He opened the door of a room and pushed me into it. "Wait," he whispered, "for my orders." I looked around me. It was Rudolph's room--the one I had been in before. I was not alone. There was a young gentleman standing at a window, looking out into the garden. He turned around and advanced toward me, with his hand extended and a smile on his face. It was Estella! looking more charming than ever in her masculine dress. I took her hand. Then my heart smote me; and I fell upon my knees before her. "O Estella," I cried, "pardon me. I would have sacrificed you for mankind--you that are dearer to me than the whole human race. Like a fool I broke from my hiding-place, and appealed to those hearts of stone--those wild beasts--those incarnate fiends--to spare the world the most dreadful calamity it has ever known. They proposed to murder ten million human beings! I forgot my task--my duty--you--my own safety--everything, to save the world." Her eyes dilated as I spoke, and then, without a trace of mock modesty, without a blush, she laid her hand upon my head and said simply: "If you had done less, I should have loved you less. What am I in the presence of such a catastrophe? But if you are to die we can at least perish together. In that we have the mastery of our enemies. Our liberty is beyond their power." "But you shall not die," I said, wildly, springing to my feet. "The assassin comes! Give me the poisoned knife. When he opens the door I shall slay him. I shall bear you with me. Who will dare to arrest our departure with that dreadful She took from the pocket of her coat the sheathed dagger and handed it to me. "We must, however, be guided by the counsels of Rudolph," she quietly said; "he is a faithful friend." "True," I replied. We sat near each other. I presumed nothing upon the great admission she had so gravely made. This was a woman to be worshiped rather than wooed. I told her all the story of my life. I described my home in that strange, wild, ancient, lofty land; my mother, my brothers; the wide, old, roomy house; the trees, the flowers, the clustering, bleating sheep. A half hour passed. The door opened. A burst of laughter and the clinking of glasses resounded through it. Rudolph entered. "The Prince and his friends," he said, "make merry over their assured victory. If you will tell Maximilian all you have heard to-night, the result may be different from what they anticipate. Come with me." He led the way through a suite of two or three rooms which communicated with his apartment. "We must throw the hounds off the scent of the fox," he said; and, to our astonishment, he proceeded to tear down the heavy curtains from two windows, having first locked the door and closed the outer shutters. He then tore the curtains into long strips, knotting them together; we pulled upon them to test their strength. He then opened one of the windows and dropped the end of the long rope thus formed out of it, fastening the other to a heavy piece of furniture, within the room. "That will account for your escape," he said. "I have already thrown the rope ladder from the window of the room Then, locking the communicating doors, we returned to his room. "Put this cloak over your shoulders," he said; "it will help disguise you. Walk boldly down these stairs," opening another door--not the one we had entered by; "turn to the right--to the right, remember--and on your left hand you will soon find a door--the first you will come to. Open it. Say to the man on guard: 'Show me to the carriage of Lord Southworth.' There is no such person; but that is the signal agreed upon. He will lead you to the carriage. Maximilian is the footman. Farewell, and may God bless you." We shook hands. I followed his directions; we met no one; I opened the door; the guard, as soon as I uttered the password, led me, through a mass of carriages, to where one stood back under some overhanging trees. The footman hurried to open the door. I gave my hand to Estella; she sprang in; I followed her. But this little movement of instinctive courtesy on my part toward a woman had been noticed by one of the many spies hanging around. He thought it strange that one man should offer his hand to assist another into a carriage. He whispered his suspicions to a comrade. We had hardly gone two blocks from the palace when Maximilian leaned down and said: "I fear we are followed." Our carriage turned into another street, and then into another. I looked out and could see--for the streets were very bright with the magnetic light--that, some distance behind us, came two carriages close together, while at a greater distance, behind them, I caught sight of a third vehicle. Maximilian leaned down again and said: "We are certainly pursued by two carriages. The third one I recognize as our own--the man with the bombs. We will drive to the first of the houses we have secured. Be ready to spring out the moment we stop, and follow me quickly into In a little while the carriage suddenly stopped. I took Estella's hand. She needed no help. Maximilian was ascending the steps of a house, key in hand. We followed. I looked back. One of our pursuers was a block away; the other a little behind him. The carriage with the bombs I could not see--it might be obscured by the trees, or it might have lost us in the fierce speed with which we had traveled. "Quick," said Maximilian, pulling us in and locking the door. We followed him, running through a long, lighted hall, out into a garden; a gate flew open; we rushed across the street and sprang into another carriage; Maximilian leaped to his place; crack went the whip, and away we flew; but on the instant the quick eyes of my friend saw, rapidly whirling around the next corner, one of the carriages that had been pursuing us. "They suspected our trick," said he. "Where, in heaven's name, is the man with the bombs?" he added, anxiously. Our horses were swift, but still that shadow clung to us; the streets were still and deserted, for it was after midnight; but they were as bright as if the full moon shone in an unclouded sky. "Ah! there he comes, at last," said Maximilian, with a sigh of relief. "I feared we might meet another carriage of the police, and this fellow behind us would call it to his help, and our case would be desperate, as they would know our trick. We should have to fight for it. Now observe what takes place." Estella, kneeling on the cushions, looked out through the glass window in the back of the carriage; I leaned far out at the side. "See, Estella," I cried, "how that hindmost team flies! They move like race-horses on the course." Nearer and nearer they come to our pursuers; they areTHE FLIGHT AND PURSUIT