them still, and again through the night there came like a faint echo
which seemed to throw back those sounds that indicated the presence of
men and of horses not very far away.

"Yes, it must be citizen Chauvelin," said Heron at last; but the tone of
his voice sounded as if he were anxious and only half convinced; "but I
thought he would be at the chateau by now."

"He may have had to go at foot-pace; it is very dark, citizen Heron,"
remarked the sergeant.

"En avant, then," quoth the other; "the sooner we come tip with him the
better."

And the squad of mounted men, the two coaches, the drivers and the
advance section who were leading their horses slowly restarted on the
way. The horses snorted, the bits and stirrups clanged, and the springs
and wheels of the coaches creaked and groaned dismally as the ramshackle
vehicles began once more to plough the carpet of pine-needles that lay
thick upon the road.

But inside the carriage Armand and Marguerite held one another tightly
by the hand.

"It is de Batz--with his friends," she whispered scarce above her
breath.

"De Batz?" he asked vaguely and fearfully, for in the dark he could not
see her face, and as he did not understand why she should suddenly be
talking of de Batz he thought with horror that mayhap her prophecy anent
herself had come true, and that her mind wearied and over-wrought--had
become suddenly unhinged.

"Yes, de Batz," she replied. "Percy sent him a message, through me,
to meet him--here. I am not mad, Armand," she added more calmly. "Sir
Andrew took Percy's letter to de Batz the day that we started from
Paris."

"Great God!" exclaimed Armand, and instinctively, with a sense of
protection, he put his arms round his sister. "Then, if Chauvelin or the
squad is attacked--if--"

"Yes," she said calmly; "if de Batz makes an attack on Chauvelin, or
if he reaches the chateau first and tries to defend it, they will shoot
us... Armand, and Percy."

"But is the Dauphin at the Chateau d'Ourde?"

"No, no! I think not."

"Then why should Percy have invoked the aid of de Batz? Now, when--"

"I don't know," she murmured helplessly. "Of course, when he wrote the
letter he could not guess that they would hold us as hostages. He may
have thought that under cover of darkness and of an unexpected attack he
might have saved himself had he been alone; but now--now that you and I
are here--Oh! it is all so horrible, and I cannot understand it all."

"Hark!