[The cottage-door silently opens, and _Sanguine_ looks in--he makes a sign to _Longueville_ who follows, and they glide to the further end of the cottage unperceived; where they remain in anxious observation of the characters in front.] _Eug._ Rise! your penitence wears nature's stamp, and I believe it honest. _Bert._ Oh! lady, your words redeem me from despair: but say, to ease a heart that aches with wonder: say, by what prodigy you 'scaped the flames of that tremendous night, when all believed you perished? _Eug._ (_shuddering._) Ah! what hast thou said? my dream of confidence dissolves, and now I turn from thee again with horror! Again I view thy murderous poniard reared to strike! Again my wounded infant shrieks upon my bosom, and the fiery gulf yawns redly at my feet! begone? begone! for now I hate thee! _Bert._ Ah, not to me--to Longueville ascribe the horrors of that night. (_Aside_) What shall I say? I dare not own to her that De Valmont lives. Hear me, lady; scarce was your lord's untimely fall reported, when the cruel Longueville in secret plotted to remove his infant heir, the only bar that held him from a rich succession; by hellish means he won me to his cause: _his_ hand it was that oped the castle gates at midnight to the foe, and when the fierce Huguenots rushed shouting through the halls, still _his_ hand it was that fired the chamber where you slept in peace: to save your child you rushed distracted to the rampart's edge; just as I followed to complete my prey, a falling turret crossed my path, and presently the general fabric sank in ruin. _Eug._ A wayward destiny that night was mine; at once both saved and lost! a hidden passage dug beneath the rampart, twining through many a cavern'd maze, at distance opened to the woods. I reached the secret entrance of that pass, just as the turret fell and screened me from pursuit. Concealing darkness wrapt my flying steps: the roar of death sank far behind, and ere the dawn, in safety with my child, I gained the forest. _Bert._ Your child! eternal powers! the infant then escaped my blow. _Eug._ Thy dagger's point twice scarred his innocent hand, but failed to reach the life. (_Bertrand gesticulates his transport_) A sanguine cross indelibly remained; but nature and his mother's tears assuaged the pain. Charitable foresters, ignorant of our rank, relieved our wants and changed our robes for rustic weeds; thus disguised, my infant in my arms, on foot I travelled far and long, seeking ever by the loneliest paths, to reach my sovereign's court, and at the throne of power implore for justice. _Bert._ O! does the infant yet survive? Speak, lady! bless me with those words--he lives.