"Delilah!" The tone told what was in his mind; sorrow and indignation, reproach and murdered love, failure and despondency; it expressed them all.
"I know all you feel," she answered, "all you think of me; but it had to be, there was no other way. You have that about you that I was resolved to see; and I knew that no persuasion of mine would make you part with it. Force was the only instrument at my disposal. It saves your reputation, too; there is no disgrace in yielding to superior strength, so you have nothing for which to blame yourself. No harm whatever is intended you; only a temporary inconvenience. You must see the hopelessness of resistance; bow to the inevitable, therefore, and show your sense by not attempting it. But, in any case, I mean to have those papers."
She faced him without flinching, with stern, unbending aspect, and her tone was resolute.
Her warning had been almost needless, for held as he was, he could move neither hand nor foot.
He laughed scornfully; then answered bitterly, "Doubtless your advice, Madame, was well-intended, but you might have spared yourself the giving it, for no one knows better than myself my utter helplessness. Even with one of these lusty rogues I should, unarmed, have had no chance. But, were my arms but free, even though I know that death would be the outcome, I would struggle, while life lasted, to defend my trust. Oh! God! to be thus constrained!"
His despairing accents thrilled her.
"I know it, Henri," she replied; "there lives no braver man than you." Then she turned to the men. "Bind him hand and foot, and search him."
She looked on calmly, though her heart was in a tumult, while they took strong cords from their pockets, and proceeded to tie first his hands and then his feet together. St. Just made no resistance; where would have been the use? But he glared savagely at Halima, all the while, in a way that made her tremble.
Then they searched him carefully. Their quest resulted in the discovery of a sealed letter, the object of Halima's proceedings. In a fever of excitement, she tore it open and began to read it.
"Ha!" she cried suddenly, "so Napoleon thinks to escape to the United States; I had half expected it." She drew herself up, and her voice was raised almost to a scream. "But never while Halima lives to bar the way. Fouché must know of this at once. He may be trusted to take measures to prevent it." Then, in a calmer tone, she addressed herself to the two men.