"Brother, brother, do not speak so!" Valentine exclaimed with despair; "you break my heart."
"Reflect, my good Valentine, on the position in which I now stand. I am tried contrary to the law of nations. Hence my position is a fine one; my judges will endure all the disgrace of my condemnation. If I fly, I shall be nothing more than any common adventurer—a pirate, as they call me, prodigal of his companions' blood, and chary of his own. Must I not acquit the debt I have contracted with all my friends, who died to defend my cause? Come, brother, do not try to convince me, for it would be useless. I repeat to you, my resolution cannot be shaken."
"Ah!" Valentine exclaimed again, with an outburst of passion he could not repress, "you are determined to die. But do you reflect that, in dying, you drag down with you to the grave another person? Do you believe that she will consent to live when——"
"Silence!" the count interrupted him in great agitation. "Do not speak to me of her. Poor Angela! Alas! why did she love me?"
"Why!" the person who accompanied Valentine, and had hitherto remained motionless, exclaimed. "Because you are great, Louis; because your heart is immense."
"Oh!" he said with grief, "Angela! Brother, brother, what have you done?"
The hunter made no reply, for he was weeping. His iron nature was broken; the strong man wept like a child.
"Do not reproach him for having brought me, Don Louis. I wished to come—I insisted on accompanying him."
"Alas!" the count replied with an ineffable sadness, "you break my heart, poor darling child. In your presence all my resolution and courage abandon me. Oh! why have you come to revive, by your presence, regrets which nothing will be able to calm again?"
"You are mistaken, Don Louis," she said with febrile energy. "You believe me to be a weak woman, without courage. My love for you is too true and too pure for me ever to advise you to do anything against your honour or your glory. Just now, concealed in that obscure corner, I listened eagerly to your words. I was happy at hearing you speak as you did. I love you, Don Louis, oh, as man never was loved in this world! But I love you for yourself, and not for myself. Your glory is as dear to me as you are. Your memory must remain without a stain, as your life has been unsullied. Don Louis, I, to whom you are all in all, the man for whom I would sacrifice my life if necessary, I have come to say to you, 'Dear count, die nobly, with head erect: fall like a hero! Your memory will be revered as that of a martyr.'"