the loud cry of a demon, “ 'you cannot now go back!" And in this utter suspension of purpose, I felt for an instant as if something could and might happen that would unravel this whole chain of circumstances, and that I might suddenly awaken, as if from a dream, to the old relationships of life. But when I lifted my head, the reality irresistibly asserted itself; there were the bright lights, the mirrors, the pictures, the flowers; and there stood the immoveable, watchful mystery.

authority is itself illegitimate. In your peaceful country it is well to preach that the doctrine of the end sanctifying the means is a doctrine of devils. But there you are in your normal state under heaven, with no obstacle to the free development of your glorious human nature; and thus you are responsible for good and for evil. But with me there is no evil and no good; no aim, no possibility of aim, save freedom; until I am free I have no conscience, and my actions are without character save as futile or successful."

"Then, sir, since I am not of your way of thinking, why seek to engage me in this matter, and especially to assign to me the darkest part?"

"I am not aware," said I, "that I am so far compromised."

I could hardly be said to be reasoning with myself. I was rather resigning myself to the workings of contending feelings, and the fear of the guilt of blood was gradually excluding the thought of a new-formed love, when a light footstep overhead reminded me with excruciat- "Chance threw you in my way," replied he, ing tenderness that I might possibly be guilty with admirable coolness. "I studied your of that dear blood, even while saving the life of physignomy, and felt certain that you could be another in whom I had no personal interest. easily worked upon, and that at the same time Would I be believed if I told of the simplicity you had all the nerve requisite for a daring deed. of her motives, when the outward appearance I have therefore led you so far that you cannot of having joined herself to the conspirators now go back." could not be denied? Or if another explanation should be put upon her having been received into the house of a stranger nominally as his daughter, would she not herself repel the imputation, and prefer exile or death to a dishonoured name? But could I not contrive to remove her, and then give information of the conspiracy? Alas, how could a helpless girl escape the search of vigilant and ubiquitous justice! And thus between the two opposite conclusions, that I could not without the conscious guilt of murder hear of the success of this diabolical design, and that at the same time I could not risk the safety of Stephanie even to save the life of a monarch, I sat in speechless horror.

M. Biot was the first to break the long silence.

"You understand it, I suppose?" said he, quietly.

"Yes."

"You will see then that there is a part assigned to each of those who have affixed their signatures. There is one office still vacant. Are you prepared to subscribe your name for it?"

"In short," said I, “you ask me to be the assassin."

"I do not acknowledge any such name in connection with our cause. Believing you worthy of it, I assign you the post at once of danger and of honour. I have named the reward."

"But what," I asked, "are the principles or motives of yourself and the brotherhood to which you belong in compassing this man's death?"

"They are of a kind, Mr. Morley, that you as an Englishman can but little understand. In a general way you can, no doubt, sympathize with us when we say that our actuating motive is the desire of national freedom. But, accustomed as you are to the normal condition of things, you cannot enter into the mental condition of that man who considers all law in a state of suspension so long as the executive

"So far, that even if I wished to save you I could not do so. You are now in other hands. The note you wrote to M. Calmet (of whom the police are at present in search as having had a share in a former unsuccessful plot) is in the hands of one of the conspirators, as you would call them, who holds an office under the French Government. The pistol case which, you remember, you threw out of the carriage window, is in the hands of the police, who considering the circumstance of its being found where it was decidedly suspicious, are in search of pistols to match it. The pistols themselves are in the possession of the same gentleman who has your note to M. Calmet, and on the least notice of your opposition to our cause, or of your refusal to join it, he will deliver them up, call upon Devisme to identify them, and at the same time your person; and you may guess, Mr. Morley, what explanation the French Government will place on this circumstance, especially when you consider that you entered Paris under a false passport, and that you have now nothing to supply the place of the one you lost. Should I be implicated, your visits to my house will only involve you still more deeply. Moreover, our spies are numerous, and your every movement is watched, so that it will be impossible for you to attempt to hold any communication with any agent of Government without our knowing it, and immediately anticipating you. For my own part I possess the means of instant flight, or effectual concealment. I presume this is not the case with you."

"Enough," I exclaimed, forgetful of every thing but my own intense indignation at this systematic villany. "I will risk everything rather than allow myself to be the dupe of such an atrocious conspiracy! Anticipate me if you will, I will hazard the contest between truth and falsehood at the bar of Justice! I have allowed

you to lead me, but not so blindly as you imagine. As for the daughter whose hand you promise me, she is mine already by her own will. I have won her heart as Stephanie Guissac. I thank you for the opportunities you have allowed me for so doing."

Instead of showing any sign of astonishment at my knowledge of her real name, he merely remarked with a smile: "So then you love her for her own sake? That is still better than I anticipated. Well, you might possibly escape; but one thing is certain-she cannot." "How so?" cried I. ness to her innocence ?" "You do not understand me. I mean that if you will not do this, Stephanie will !"

"Would you not wit

A fearful suspicion shot through my mind. I comprehended the awful meaning of his words, but was so paralyzed with horror as to be utterly unable to reply. Attributing my silence to bewilderment, he proceeded with fiendish placidity to open up the meaning of his words.

"The life of Stephanie's father," said he, "is in my hands. A word from me, and Guissac becomes personally acquainted with the guillotine. Stephanie on the other hand is entirely devoted to him. Since you seem to know so much of her, you are perhaps aware that she would risk her own life to save his. You may at least have seen that she will wrong her own nature in obedience to his will. I need not show you how easily I can work upon this. A little friendly assistance from a pretended priest, who will show her the lawfulness and even the praiseworthiness of ridding the earth of a tyrant, and who will promise heaven itself as the reward of the deed—this, with the threat of her father's death if she refuse to comply, will be quite sufficient to create another Charlotte Corday. You will have no opportunity of influencing her. In another hour she will be beyond your reach. If you refuse, this is my last resource."

act of drawing the weapon from under his sleeve when the unexpected flash arrested my attention. I turned instantly to M. Biot. To my increased alarm there was a poniard in his hand also. I then rushed desperately towards the door, but he placed himself before it, saying with his usual tone of calm determination:

"Do not alarm yourself. There is no violence intended. But if you attempt to rouse the neighbourhood, successful or unsuccessful, your fate is inevitable. We have no desire to stain our cause with the blood of any private person, but, if you stand between us and our end, we must sacrifice you."

I need not be ashamed to confess that I was trembling with terror. The risk of being myself implicated-the risk of innocently implicating Stephanie-the risk of Stephanie herself being prevailed upon to become the instrument of these dark counsels, all these separate possibilities so bewildered me that, losing sight of their relative bearings, and conscious of nothing but the crushing weight of danger, I appealed wildly to his mercy. I sobbed out many incoherencies regarding my former peaceful way of life-the deathblow that my parents would receive should they hear of my connection with such fearful things, the terrible hardship of being innocently involved in what my heart shrunk from as the blackest of crimes, my abject willingness to serve M. Biot in any the most slavish of ways, if only he would spare Stephanie and myself from participating in the deed of blood; all this, and much more I urged, but I saw from the fixity of his smile-if smile it could be called-that my appeals were vain.

"If your tears," said he at length, "could wash out your knowledge of our secret, you might sue to some purpose. But you cannot extricate yourself from that knowledge, and I cannot dare not, allow in a stranger the passive possession of it. You know our plans, and must assist them, or the whole weight of them will fall upon yourself."

"But why then," I asked, fiercely, “ assign to me the worst and bloodiest part? If the deed must be done, is there no miscreant within your knowledge vile enough to turn assassin, or to add this to former crimes of the same nature for the pitiful sake of gain? Or since Guissac's life is in your hands, why not turn your power with him to this bloody account? Surely such work more congenially befits him than either his daughter or myself!"

Was Righteous Justice at that moment Omnipresent, and yet unsignalized by sudden judgment upon the coldblooded conspirator? What shall I say of my own horror except that it was unspeakable? Was it not too possible-too probable that Stephanie's plastic nature, removed from all other influences, would yield to the subtle workings of this resolute schemer? Had I not seen her strongest principle as a woman totter before the all-powerful threat of her father's punishment? Surely the former risk-that of her being implicated in case of disclosure, was nothing to this. My instant thought was to rush to the window, dash it open, M. Biot laughed-audibly. It was the first and raise the shout of treason; but I had no and last time I had the privilege of observing sooner wheeled round for the purpose of carry-in him this manifestation of a human nature. ing out the idea, than the action was as suddenly checked by the gleam of a stiletto in the hand of the Italian domestic, who had entered unperceived from the balcony during the conversation, having, as in the quickness of despair I at once perceived, closed the jalousies behind him, so that none of our movements could possibly be seen from without. He was in the

"Guissac?" cried he: "ha! ha! Guissac is a coward. He has been tried already, and has several times braced himself to the work honestly enough; but when the decisive moment comes, his body sinks under the weight of his cowardly soul."

"Is there no other, then ?" I asked, feeling as if I had got on safer ground, and foreseeing

After another short pause, he motioned me to a table on which lay writing-materials. He still seemed to be closely watching my movements, and carefully kept between myself and the door. Sitting down at the table, he pointed to a chair on the opposite side, in which I immediately took my place; and having then written out the plan of a very simple cipher (which consisted merely in the substitution of the consonants b, c, d, f and g, for the respective vowels a, e, i, o and u), he desired me to use it in writing a letter which he was about to dictate. I guessed at once, from the simplicity of the cipher, that the intention of the subtle schemer was to combine the appearance of concealment with the certainty of discovery. The letter was in Italian, and was nearly to the following effect:

ward.

"ANTONIO CASSIANO.

myself and the girl, and turn the whole affair on-
you know whom. As for you, you are safe where
you are. Do not move till you hear from me, or
see me. I enclose a cheque for £50, from the same
person as before. Practise more with small weapons,
as they don't show so easily in the pocket, and I
Next
have two beauties. Keep yourself well.
letter, Cipher No. 4.

66

M. Biot suddenly leant his head to one side, as if a new idea had struck him; then, drawing a chair towards himself, sat down with one hand on his forehead, and pondered long and silently; never, however, for a moment with- "DEAR ANTONIO,-Are you ready? Too late drawing his gaze from me, as if the whole of his for Boulogne. St. Cloud at present. Three acplans depended upon the result of his analysis cessions: one of whom promises to double your reof my character. As I watched his countenance infinite use. Slightly suspicious of Carlo. On the All three owing to the girl, who is of (that exhibited no symptom of internal working slightest symptom of defection will anticipate him. except the ever-deepening shade of the brow) II have a story at my fingers'-ends which will save could have fancied that, though his eye was fixed upon myself, he was all the while consulting with some power of evil within him that suggested ever darker and darker counsels. At all events it was evident that a new phase of the subject had presented itself; and the pause gave me leisure to make up my mind to dissemble to any extent for the purpose of gaining time. I was tremblingly anxious for the fate of Stephanie. I saw no possibility of recovering her from the hands of M. Biot, except by bargaining to act Deeper and deeper into the net, thought I; a certain part in the conspiracy on the condition fearfully realizing the dark cunning that was of her liberation, and to trust at the same time couched in every word he dictated. The cloud to some opportunity of quietly conveying to of doom seemed closing in on me; yet what the proper quarters information of all that was could I do but write? It lacerated my very being planned. I could not but feel how heart to pen the foul implication which the despicable such a part would be; yet the thought letter contained regarding Stephanie; yet what of the "heavenly rhetoric of her eye," and the possible way of escape was there for either hergleam of the poniards-for both were still dis- self or me, except feigned submission? Could played, the Italian servant playing all the while I not wish now that I had played a bolder part, with his weapon, and fidgetting uneasily as if and trusted Stephanie to the grace of God! disappointed that he had not been ordered to Where was that grace?-All around me, and to spring at once on his prey-these cogent reasons be had for the asking. But no; if Fortune were shaping my character and conduct far" practised stratagems upon so soft a subject as more effectually than the thousand unremembered lessons of Christian training.

What, I thought, had all my previous education to do with this? All very well for fireside life, or even for circumstances of straightforward danger; but for a mesh of evil, like this? Cunning for cunning said I-or the fiend within me.

"It can be done," at length exclaimed M. Biot. "Can I trust you on a journey?"

"You may bind me in any way you think most effectual," I replied, "short of the actual commission of a deed of blood!"

This I said to give him the idea that mere participation was not so repugnant to my feelings as my former language might have led him to suppose.

Yours, dear Antonio, in life and death,
"RUTSON MORLEY."

myself," stratagem for stratagem seemed still the safer plan; and accordingly, not to appear as if rendering too willing an obedience, I purposely misused the cipher in the signature, and then passed the paper to M. Biot. Of course, he at once detected the flaw, pointed it out to me, and, without any remark on the motive, politely requested me to write it out anew, and to be particularly careful with the name. I followed his directions, and passed him the second draft, with which he seemed perfectly satisfied; and, folding it carefully, he deposited it in his portfolio.

Another pause ensued, during which I sat patiently waiting for further instructions. The next thing required of me was to put my signature to an unlimited number of cartes blanches,

and, finally, to add it to the list of names already affixed to the document which had first opened my eyes to the horrid machinations in which I had been so unconsciously taking a part. At this last I hesitated, the terrible words glaring out from the paper like the language of devils. Did I dare add the sanction of my name to these awful invitations of destruction? Might there not be more righteousness in the dark determinations of these resolute conspirators than in my own hypocritical tampering with the judgments of Heaven? Yet did not the same principle that condemned this condemn also that irrevocable letter, and those signatures that were, for ought I knew, to sanction still more fearful things? I signed it, and wondered next moment at finding myself alive.

"That will be enough," said M. Biot, with a look of satisfaction, as I handed him the paper. "And now let me give you the particulars of your mission. In the first place, let me tell you it is one of great risk. This Antonio Cassiano is, for several reasons, obnoxious to the French Government; and, for several other reasons, dare not reside in his own country. If he chance to be recognized by any of the officials, I cannot tell what may be the consequences. You will, therefore, do your utmost to keep him as much as possible out of their way. Let him travel in the capacity of your servant. Take out a passport for yourself in London. In presenting it at Boulogne, explain that your servant had been accidentally omitted. Being an Englishman, this explanation will be at once accepted. You will go, then, to the English Consul, and represent to him that you are bringing this man as servant to the family in which you are now tutor. Request from him a new passport which will suffice for both of you; and, in order to avoid the difficulty of a British | Consul giving a passport to an Italian subject, suggest that Antonio be not included by name, but merely as your servant. Considerable experience in these matters has made me aware that all this is perfectly practicable. Do you understand it?"

"Perfectly."

"And further, let me assure you that though you do this upon compulsion, yet, if through you our cause succeed, the reward I have named to you will prove no fiction."

"Will you place Stephanie under my charge, as soon as this Cassiano arrives in Paris ?"

"I will, and the rest will follow when he has played his part. And," continued he, lowering his tone, and speaking in a voice that quivered with an enthusiasm which I would hardly have been disposed to attribute to one seemingly so passionless, "when the work of liberty shall have begun-when tyrant after tyrant shall have ceased to encumber the earth-when France shall call to Italy, and Italy to the world, you shall be proud to hear your name mentioned, and to boast of the part you took in so glorious an enterprize. In the meantime, do not confound the means I use with the end I have in view. Above all, do not think I employ others

in the most dangerous office through any want of courage in myself. I must live and work. If I fall, all falls with me; therefore I shrink at nothing to save my life. In this matter alonethis great cause of Liberty-do I hold that the end sanctifies the means; and with this cause my life is identified. When you reflect on the manner in which you have been treated to-night, remember that also. A year hence, when all is over, you will know me no longer as a conspirator; but as a man. Test my way of life then, and you will see that the man who could use the machinery of hell to break the fetters of Bondage, may show himself the servant of Heaven under the sun of Liberty."

For a moment I felt a touch of his own enthusiasm, and a glimpse of the old feeling of willing obedience, and the desire to be something to him.

"Do you require anything further of me?" I asked.

"Nothing, except to remember everything I have said-especially this, that all your movements are watched; and that on the least symptom, or even suspicion, that you are using the means to betray us, the interests involved are of such magnitude that I cannot save you. One thing more. If you employ the gentleman with whom you reside as the channel of communication with Government-his blood be upon your head! ...... You will abstain from coming to my house till you hear from me again. Of course, I will supply the funds necessary for defraying the expenses of your journey; so you need not be uneasy in regard to that. It may be a week, or a fortnight, before you hear from me again."

"Shall I not see Stephanie during that time? "You will not see her until your return from England."

I knew from the tone in which he said this that nothing would be gained by pleading against it.

"And now, Mr. Morley, I have detained you long enough. Let me hope that you will yet give me the opportunity of making amends for any anxiety I may have caused you. Good night......Alessandro, attend Mr. Morley to the door."

He offered his hand with as composed polite. ness as if we were just concluding an ordinary social tête à téte. Å few moments more, and I was looking up at the stars, wondering at their purity, their unmoved serenity, the steadfastness of their mutual bearings, the regularity of their respective courses. How different from the lower world that was gradually unfolding itself to my knowledge-world of darkness, of perturbation, of changeable and conflicting relations, of lawless eccentricity, disobedience, and disorder! Once more alone under the starry potency of nature, on such a night as sometimes tempts the listening spirit to fancy that it has caught some faint vibration of the fabled harmony that sounds from out the measured courses of concordant spheres-once more unconfined by wall and roof, and gazing free on