The young man made a movement.
"Now do you understand, Charles? My brother comes to Bourg, mysteriously, without letting me know; he asks for the captain of the gendarmerie, follows him into the prison, speaks only to him, and disappears. Is that not a threatening outlook for our love? Tell me, Charles!"
As Amelie spoke, a dark cloud spread slowly over her lover's face.
"Amelie," said he, "when my companions and I bound ourselves together, we did not deceive ourselves as to the risks we ran."
"But, at least," said Amelie, "you have changed your place of refuge; you have abandoned the Chartreuse of Seillon?"
"None but our dead are there now."
"Is the grotto of Ceyzeriat perfectly safe?"
"As safe as any refuge can be that has two exit."
"The Chartreuse of Seillon had two exits; yet, as you say, you left your dead there."
"The dead are safer than the living; they are sure not to die on the scaffold."
Amelie felt a shudder go through her.
"Charles!" she murmured.
"Listen," said the young man. "God is my witness, and you too, that I have always put laughter and gayety between your presentiments and my fears; but to-day the aspect of things has changed; we are coming face to face with the crisis. Whatever the end brings us, it is approaching.
I do not ask of you, my Amelie, those selfish, unreasonable things that lovers in danger of death exact from their mistresses; I do not ask you to bind your heart to the dead, your love to a corpse--"
"Friend," said the young girl, laying her hand on his arm, "take care; you are doubting me."
"No; I do you the highest honor in leaving you free to accomplish the sacrifice to its full extent; but I do not want you to be bound by an oath; no tie shall fetter you."
"So be it," said Amelie.
"What I ask of you," continued the young man, "and I ask you to swear it on our love, which has been, alas! so fatal to you, is this: if I am arrested and disarmed, if I am imprisoned and condemned to death, I implore you, Amelie, I exact of you, that in some way you will send me arms, not only for myself, but for my companions also, so that we may still be masters of our lives."
"But in such a case, Charles, may I not tell all to my brother? May I not appeal to his tenderness; to the generosity of the First Consul?"
Before the young girl had finished, her lover seized her violently by the wrist.
"Amelie," said he, "it is no longer one promise I ask of you, there are two. Swear to me, in the first place, and above all else, that you will not solicit my pardon. Swear it, Amelie; swear it!"
"Do I need to swear, dear?" asked the young girl, bursting into tears.
"I promise it."
"Promise it on the hour when I first said I loved you, on the hour when you answered that I was loved!"
"On your life, on mine, on the past, on the future, on our smiles, on our tears."
"I should die in any case, you see, Amelie, even though I had to beat my brains out against the wall; but I should die dishonored."
"I promise you, Charles."
"Then for my second request, Amelie: if we are taken and condemned, send me arms--arms or poison, the means of dying, any means. Coming from you, death would be another joy."
"Far or near, free or a prisoner, living or dead, you are my master, I am your slave; order and I obey."
"That is all, Amelie; it is simple and clear, you see, no pardon, and the means of death."
"Simple and clear, but terrible."
"You will do it, will you not?"
"You wish me to?"
"I implore you."
"Order or entreaty, Charles, your will shall be done."
The young man held the girl, who seemed on the verge of fainting, in his left arm, and approached his mouth to hers. But, just as their lips were about to touch, an owl's cry was heard, so close to the window that Amelie started and Charles raised his head. The cry was repeated a second time, and then a third.
"Ah!" murmured Amelie, "do you hear that bird of ill-omen? We are doomed, my friend."
But Charles shook his head.
"That is not an owl, Amelie," he said; "it is the call of our companions. Put out the light."
Amelie blew it out while her lover opened the window.
"Even here," she murmured; "they seek you even here!"
"It is our friend and confidant, the Comte de Jayat; no one else knows where I am." Then, leaning from the balcony, he asked: "Is it you, Montbar?"
"Yes; is that you, Morgan?"
"Yes."
A man came from behind a clump of trees.
"News from Paris; not an instant to lose; a matter of life and death to us all."
"Do you hear, Amelie?"
Taking the young girl in his arms, he pressed her convulsively to his heart.
"Go," she said, in a faint voice, "go. Did you not hear him say it was a matter of life and death for all of you?"
"Farewell, my Amelie, my beloved, farewell!"
"Oh! don't say farewell."