No harm shall come to you--do not be afraid!--only kindness is intended; therefore I beseech you do not persist in vain resistance.

If you will only submit quietly, you shall be treated with as much consideration and respect as a captive queen, but if you go on acting like the devil, struggling and shrieking, I have means to bring you to terms, and I shall certainly resort to them.

THIS will stop your screaming, mademoiselle, and THIS will prevent your struggling." As he spoke he drew out of his pocket a small gag, very artistically made, and a long, thick, silken cord, rolled up into a ball.
"It would be barbarous indeed," he continued, "to apply such a thing as this to that sweet, rosy mouth of yours, mademoiselle, as I am sure that you will admit--or to bind together those pretty, delicate, little wrists, upon which no worse fetters than diamond bracelets should ever be placed." Poor Isabelle, furious and frightened though she was, could not but acknowledge to herself that further physical resistance then would be worse than useless, and determined to spare herself at least such indignities as she was at that moment threatened with; so, without vouchsafing a word to her attendant, she threw herself back into the corner of the carriage, closed her eyes, and tried to keep perfectly still.

But in spite of her utmost endeavours she could not altogether repress an occasional sob, nor hold back the great tears that welled forth from under her drooping eyelids and rolled down over her pale cheeks, as she thought of de Sigognac's despair and her own danger.
"After the nervous excitement comes the moist stage;" said her masked guardian to himself, "things are following their usual and natural course.

I am very glad of it, for I should have greatly disliked to be obliged to act a brutal part with such a sweet, charming girl as this." Now and then Isabelle opened her eyes and cast a timid glance at her abductor, who finally said to her, in a voice he vainly strove to render soft and mild: "You need not be afraid of me, mademoiselle! I would not harm you in any way for the world.