om through all and
any of our dominions. His name is Georges St. Georges, and
he is branded with the _fleur-de-lis_ and the letter G.

_Signe_, LOUIS R."

"What does it mean?" reiterated St. Georges. "Who can have done this?"

"It means," said L'Herault, "that you have some powerful interest with
his Majesty. Whomsoever you may be, even though you were one of the
king's own sons, you must be deemed fortunate. However great your
friends may be, your escape is remarkable."

"Friends! I have none. I----" but the sentence was never finished. The
excitement of the last hour had overmastered him at last and he sank
in a swoon before them.

When he came to himself the others were gone with the exception of one
turnkey, who was kneeling by his side, supporting his head and
moistening his lips with brandy. But in the place of those who had
departed there was another now, a man at whom St. Georges stared with
uncertain eyes as though doubting whether his senses were not still
playing him false; a man also on one knee by his side, clad in the
handsome uniform of the Mousquetaires Noirs.

"Boussac!" he exclaimed. "Boussac! Is it in truth you?"

"It is I, my friend."

Then, as St. Georges's senses came fully back to him, he seized the
other's hand and murmured: "You! It is you have done this! Through you
that I am saved."

"You are saved, my friend. That is enough. What matter by whom?"

CHAPTER XXXIV.

"I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HER."

Once more St. Georges was on the road, heading straight for Troyes,
and by his side once more rode a friend, as he had ridden over four
years ago--Boussac!

When he had thoroughly recovered from the swoon into which he had
fallen on hearing that he was free, he had again and again overwhelmed
the mousquetaire with his gratitude--all of which the latter had
refused to accept, and had, indeed, gently repudiated. Also it seemed
to St. Georges that he avoided the subject, or at least said as little
as possible.

"If," he said, when at last they were seated in an inn off the new Rue
Richelieu to which he had led St. Georges, "there is anything to which
you owe your freedom more than another, it is to the fact that the
king must recognise that you are in truth le Duc de Vannes, the son of
his earliest friend. Yet--yet"--he continued in an embarrassed
manner--"he would not even allow that that should influence
him--when--I pleaded for you."

"But it did--it