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The brown head drooped until it rested in unconsciousness against my arm, while I could feel the sobs which shook her form and choked her utterance

"It has co in your promise"

"Nor in vain; my life is at your command"

She stopped esture

"No! pledge not yourself again until you hear my words, and ponder them," she cried, with return to that imperiousness of manner I had loved so well "This is no ordinary matter It will try your utmost love; perchance place your life in such deadly peril as you never faced before For I must ask of you what no one else would ever venture to require--nor can I hold out before you the slightest reward, save azed fixedly at her flushed face, scarcely coe words she spoke

"What may all this be that you require--this sacrifice so vast that you doubt ht?"

She stood erect, facingto her long lashes

"No! you wrong ht well doubt any other walking this earth But listen, and you can no longer question my words; this which I dare ask of you--because I trust you--is to save my husband"

"Your husband?" The very utterance of the word choked me "Your husband? Save him from what? Where is he?"

"A prisoner to the Spaniards; condemned to die to-morrow at sunrise"

"His name?"

"Chevalier Charles de Noyan"

"Where confined?"

"Upon the flag-ship in the river"

I turned away and stood with aze upon her agonized face uplifted in such eager pleading, such confiding trust; that one sweet face I loved as nothing else on earth

Save her husband! For the ht it notcould only add infinitely to ht insure my happiness--at least he alone, as far as I knew, stood in the way "To die to-morrow!" The very words sounded sweet infor me to promise her, to appear to do athered in drops upon ht Then I shook the foul te such a dastard? Why not attempt what she asked? After all, as left for ive her happiness?