make your election."

"Oh, God! I am in your power!"

"Then you consent?"

"What assurance have I that this promise will make me your wife? Have you
not promised the same thing scores of times?"

"Require any form of obligation, and I will give it; as I mean what I say,
make your own conditions."

"Give me a written promise."

He gave it as she dictated it:

"I hereby promise to marry Eliza Fleming within one month from this 12th
day of April, 1786. This promise I most solemnly give, calling on heaven to
witness it, and if I fail in its performance, may the curses of God rest
upon my soul in this world and in the world to come.

"LOUIS DURANT."

"That will do," she said.

"And I may depend on you?"

"Yes; I am no longer free. But mind, all must be done quietly and kept a
profound secret."