ht when Felix came, when I was in deadly
terror for him and for you, Etienne, I promised my lord, an he would
lift his hand from you, to obey him in all things. He bade me never
again to hold intercourse with you--alack, I am already forsworn! But I
cannot--"

He leaped to his feet, crying out:

"Lorance, he was the first forsworn! For he did move against me--"

"He told you--the warning went through Felix--that if you tried to reach
me he would crush you as a buzzing fly. Oh, monsieur, I implored you to
leave Paris! You are not kind to me, you are cruel, when you venture
here."

"You are cruel to me, Lorance."

Sighing, she turned from him, hiding her face in her hands.

"Mayenne has not kept faith with you!" monsieur went on vehemently. "He
has broken his oath. I mean not last night. I had my warning; the attack
was provoked. But yesterday in the afternoon, before I made the attempt
to see you, he sent to arrest me for the murder of the lackey Pontou."

"Paul's deed!" she cried in white surprise. "He spoke of it--we heard,
Felix and I. What, monsieur! sent to arrest you? But you are here."

"They missed me. They took by mistake Paul de Lorraine."

"He was not here last night!" she cried. "Mayenne was demanding him of
me."

"Then he slept pleasantly in the Bastille. May he never look on the
outside of its walls again!"

"But he will, he does. He must be free by this time; they cannot keep
Mayenne's nephew in the Bastille. And oh, if he hated you before, how he
will hate you now! Oh, Etienne, if you love me, go! Go to your own camp,
your own side, at St. Denis. There are you safe. Here in Paris you may
not draw a tranquil breath."

"And shall I flee my dangers? Shall I run, in the face of my peril?"

"Ah, monsieur, perhaps your life is nothing to you. But it is more to me
than tongue can tell."

"My love, my love!" He snatched her into his arms; she held away from
him to look him beseechingly in the face, her little clutching hands on
his shoulders.

"Oh, you will go! you will go!"

"Only if you come with me. Lorance, it is such a little way! Only to
meet me in the next square. We will slip out of the gates
together--leave Paris and all its plots and murders, and at St. Denis
keep our honeymoon."

"Monsieur," she said slowly, "I am told that my cousin Mayenne offered a
month ago to give me to you for your name on the roster of the League.
Is that true?"

"It is true. But you cannot think, Lorance