the cruel fate that awaited him. Thereafter, both described in the most moving terms the sufferings which they had mutually endured; again they embraced, and shed tears of rapture, to find themselves once more united. Even if de Scuderi had not been already convinced of Brusson's innocence, that scene must have established her belief beyond a doubt. "No!" said she to herself, "whatever la Regnie may maintain to the contrary, they are not criminal. It could only be hearts that are wholly free from the torments of a guilty conscience, that thus, in the delights of a mutual attachment, forget the world, with all its miseries and misfortunes."
The first rays of the morning light now broke through the window. Desgrais knocked gently at the door of the room, and reminded them that it was time for Brusson's removal, as at a later hour this could not be done without attracting attention. The lovers were therefore obliged to separate, and their parting was such, that even the sternest heart could not have contemplated the scene without emotion.
CHAPTER VIII.
Satisfied as de Scuderi was of Brusson's innocence, her gloomy anticipations of his approaching fate returned in all their force after his departure—and, with heartfelt grief, she beheld the son of her beloved Anne Guiot involved in such inexplicable toils, that to save him seemed next to impossible. She admired the heroic courage of the youth who would rather die loaded with unjust imputations, than betray a secret, which, as he thought, would, more certainly than his own fate, bring distraction and despair on the object of his affection. Under these circumstances, she could not, within the utmost limits of probability, find any means by which he could escape the cruel sentence that would be passed against him yet she must not hesitate to make every exertion, or sacrifice, if it were possible that such a horrid act of in-
