“Ah, Tavernay,” he said, “I am beginning to suspect that there are depths in these peasants of which we never dreamed. I have seen them fight like heroes, and I had always thought them cowards. Here to-night I have seen one stand erect, a man, and I had fancied that they could only crawl. When France wins through this peril and shakes off this madness which has her by the throat, there will be such a searching of hearts as the world has never seen!” A sudden stillness had fallen upon the mob below; no sound rose to the platform save the crackling of the flames. We looked down to see what this strange silence meant, and found that the little groups of people had drawn still farther away from the tower and were watching it with a kind of awed expectancy. Their silence was infinitely more sinister than their shouting. There was something about it--something horrible and threatening--which sent a chill to the marrow. Why should they stand there staring at the tower? What frightful thing was about to happen? My companion evidently felt the same foreboding, for he gazed down at them with drawn brows. “What do they mean?” he muttered. “What do they mean?” He stared a moment longer, then turned to his wife. “Come hither, my love,” he said, and when she came, drew her to him and held her close. My heart was full to bursting. In an instant I was beside Charlotte. “My love!” I said softly, and held out my arms to her. “What is it?” she whispered. “Oh, what is it?” “I do not know. They are preparing something, awaiting something. It is the end perhaps.” “The end!” she echoed hoarsely. “The end!” and she stared up into my eyes, her lips trembling. “And if it were,” I questioned gently, “would you not wish to meet it with my arms about you? Oh, they are longing for you!” She did not answer, but I fancied she swayed toward me. In an instant she was close against my heart--close against my heart! “Since this is the end,” I said softly, “since there is no future, you are going to love me, are you not, Charlotte? And there is a future! In a moment more nothing can ever part us--your soul and mine! Look at me, my love!” The tears were streaming down her face as she lifted it to mine. “Kiss me!” she whispered. “Kiss me!” I bent and kissed her and felt her warm lips answer. Oh, now I could smile in the very face of death! “I love you!” I murmured, my pulses bounding wildly. “I love you!--love you!--love you! Now and always, I love you!--for life or death!----” A deep roar burst upon the night, a sheet of livid flame leaped upward toward us, and the tower swayed and trembled as though smitten by some mighty hand. [Illustration: A SHEET OF LIVID FLAME LEAPED UPWARD TOWARD US, AND THE TOWER SWAYED] CHAPTER XIV. A BETTER MAN THAN I. I OPENED my eyes to find the tower still standing and my love clinging to me, her face tear-stained and white. “We are safe!” she cried. “We are safe! It was not the end!”