a patriot. If you were in that case, and I were a Frenchwoman, I would
do the same for you."

He smiled rather grimly and said: "If it please you that this man escape,
I shall hope he may, and will help you. . . . Here comes your
father."

"I could not let my father know," she said. "He has no sympathy for any
one like that, for any one at all, I think, but me."

"Don't be down-hearted. If you have set your heart on this, I will try
to bring it about, God knows! Now let us be less gloomy. Conspirators
should smile. That is the cue. Besides, the world is bright. Look at
the glow upon the hills."

"I suppose the Semaphore is glistening on the Hill of Pains; but I cannot
see it."

He did not understand her.




II

A few hours after this conversation, Laflamme sought to accomplish his
escape. He had lately borne a letter from the Commandant, which
permitted him to go from point to point outside the peninsula of Ducos,
where the least punished of the political prisoners were kept. He
depended somewhat on this for his escape. Carbourd had been more heroic,