it, for my brother gave the offense, and Captain Moray saved his
life, as you know. I do not wish it, Monsieur Doltaire, because
hanging is a shameful death, and he is a gentle man, not a ruffian.
Let him be shot like a gentleman. How will it sound at the Court of
France that, on insufficient evidence, as you admit, an English
gentleman was hanged for a spy? Would not the King say (for he is a
gentleman), Why was not this shown me before the man's death? Is it
not a matter upon which a country would feel as gentlemen feel?'

"I knew it the right thing to say at the moment, and it seemed
the only way to aid you, though I intended, if the worst came to
the worst, to go myself to the Governor at the last and plead for
your life, at least for a reprieve. But it had suddenly flashed
upon me that a reference to France was the thing, since the
Articles of War which you are accused of dishonouring were signed
by officers from France and England.

"Presently he turned to me with a look of curiosity, and another
sort of look also that made me tremble, and said, 'Now, there you
have put your finger on the point--my point, the choice weapon I
had reserved to prick the little bubble of Bigot's hate and the
Governor's conceit, if I so chose, even at the last. And here is a
girl, a young girl just freed from pinafores, who teaches them the
law of nations! If it pleased me I should not speak, for Vaudreuil's
and Bigot's affairs are none of mine; but, in truth, why should you
kill your enemy? It is the sport to keep him living; you can get no
change for your money from a dead man. He has had one cheerful year;
why not another, and another, and another? And so watch him fretting
to the slow-coming end, while now and again you give him a taste of
hope, to drop him back again into the pit which has no sides for