ance only to throw in his lot at the
end of it with two pre-condemned men. Loo turned to him as to one who
had proved himself capable enough in an emergency, brave in face of
danger.

"We cannot stay here," he said; "the gates will serve to give us an
hour's start, but no more. I suppose there is another way out of the
chateau."

"There are two ways," answered the Marquis. "One leads to a house in the
town and the other emerges at the mill down below the walls. But, alas!
both are lost sight of. My ancestors--"

"I know the shorter one," put in Juliette, "the passage that leads to
the mill. I can show you the entrance to that, which is in the crypt of
the chapel, hidden behind the casks of wine."

She spoke to Barebone, only half-concealing, as Marie had done, the fact
that the great respect with which the Marquis de Gemosac was treated was
artificial, and would fall to pieces under the strain of an emergency--a
faint echo of the old regime.

"When you are gone," the girl continued, still addressing Barebone,
"Marie and I can keep them out at least an hour--probably more. We may
be able to keep them outside the walls all night, and when at last they
come in it will take them hours to satisfy themselves that you are not
concealed within the enceinte."

She was quite cool, and even smiled at him with a white face.

"You are always right, Mademoiselle, and have a clear head," said
Barebone.

"But no heart?" she answered in an undertone, under cover of her
father's endless talk to Colville and with a glance which Barebone could
not understand.

In a few minutes Dormer Colville pronounced himself ready to go, and
refused to waste further precious minutes in response to Monsieur de
Gemosac's offers of hospitality. No dinner had been prepared, for Marie
had sterner business in hand and could be heard beneath the windows
urging her husband to display a courage superior to that of a rabbit.
Juliette hurried to the kitchen and there prepared a parcel of cold meat
and bread for the fugitives to eat as they fled.

"We might remain hidden in a remote cottage," Barebone had suggested to
Colville, "awaiting the development of events, but our best chance is
'The Last Hope.' She is at Bordeaux, and must be nearly ready for sea."

So it was hurriedly arranged that they should make their way on foot
to a cottage on the marsh while Jean was despatched to Bordeaux with a
letter for Captain Clubbe.

"It is a pity," said Marie