His nerveless fingers felt their way to the wall and faintly rapped a summons.
"Valerian!" he said, "I shall not live through the night.Watch with me."The faint raps sounded clearly in the stillness of the great building, and Valerian dreaded lest the warders should hear them, and deal out punishment for an offence which by day they were forced to wink at.
But he would not for the world have deserted his friend.He drew his stool close to the wall, wrapped himself round in all the clothes he could muster, and, shivering with cold, kept watch through the long winter night."I am near you," he telegraphed."I will watch with you tillmorning."
From time to time Sigismund rapped faint messages, and Valerian replied with comfort and sympathy.Once he thought to himself, "My friend is better; there is more power in his hand." And indeed he trembled, fearing that the sharp, emphatic raps must certainly attract notice and put an end to their communion.
"Tell my love that the accusation was false--false!" the word was vehemently repeated."Tell her I died broken-hearted, loving her to the end.""I will tell her all when I am free," said poor Valerian, wondering with a sigh when his unjust imprisonment would end."Do you suffer much?" he asked.
There was a brief interval.Sigismund hesitated to tell a falsehood in his last extremity.
"It will soon be over.Do not be troubled for me," he replied.And after that there was a long, long silence.
Poor fellow! he died hard; and I wished that those comfortable English people could have been dragged from their warm beds and brought into the cold dreary cell where their victim lay, fighting for breath, suffering cruelly both in mind and body.Valerian, listening in sad suspense, heard one more faint word rapped by the dying man.