Violet Jacob > Flemington

TREACHERY 95
we had gained paradise at last; but I did not
know him—Montdelys.”
“ Then the boy was born. When he was two
months old I was obliged to come back to
Scotland; it was a matter concerning money
which could not be delayed, for my little fortune
had to be made doubly secure now, and I got
leave from my regiment. I could not take Diane
and the child, and I left them at Breda—safe, as I
thought. At twenty-three we do not know men,
not the endless treachery of them. Flemington,
when God calls us all to judgment, there will be
no mercy for treachery.”
Archie’s eyes, fixed on the other pair, whose
keen grey light was blurred with pain, dropped.
He breathed hard, and his nostrils quivered.
“ You seem to me as young as I was then.
May God preserve you from man’s treachery.
He did not preserve me,” said James.
“ I do not know how Montdelys knew that she
was defenceless,” continued he, “ but I think there
must have been some spy of his watching us. As
soon as I had left Holland he sent to her to say he
was ill, probably dying, and that he had forgiven
all. He longed for the sight of the boy, and he
asked her to bring him that he might see his
grandchild; she was to make her home with him
while I was absent, and he would send word to
me to join them on my return. Diane sent me
the good news and went, fearing nothing, to find
herself a prisoner.
“And all this time he had been working—he