ng as the man she loved were given one single
chance of escape.

Therefore she turned to her arch-enemy in a more conciliatory spirit
now, and even endeavoured to match her own diplomatic cunning against
his.

"I do not understand," she said tentatively. "How can my actions
influence those of my husband? I am a prisoner in Boulogne: he probably
is not aware of that fact yet and..."

"Sir Percy Blakeney may be in Boulogne at any moment now," he
interrupted quietly. "An I mistake not, few places can offer such great
attractions to that peerless gentleman of fashion than doth this humble
provincial town of France just at this present.... Hath it not the
honour of harbouring Lady Blakeney within its gates?... And your
ladyship may indeed believe me when I say that the day that Sir Percy
lands in our hospitable port, two hundred pairs of eyes will be fixed
upon him, lest he should wish to quit it again."

"And if there were two thousand, sir," she said impulsively, "they would
not stop his coming or going as he pleased."

"Nay, fair lady," he said, with a smile, "are you then endowing Sir
Percy Blakeney with the attributes which, as popular fancy has it,
belong exclusively to that mysterious English hero, the Scarlet
Pimpernel?"

"A truce to your diplomacy, Monsieur Chauvelin," she retorted, goaded by
his sarcasm, "why should we try to fence with one another? What was the
object of your journey to England? of the farce which you enacted in
my house, with the help of the woman Candeille? of that duel and
that challenge, save that you desired to entice Sir Percy Blakeney to
France?"

"And also his charming wife," he added with an ironical bow.

She bit her lip, and made no comment.

"Shall we say that I succeeded admirably?" he continued, speaking with
persistent urbanity and calm, "and that I have strong cause to hope that
the elusive Pimpernel will soon be a guest on our friendly shores?...
There! you see I too have laid down the foils.... As you say, why should
we fence? Your ladyship is now in Boulogne, soon Sir Percy will come to
try and take you away from us, but believe me, fair lady, that it would
take more than the ingenuity and the daring of the Scarlet Pimpernel
magnified a thousandfold to get him back to England again... unless..."

"Unless?..."

Marguerite held her breath. She felt now as if the whole universe must
stand still during the next supreme moment, until she had heard what
Chauvelin's next