‘They are being overlooked in the corps du garde,’ replied the man. ‘By the way, monsieur, my sweetheart, Françoise Roussel, gave me this note for you, when I met her without the walls this afternoon. She did not care that it should be read by the governor.’
Gaudin snatched the note, and discerned the handwriting of the Marchioness. Hastily tearing it open, he read—
‘Be true and patient; all may yet be well, and you will be revenged. Rely on me to aid you; we have gone too far to retract. In life, and after it, yours only,
‘Marie.’
‘I must put out your light,’ said Galouchet. ‘Last night you were brought in late, and nothing was said; but neither fire nor lamp can be allowed between curfew and sunrise.’
‘You can have it, my good fellow,’ said Gaudin, still quivering with the emotion which the letter had called up. ‘Here—here is some money for you. I will keep your secret. You may retire.’
The man raked out the embers on the grate, and departed. As soon as the clanking of the three doors that shut in the cell had ceased, Exili, who till now had remained quiet, arose from his table, and approaching Sainte-Croix in the darkness, said rapidly—
‘I will now show you some of the mysteries by which my career has, up to yesterday, thriven. But, first—precaution!’
He took his cloak, and by the aid of the forks on the table fixed it so that it covered the window, the position of which could be plainly ascertained by the faint moonlight from without, and then he returned towards the table at which he had been sitting.
‘The clods without think that our light and darkness is subservient to their will alone; but the elements obey not such idiots. The ether which percolates all things—vitalised and inorganic—setting up a communion between them, reveals not itself to the uninitiated. With me, the various elements are as abject slaves, whom I can summons at my bidding.’
As he spoke, he dashed a small rod he held against the wall, and a flame, so bright that Gaudin could hardly look upon it, burst from its extremity. In another moment he had relighted the lamp, and he then shook the blaze amongst the embers on the hearth, which were presently rekindled. Sainte-Croix looked upon his companion with the gaze of one bewildered. Exili read the expression of the other’s features and continued, perceiving his advantage—