



Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net









                       IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY






                           COPYRIGHT, 1895,

                     BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

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PREFACE.


Those who are acquainted with the delightful Memoires Secrets de M. Le
Comte de Bussy Rabutin (particularly the supplements to them), and
with Rousset's Histoire de Louvois, will, perhaps, recognise the
inspiration of this story. Those who are not so acquainted with these
works will, I trust, still be able to take some interest in the
adventures of Georges St. Georges.

                                            J. B.-B.

       *       *       *       *       *




CONTENTS.


   CHAP.                                                    PAGE

     I.--"THE KING'S COMMAND"                                 1

    II.--HOSPITALITY!                                        10

   III.--IT IS THE MAN                                       18

    IV.--"HER LIFE STANDS IN THE PATH OF OTHERS' GREED"      27

     V.--THE GRAVEYARD                                       34

    VI.--A LITTLE LIGHT                                      44

   VII.--A REASON                                            53

  VIII.--DRAWING NEAR                                        62

    IX.--A ROYAL SUMMONS                                     71

     X.--MADAME LA MARQUISE                                  80

    XI.--THE MARQUISE TELLS A STORY                          89

   XII.--LOST                                                96

  XIII.--DE ROQUEMAURE'S WORK                               105

   XIV.--"I MUST SPEAK!"                                    114

    XV.--THE MINISTER OF WAR                                123

   XVI.--PASQUEDIEU!                                        132

  XVII.--"KILL HIM DEAD, RAOUL!"                            140

 XVIII.--LA GALERE GRANDE REALE                             149

   XIX.--"A NEW LIFE"                                       158

    XX.--"HURRY, HURRY, HURRY!"                             166

   XXI.--MAY, 1692                                          175

  XXII.--LA HOGUE                                           183

 XXIII.--THE BITTERNESS OF DEATH                            191

  XXIV.--ON THE ROAD                                        199

   XXV.--"I KNOW YOUR FACE"                                 207

  XXVI.--IN THE SNARE                                       216

 XXVII.--ANOTHER ESCAPE                                     224

XXVIII.--THE FLEUR-DE-LIS                                   231

  XXIX.--FAREWELL HOPE                                      240

   XXX.--"IT IS TRUE"                                       248

  XXXI.--ST. GEORGES'S DOOM                                 256

 XXXII.--THE LAST CHANCE                                    265

XXXIII.--THE DAY OF EXECUTION                               274

 XXXIV.--"I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HER"                         283

  XXXV.--AT LAST                                            291

         CONCLUSION                                         300

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IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY.

THE FIRST PERIOD.


CHAPTER I.

"THE KING'S COMMAND."


All over Franche-Comte the snow had fallen for three days unceasingly,
yet through it for those three days a man--a soldier--had ridden,
heading his course north, for Paris.

Wrapped in his cloak, and prevented from falling by his bridle arm, he
bore a little child--a girl some three years old--on whom, as the
cloak would sometimes become disarranged, he would look down fondly,
his firm, grave features relaxing into a sad smile as the blue eyes of
the little creature gazed upward and smiled into his own face. Then he
would whisper a word of love to it, press it closer to his great
breast, and again ride on.

For three days the snow had fallen; was falling when he left the
garrison of Pontarlier and threaded his way through the pine woods on
the Jura <DW72>s; fell still as, with the wintry night close at hand,
he approached the city of Dijon. Yet, except to sleep at nights, to
rest himself, the child, and the horse, he had gone on and on
unstopping, or only stopping to shoot once a wolf that, maddened with
hunger, had sprung out at him and endeavoured to leap to his saddle;
and once to cut down two footpads--perhaps poor wretches, also
maddened with hunger--who had striven to stop his way.

On and on and on through the unceasing snow he had gone with the child
still held fast to his bosom, resting the first night at Poligny,
since the snow was so heavy on the ground that his horse could go no
further, and another at Dole for the same reason, until now he drew
near to Dijon.

"A short distance to travel in three days," he muttered to himself,
as, afar off, his eye caught the gleam of a great beacon flaring
surlily through the snow-laden air--the beacon on the southern
watchtower of the city walls--"a short distance. Yet I have done my
best. Have obeyed orders. Now let me see for further instructions."

There was still sufficient light left in the wintry gloom to read by,
whereon, shifting the child a little as he drew rein--it needed not
much drawing, since the good horse beneath him could hardly progress
beyond the slowest walk, owing to the accumulated snow--he took from
his holster a letter, and, passing over the beginning of it, turned to
the last leaf and read:

     "At Dijon you will stay at the chateau of my good friend and
     subject the Marquis Phelypeaux, avoiding all inns; at
     Troyes, at the manoir of Madame la Marquise de Roquemaure;
     at Melun, if you have to halt there, at the chateau of
     Monsieur de Riverac. Between these,