ith warning the
culprit that unless he left the town instantly he would be put into the
hands of the authorities. The chevalier, who was beginning to have had
enough of Avignon, did not wait to be told twice, ordered the wheels
of his chaise to be greased and horses to be brought. In the interval
before they were ready the fancy took him to go and see Madame d'Urban
again.

As the house of the marquise was the very last at which, after the
manner of his leaving it the day before, the chevalier was expected
at such an hour, he got in with the greatest ease, and, meeting a
lady's-maid, who was in his interests, was taken to the room where the
marquise was. She, who had not reckoned upon seeing the chevalier again,
received him with all the raptures of which a woman in love is capable,
especially when her love is a forbidden one. But the chevalier soon put
an end to them by announcing that his visit was a visit of farewell, and
by telling her the reason that obliged him to leave her. The marquise
was like the woman who pitied the fatigue of the poor horses that tore
Damien limb from limb; all her commiseration was for the chevalier, who
on account of such a trifle was being forced to leave Avignon. At last
the farewell had to be uttered, and as the chevalier, not knowing what
to say at the fatal moment, complained that he had no memento of her,
the marquise took down the frame that contained a portrait of herself
corresponding with one of her husband, and tearing out the canvas,
rolled, it up and gave it to the chevalier. The latter, so far from
being touched by this token of love, laid it down, as he went away, upon
a piece of furniture, where the marquise found it half an hour later.
She imagined that his mind being so full of the original, he had
forgotten the copy, and representing to herself the sorrow which the
discovery of this forgetfulness would cause him, she sent for a servant,
gave him the picture, and ordered him to take horse and ride after the
chevalier's chaise. The man took a post-horse, and, making great speed,
perceived the fugitive in the distance just as the latter had finished
changing horses. He made violent signs and shouted loudly, in order to
stop the postillion. But the postillion having told his fare that he
saw a man coming on at full speed, the chevalier supposed himself to be
pursued, and bade him go on as fast as possible. This order was so
well obeyed that the unfortunate servant only came