“What then, in that letter is the magic word which is to work out such wonders?”

Therese handed the paper to her friend.

“Read,” said she, smiling.

Josephine read:  “Therese of Fontenay to the citizen Tallien.  Either in eight days I am free and the wife of my deliverer, the noble and brave Tallien, who will have freed the world from the monster Robespierre, or else, in eight days, I mount the scaffold; and my last thought will be a curse for the cowardly, heartless man who has not had the courage to risk his life for her he loved, and who suffers for his sake, for his sake meets death—­who had not the mind to consider that with daring deed he must destroy the bloodthirsty fiend or be ruined by him.  Therese de Fontenay will ever love her Tallien if he delivers her; she will hate him, even in death, if he sacrifices her to Robespierre’s blood-greediness!”

“If, through mishap, Robespierre should receive this letter, then you and Tallien are lost,” sighed Josephine.

“But Tallien, and not Robespierre, will receive it, and I am saved,” exclaimed Therese.  “Therefore, my friend, take courage and be bold.  Wait but eight days patiently.  Let us wait and hope.”

“Yes, let us wait and hope,” sighed Josephine.  “Hope and patience are the only companions of the captive.”

CHAPTER XV.

Deliverance.

Meanwhile the patience of the unfortunate prisoners of the Carmelite convent were to be subjected to a severe trial; and the very next day after this conversation with Therese de Fontenay, Josephine believed that there was no more hope for her, that she was irrevocably lost, as her husband was lost.  For three days she had not seen the viscount, nor received any news from him.  Only a vague report had reached her that the viscount was no longer in the Carmelite convent, but that he had been transferred to the Conciergerie.

This report told the truth.  Alexandre de Beauharnais had once more been denounced, and this second accusation was his sentence of death.  For some time past the fanatical Jacobins had invented a new means to find guilty ones for the guillotine, and to keep the veins bleeding, so as to restore France to health.  They sent emissaries into the prisons to instigate conspiracies among the prisoners, and to find out men wretched enough to purchase their life by accusing their prison companions, and by delivering them over to the executioner’s axe.  Such a spy had been sent into that portion of the prison where Beauharnais was, and he had begun his horrible work, for he had kindled discord and strife among the prisoners, and had won a few to his sinister projects.  But Beauharnais’s keen eye had discovered the traitor, and he had loudly and openly denounced him to his fellow-prisoners.  The next day, the spy disappeared from the prison, but as he went he swore bloody vengeance on General de Beauharnais. [Footnote:  “Memoires du Comte de Lavalette,” vol. i., p. 175.]