“You are mad, Moyse,” cried Génifrède, shrinking from him in terror. “I do not believe a word you say. I love another!—they kill you! It is all false! I will not hear another word—I will go.”
To go was, however, beyond her power. As she sank down again, trembling, Moyse said in the imperious tone which she both loved and feared—
“I am speaking the truth now. I shall be tried to-night before a court-martial, which will embody your father’s opinion and will. They will find me a traitor, and doom me to death upon the Place. I must die—but not on the Place—and you shall die with me. In one moment, we shall be beyond their power. You hear me, Génifrède? I know you hear me, though you do not speak. I can direct you to one, near at hand, who prepares the red water, and knows me well. I will give you an order for red water enough for us both. You will come—your father will not refuse our joint request—you will come to me as soon as the trial is over; and then, love, we will never be parted more.”
Génifrède sat long with her face hidden on her lover’s shoulder, speechless. After repeated entreaties that she would say one word, Moyse raised her up, and, looking in her face, said authoritatively—
“You will do as I say, Génifrède?”
“Moyse, I dare not. No, no, I dare not! If, when we are dead, you should be dead to me too! And how do we know? If, the very next moment, I should see only your dead body with my own—if you should be snatched away somewhere, and I should be alone in some wide place—if I should be doomed to wander in some dreadful region, calling upon you for ever, and no answer! Oh, Moyse! we do not know what fearful things are beyond. I dare not; no, no, I dare not! Do not be angry with me, Moyse!”
“I thought you had been ready to live and die with me.”
“And so I am—ready to live anywhere, anyhow—ready to die, if only we could be sure— Oh! if you could only tell me there is nothing beyond—”
“I have little doubt,” said Moyse, “that death is really what it is to our eyes—an end of everything.”
“Do you think so? If you could only assure me of that— But, if you were really quite certain of that, would you wish me to die too?”