Part 32 (2/2)

”Armand, I understand, has fallen in love with a beautiful woe, puzzled look had appeared in Marguerite's pale face ”She was arrested the day before the rescue of the Dauphin from the Temple Armand could not join us He felt that he could not leave her I am sure that you will understand”

Then as she made no comment, he resuo back to La Villette, and there to resume my duties as a labourer in the day-tiht The fact that I had received no e from him for two days had made me someorried, but I have such faith in hienuity, that I would not allow myself to be really anxious Then on the third day I heard the news”

”What news?” asked Marguerite lishman as known as the Scarlet Pimpernel had been captured in a house in the Rue de la Croix Blanche, and had been ierie”

”The Rue de la Croix Blanche? Where is that?”

”In the Montine, orking to get hi heard the news, Sir Andrehat did you do?”

”I went into Paris and ascertained its truth”

”And there is no doubt of it?”

”Alas, none! I went to the house in the Rue de la Croix Blanche Are to talk She seeer Amidst tears she told me some of the details of the capture Can you bear to hear the--don't be afraid,” she reiterated with the same dullthe son of the concierge--a lad about fifteen--was sent off by her lodger with a e to No 9 Rue St Ger all last week, where he kept disguises and so on for us all, and where sos were held Percy evidently expected that Armand would try and communicate with him at that address, for when the lad arrived in front of the house he was accosted--so he says--by a big, rough worker's letter, and finally pressed a piece of gold into his hand The workine that Armand, at the time that he wrote the letter, e was still in prison; he could not know then that Blakeney had already got her into comparative safety In the letter he ht in which he stood, and also of his fears for the woman whom he loved Percy was not the man to leave a comrade in the lurch! He would not be the man e all love and adladly all of us give our life--he would not be that ers in order to be of help to those who call on him Armand called and Percy went to hi spied upon, for Ars of those infernal committees were already on his heels Whether these sleuth-hounds had followed the son of the concierge and seen hiive the letter to the workman in the Rue St Gere in the Rue de la Croix Blanche was nothing but a spy of Heron's, or, again whether the Committee of General Security kept a company of soldiers in constant alert in that house, we shall, of course, never know All that I do know is that Percy entered that fatal house at half-past ten, and that a quarter of an hour later the concierge saw so a heavy burden She peeped out of her lodge, and by the light in the corridor she saw that the heavy burden was the body of a man bound closely with ropes: his eyes were closed, his clothes were stained with blood He was seean of the Government proclaimed the capture of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and there was a public holiday in honour of the event”

Marguerite had listened to this terrible narrative dry-eyed and silent

Now she still sat there, hardly conscious of ent on around her--of Suzanne's tears, that fell unceasingly upon her fingers--of Sir Andreho had sunk into a chair, and buried his head in his hands She was hardly conscious that she lived; the universe seemed to have stood still before this awful, monstrous cataclysm

But, nevertheless, she was the first to return to the active realities of the present

”Sir Andrew,” she said after a while, ”tell s?”

”At Calais, madam,” he replied ”I saw them there on my way hither

They had delivered the Dauphin safely into the hands of his adherents at Mantes, and were awaiting Blakeney's further orders, as he had commanded them to do”

”Will they wait for us there, think you?”

”For us, Lady Blakeney?” he exclaimed in puzzlement

”Yes, for us, Sir Andrew,” she replied, whilst the ghost of a sht of acco me to Paris, had you not?”

”But Lady Blakeney--”

”Ah! I knohat you would say, Sir Andrew You will speak of dangers, of risks, of death,to help my husband--that I could be but a hindrance to hi is so different now Whilst those brutes planned his capture he was clever enough to outwit theot hiht and day, my friend, just as they watched the unfortunate Queen; but they'll not keep him months, weeks, or even days in prison--even Chauvelin noill no longer attempt to play with the Scarlet Pimpernel They have him, and they will hold hiuillotine”

Her voice broke in a sob; her self-control was threatening to leave her

She was but a wo and passionately in love with the nominious death, far away from his country, his kindred, his friends