Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 126: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Li} New 114 THE EVE OF THE LAST DAY. ‘*Your mind is made up, then?”’ ‘Perfectly. Iwasa groom, lam a corporal, I will be dead—that is all.”’ ‘‘But, supposing I accept, have you reflected on the diffi- culties of your project?”’ ‘‘Bless me! if one thought of everything, one would never attempt anything. ’’ ‘There is the sentinel making the round.”’ ‘Tt is a risk to run.’’ ‘The patrol who go and come around the ramparts. ’’ ‘‘It is their trade to see people, it will be ours to avoid them.’’ ‘We shall be overtaken before we gain the frontier. ”’ ‘‘At the mercy of God!’’ . Belle-Rose stamped. The corporal continued to twirl his fingers. ‘‘ After all, do what you wish,’’ exclaimed the sergeant; ‘if you are shot, it will be your own fault.”’ ‘‘Agreed,’’ said Déroute, and he rose to go. The day was over, and the dinner hour had come. The corporal went out to fulfil the duties of his charge. He had to watch at the same time over the mess and over his prisoner. He had scarcely passed the door, when Belle- Rose, drawing a pencil from his pocket, hastily wrote some words upon a slip of paper. When he had finished, he approached the window which gave upon the yard; a sapper was close by. ‘‘Do you wish to render me a service, comrade?’’ Belle- Rose said to him. ‘Tf the instructions permit me, willingly.”’ ‘Then take this letter and carry it immediately to Mon- sieur de Naucrais. If heis not at home, search for him till you have found him, and do not return without hav- ing placed it in his own hands.’’ ‘It is pressing, then?”’ ‘‘Somewhat. It concerns a man’s life.”’ ‘*T shall run, then.’’ Monsieur de Naucrais, entirely wrapped up in the grief caused by his brother’s death, had given orders that he should not be disturbed; but at the name of Belle-Rose he had the sapper introduced and took the letter. It only contained these lines: ‘‘Caprain :—If you were not Monsieur de Naucrais, I should say nothing to you of what has passed between Corporal Déroute and myself; but in confiding to you this secret, [am sure that instead of =) —e (E(@) ( iboo Ss (