ke, in departing, gave to this man the duty of watching
and reporting to him the conduct of Beauvouloir toward the new
heir-presumptive.

In spite of the secrecy which surrounded Gabrielle, it was difficult
to long deceive the commander of a company. He heard the singing of two
voices; he saw the lights at night in the dwelling on the seashore;
he guessed that Etienne's orders, repeated constantly, for flowers
concerned a woman; he discovered Gabrielle's nurse making her way on
foot to Forcalier, carrying linen or clothes, and bringing back with her
the work-frame and other articles needed by a young lady. The spy then
watched the cottage, saw the physician's daughter, and fell in love
with her. Beauvouloir he knew was rich. The duke would be furious at the
man's audacity. On those foundations the Baron d'Artagnon erected the
edifice of his fortunes. The duke, on learning that his son was falling
in love, would, of course, instantly endeavor to detach him from the
girl; what better way than to force her son into a marriage with a noble
like himself, giving his son to the daughter of some great house, the
heiress of large estates. The baron himself had no property. The scheme
was excellent, and might have succeeded with other natures than those of
Etienne and Gabrielle; with them failure was certain.

During his stay in Paris the duke had avenged the death of Maximilien by
killing his son's adversary, and he had planned for Etienne an alliance
with the heiress of a branch of the house of Grandlieu,--a tall and
disdainful beauty, who was flattered by the prospect of some day bearing
the title of Duchesse d'Herouville. The duke expected to oblige his son
to marry her. On learning from d'Artagnon that Etienne was in love with
the daughter of a miserable physician, he was only the more determined
to carry out the marriage. What could such a man comprehend of love,--he
who had let his own wife die beside him without understanding a single
sigh of her heart? Never, perhaps, in his life had he felt such violent
anger as when the last despatch of the baron told him with what rapidity
Beauvouloir's plans were advancing,--the baron attributing them wholly
to the bonesetter's ambition. The duke ordered out his equipages and
started for Rouen, bringing with him the Comtesse de Grandlieu, her
sister the Marquise de Noirmoutier, and Mademoiselle de Grandlieu, under
pretext of showing them the province of Normandy.

A few days before