“And not a moment to be lost,” added a deep, low voice, as the figure of a tall man, wrapped in a travelling cloak, darkened the doorway. “Leave us, Pierre; this is the gentleman, I suppose?” “Yes, sir,” said the landlord. “Should you need a light, I 'll bring one.” “Thank you, friend; we can dispense with any, save what the moon affords us.” As the door closed on the retiring figure of the host, the stranger took his place beside me on the bed, and in a low voice thus began:-- “I only know, sir, that you have the full confidence of one of my stanchest and best friends, who tells me that you are willing to incur great risk, provided you gain the chance of reaching your native land. That chance--nay, I will call it that certainty--lies in my power; and, in return for the assistance, are you willing to do me a service?” “I served the Emperor, sir; ask me not anything unworthy of one who wore his epaulette. Aught else, if it be but honorable and fair, I 'll do.” “I have no leisure for casuistry, nor is it my humor, sir,” replied he angrily. “Neither do I seek any wondrous devotion at your hands. The service is an easy one: costs nothing at the present; involves nothing for the future.” “The slight value you place upon it may detract but little from my objection,” said I. “_Sacré ciel!_” exclaimed he, in a louder voice, as he sprang from the bed and clasped his hands before him. “Is it to be ever thus? Is every step we take to be marred by some unlooked for casualty? Is the stamp of fear and vacillation to be on every act of our lives? This abbé, the creature we have made, the man whose fortune is our handiwork, could render but one service to our cause; and he fails us in our need. And now, you--” “Beware, sir, how you speak to one who has never been accustomed to hear his name slightingly used nor his honor impugned. With your cause, whatever it be, I have no sympathy. Remember that; and remember, also, we are strangers to each other.” “No, _par Saint Denis!_ that we are not!” said he, seizing me by the arm, as he turned his head round, and stared me steadfastly in the face. “It was but this instant I deemed my fortune at the worst; and now I find myself mistaken. Do you know me now?” said he, throwing off his travelling cap, and letting his cloak fall from his shoulders to the ground. “De Beauvais!” exclaimed I, thunderstruck at the sight. “Yes, sir; the same De Beauvais whose fortunes you have blighted, whose honor you have tarnished--Interrupt me not. The mill at Hôlbrun witnessed the latter, if even the former were an error; and now we meet once more.”