sh escapade among the hills. Only, alas! he wore no sword.

"And now tell me all," he cried, after his first exclamation of wonder
had found vent. "How on earth do you come here? Here, of all places,
and by my side? Is all well at Caylus? Surely Mademoiselle is not--"

"Mademoiselle is well! perfectly well! And thinking of you, I swear!"
I answered passionately. "For us," I went on, eager for the moment to
escape that subject--how could I talk of it in the daylight and under
strange eyes?--"Marie and Croisette are behind. We left Caylus eight
days ago. We reached Paris yesterday evening. We have not been to
bed! We have passed, Louis, such a night as I never--"

He stopped me with a gesture. "Hush!" he said, raising his hand.
"Don't speak of it, Anne!" and I saw that the fate of his friends was
still too recent, the horror of his awakening to those dreadful sights
and sounds was still too vivid for him to bear reference to them. Yet
after riding for a time in silence--though his lips moved--he asked me
again what had brought us up.

"We came to warn you--of him," I answered, pointing to the solitary,
moody figure of the Vidame, who was riding ahead of the party. "He--he
said that Kit should never marry you, and boasted of what he would do
to you, and frightened her. So, learning he was going to Paris, we
followed him--to put you on your guard, you know." And I briefly
sketched our adventures, and the strange circumstances and mistakes
which had delayed us hour after hour, through all that strange night,
until the time had gone by when we could do good.

His eyes glistened and his colour rose as I told the story. He wrung
my hand warmly, and looked back to smile at Marie and Croisette. "It
was like you!" he ejaculated with emotion. "It was like her cousins!
Brave, brave lads! The Vicomte will live to be proud of you! Some day
you will all do great things! I say it!"

"But oh, Louis!" I exclaimed sorrowfully, though my heart was bounding
with pride at his words, "if we had only been in time! If we had only
come to you two hours earlier!"

"You would have spoken to little purpose then, I fear," he replied,
shaking his head. "We were given over as a prey to the enemy.
Warnings? We had warnings in plenty. De Rosny warned us, and we
scoffed at him. The king's eye warned us, and we trusted him. But--"
and Louis' form dilated and his hand rose as he went on, and I thought
of his cousin's