend that an old soldier thus can weep." Emotion is as contagious as enthusiasm. Dick, followed the example of his friend Percy, and the others did as Dick and his friend Percy did. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE JUDGMENT. A new personage came to augment the number of the passionate admirers of Monmouth. There was seen advancing, supported by two servants, a man still young, but condemned to premature infirmity by numerous wounds.