fortune to us, and it comes at a time when we were about to be delivered from our prison, for I cannot give up the hope and belief that you will be able to come with us. I was wrong, I know, and very much clouded and confused, The only way I can see out of the difficulty is to apologize, and, whatever may be my inward feelings, I am quite willing to do it.'
'Chirrup! chirrup! get on, my pets; there is plenty to do, and little time for it! No, my good friend, you must not apologize. I am not a bloodthirsty man—thank God, I am not a hopeless demon yet—not a lost soul, I fully believe; but an apology to those fiends will only make them more savage and vindictive. They will now murder you in open fight; if you apologize, they will assassinate you in secret. Leave them to me, I know them well. If they are capable of respecting you at all they will do so on no other terms than those of your fighting and resisting them. Apology, indeed! why, I have met with men made more bitter by an apology, who, if you had held out firmly against them, would have slunk away like very curs—not that I object to an apology, if one does wrong, but when a man grossly insults another, and then demands an apology, it becomes as rich as Falstaff's valour. If I live here two or three years longer, I'll blow up that infernal Parliament with dynamite and rackarock. I'll be the Guy Fawkes of the whole happy family.'
'Doctor, I will not, I cannot, shed blood, even a demon's blood, if he has any. I will fold my arms, and stand before his fire.'
'Well, please yourself; he will not fire twice. I'm bound by what I said to bring you forward; when that's done, do as you like—go down on your knees and beg pardon, and listen to their howls of derision. I will tell you a short story about making an apology. I had business relations
