Take the pen in your hand, I tell you; it is only a proclamation of the truth, that you have not taken up arms against the republic." Agatha understood the object of the republican General, though her father did not.

She sprang from the corner in which Denot had placed her, and coming close to her father, whispered to him.
"The gentleman means well to you, father, though his words are rough.
He wishes to save us.

He will save both of us, father, if he can.

Read the paper, and if there be nothing absolutely untrue in it, put your name to it." "Read it yourself, Agatha," said he, "and if you then tell me to sign it, I will do so." Agatha took up the paper which Santerre had written, and read, but not aloud, the following words: "I hereby proclaim myself a true son of the Republic, and a citizen brother of all free Frenchmen.

I declare that I have never carried arms against the Convention myself, and demand that I may not be accounted responsible for any misguided members of my family, who may have done so." Twice Agatha read the words, and as she did so, her father's eyes rested anxiously on her face.