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Rh beg for my life, I would not for once owe an obligation to such pitiable people, though, what I require, you may, grant me without prejudice to yourselves."

"What dost thou require, knave?" asked Cavalier, while the others clustered still closer round him, "That you unbind my arms," said the fierce, wild man with an expression of the most profound contempt: "that I may once more, and for the last time, put my flask to my parched lips, which has been a friend and comforter to me in all my sorrows, and that you will afterwards be careful to deliver me speedily from such contemptible society as yours."

The Camisards murmured and would have cut him down, but at a sign from Catinat, they drew back, he himself unloosed the arms of the prisoner, and watched him with his drawn sword in his hand, lest despair, perhaps, might at the moment of his death, impel him to some fool-hardy attempt. But the powerful old man looked round him with the greatest composure,