“But for her sake,” pleaded Mme. de Maufant, eyeing the almost senseless girl with yearning pity.  “Think of her young life, bound up with yours.”

“Alas!” answered he, “who knows what maidens mean?  She has been excited by all that has befallen, and will doubtless be sorry for me, and remember me.  But her life can never be bound but by herself.  Briefly, I will not be saved on the terms you offer.  Existence for me is without value, honour is not.”

After this speech, delivered in a tone of conviction, Rose could say no more.  For her part, Marguerite was helpless.  Her nerves had broken in the excitement of the whole scene, and by the time that Alain had done speaking, she was on the edge of a fit of violent hysterics.  When her sister had succeeded, by the aid of the jailor’s wife, hastily summoned, in restoring a little calm, Marguerite insisted upon being taken away.  Alain was left unshaken in his resolve, and Rose, weary of the unsuccessful interview, removed her sister to their temporary lodgings in the town.  Leaving her there in the careful hands of the woman of the place—­an old acquaintance—­she hurried off to Hill-street, where she had another consultation with the Advocate Falle.

The result was soon apparent.  To whatever motive Carteret may have yielded, he did not preside at the trial of Le Gallais, leaving the task—­as indeed he usually did—­to the Lieutenant-Bailiff.  The record of the trial has perished, along with many public papers of those troublous times.  But thus much we know, that Alain Le Gallais was tried before the Lieutenant-Bailiff and six jurats, and, in spite of a strenuous defence by Advocate Falle, was found guilty and sentenced to death.

It would be impossible to describe the anguish of the ladies of Maufant, who had remained in town during these proceedings.  Rose had already spent in the conduct of the case money that she could ill afford.  But she knew that her husband would never forgive her if she neglected any means of delivering their champion.  Nor was she in any way disposed to do so.  Secret service money was laid out to the full extent of Mme. de Maufant’s powers of borrowing.

Meanwhile the political horizon grew darker day by day.  Charles fretted and yawned; but he continued to attend Divine service in the town church.  He also dined in public, “touched” for the king’s evil, and exercised such functions of royalty (as understood in that period of transition) as the conditions of the place permitted.  Just before the end of the Stuart dynasty kingship in England was in much the same condition among the English as it is now among the German nations.  The monarch was still regarded as the head of the feudal State, while a number of the leading men were beginning to perceive more or less clearly that society had passed out of a condition in which it could be deeply or permanently swayed by the absolute will of one individual, however highly placed by what one called the Divine pleasure, and another the accident of birth.  Among the personal prerogatives of the Crown was the pardon of persons condemned to death.