Boston itself."

"You will hand a certificate to my wife to-morrow, and you will
uphold this marriage against all gossip?" asked I.

"Against all France and all England," he answered, roused now.

"Then come," I urged.

"But I must have a witness," he interposed, opening the book.

"You shall have one in due time," said I. "Go on. When the
marriage is performed, and at the point where you shall proclaim
us man and wife, I will have a witness."

I turned to Alixe, and found her pale and troubled. "Oh, Robert,
Robert!" she cried, "it can not be. Now, now I am afraid, for the
first time in my life, clear, the first time!"

"Dearest lass in the world," I said, "it must be. I shall not go
to your father's. To-morrow night, I make my great stroke for
freedom, and when I am free I shall return to fetch my wife."

"You will try to escape from here to-morrow?" she asked, her
face flushing finely.

"I will escape or die," I answered; "but I shall not think of
death. Come--come and say with me that we shall part no more--in
spirit no more; that, whatever comes, you and I have fulfilled our
great hope, though under the shadow of the sword."