see if I would divulge the matter private between us. However, I
stood by my compact with him. Besides, it could not serve me to
speak of it here, or use it as an argument, and it would only
hasten an end which I felt he could prevent if he chose.

So when I was asked if I had aught to say, I pleaded only that
they had not kept the Articles of War signed at Fort Necessity,
which provided I should be free within two months and a half--that
is, when prisoners in our hands should be delivered up to them,
as they were. They had broken their bond, though we had fulfilled
ours, and I held myself justified in doing what I had done for
our cause and for my own life.

I was not heard patiently, though I could see that the Governor
and the Chevalier were impressed; but Bigot instantly urged the
case hotly against me, and the end came very soon. It was now dark;
a single light had been brought and placed beside the Governor,
while a soldier held a torch at a distance. Suddenly there was a
silence; then, in response to a signal, the sharp ringing of a
hundred bayonets as they were drawn and fastened to the muskets,
and I could see them gleaming in the feeble torchlight. Presently,
out of the stillness, the Governor's voice was heard condemning me
to death by hanging, thirty days hence, at sunrise. Silence fell
again instantly, and then a thing occurred which sent a thrill
through us all. From the dark balcony above us came a voice, weird,
high, and wailing:

"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! He is guilty, and shall die! Francois
Bigot shall die!"