How
well I remember that supper! We put the untouched cake away in a sort of
buffet, and poured the cold coffee out of the window, in order that the
servants might not take offence at the apparent fancifulness of sending
down for food I could not eat. I was so anxious for all to be in bed,
that I told the footman who served that he need not wait to take away
the plates and dishes, but might go to bed. Long after I thought the
house was quiet, Amante, in her caution, made me wait. It was past
eleven before we set out, with cat-like steps and veiled light, along
the passages, to go to my husband's room and steal my own letter, if it
was indeed there; a fact about which Amante had become very uncertain in
the progress of our discussion.

To make you understand my story, I must now try to explain to you the
plan of the chateau. It had been at one time a fortified place of some
strength, perched on the summit of a rock, which projected from the side
of the mountain. But additions had been made to the old building (which
must have borne a strong resemblance to the castles overhanging the
Rhine), and these new buildings were placed so as to command a magnificent
view, being on the steepest side of the rock, from which the mountain
fell away, as it were, leaving the great plain of France in full survey.
The ground-plan was something of the shape of three sides of an oblong;
my apartments in the modern edifice occupied the narrow end, and had
this grand prospect. The front of the castle was old, and ran parallel
to the road far below. In this were contained the offices and public
rooms of various descriptions, into which I never penetrated. The back
wing (considering the new building, in which my apartments were, as the
centre) consisted of many rooms, of a dark and gloomy character, as the
mountain-side shut out much of the sun, and heavy pine woods came down
within a few yards of the windows. Yet on this side--on a projecting
plateau of the rock--my husband had formed the flower-garden of which I
have spoken; for he was a great cultivator of flowers in his leisure
moments.

Now my bedroom was the corner room of the new buildings on the part
next to the mountain. Hence I could have let myself down into the
flower-garden by my hands on the window-sill on one side, without danger
of hurting myself; while the windows at right angles with these looked
sheer down a descent of a hundred feet at least. Going still farther
along this