“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, Amélie?”

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 Amélie, my beloved, farewell!”

“Oh! don’t say farewell.”