‘You have my sympathy, mademoiselle,’ said the young hussar.

It was to him that my cousin had now turned.

‘Do I understand that you took him prisoner?’ she asked.

‘It was unfortunately my duty.’

‘From you I will get the truth.  Whither did you take him?’

‘To the Emperor’s camp.’

‘And why?’

’Ah, mademoiselle, it is not for me to go into politics.  My duties are but to wield a sword, and sit a horse, and obey my orders.  Both these gentlemen will be my witnesses that I received my instructions from Colonel Lasalle.’

‘But on what charge was he arrested?’

‘Tut, tut, child, we have had enough of this!’ said my uncle harshly.  ’If you insist upon knowing I will tell you once and for all, that Monsieur Lucien Lesage has been seized for being concerned in a plot against the life of the Emperor, and that it was my privilege to denounce the would-be assassin.’

‘To denounce him!’ cried the girl.  ’I know that it was you who set him on, who encouraged him, who held him to it whenever he tried to draw back.  Oh, you villain! you villain!  What have I over done, what sin of my ancestors am I expiating, that I should be compelled to call such a man Father?’

My uncle shrugged his shoulders as if to say that it was useless to argue with a woman’s tantrums.  The hussar and I made as if we would stroll away, for it was embarrassing to stand listening to such words, but in her fury she called to us to stop and be witnesses against him.  Never have I seen such a recklessness of passion as blazed in her dry wide-opened eyes.

‘You have deceived others, but you have never deceived me,’ she cried.  ’I know you as your own conscience knows you.  You may murder me, as you murdered my mother before me, but you can never frighten me into being your accomplice.  You proclaimed yourself a Republican that you might creep into a house and estate which do not belong to you.  And now you try to make a friend of Buonaparte by betraying your old associates, who still trust in you.  And you have sent Lucien to his death!  But I know your plans, and my Cousin Louis knows them also, and I can assure you that there is just as much chance of his agreeing to them as there is of my doing so.  I’d rather lie in my grave than be the wife of any man but Lucien.’

’If you had seen the pitiful poltroon that he proved himself you would not say so,’ said my uncle coolly.  ’You are not yourself at present, but when you return to your right mind you will be ashamed of having made this public exposure of your weakness.  And now, lieutenant, you have something to say.’

‘My message was to you, Monsieur de Laval,’ said the young hussar, turning his back contemptuously upon my uncle.  ’The Emperor has sent me to bring you to him at once at the camp at Boulogne.’

My heart leapt at the thought of escaping from my uncle.