they will return
incognito."

"Oh! you restore me to life," said Marguerite. "So we shall save them?"

"I am almost sure of it."

"Soon?"

"In three or four days. Beaulieu is to let us know."

"But if you were recognized in the vicinity of Vincennes that might
upset our plan."

"How could any one recognize me? I go there as a nun, with a hood,
thanks to which not even the tip of my nose is visible."

"We cannot take too many precautions."

"I know that well enough, by Heaven! as poor Annibal would say."

"Did you hear anything about the King of Navarre?"

"I was careful to ask."

"Well?"

"Well, he has never been so happy, apparently; he laughs, sings, eats,
drinks, and sleeps well, and asks only one thing, and that is to be well
guarded."

"He is right. And my mother?"

"I told you she is hurrying on the trial as fast as she can."

"Yes, but does she suspect anything about us?"

"How could she? Every one who has a secret is anxious to keep it. Ah! I
know that she told the judges in Paris to be in readiness."

"Let us act quickly, Henriette. If our poor prisoners change their
abode, everything will have to be done over again."

"Do not worry. I am as anxious as you to see them free."

"Oh, yes, I know that, and thank you, thank you a hundred times for all
you have done."

"Adieu, Marguerite. I am going into the country again."

"Are you sure of Beaulieu?"

"I think so."

"Of the jailer?"

"He has promised."

"Of the horses?"

"They will be the best in the stables of the Duc de Nevers."

"I adore you, Henriette."

And Marguerite threw her arms about her friend's neck, after which the
two women separated, promising to see each other again the next day, and
every day, at the same place and hour.

These were the two charming and devoted creatures whom Coconnas, with so
much reason, called his _invisible bucklers_.

CHAPTER LVII.

THE JUDGES.

"Well, my brave friend," said Coconnas to La Mole, when the two were
together after the examination, at which, for the first time, the
subject of the waxen image had been discussed, "it seems to me that
everything is going on finely, and that it will not be long before the
judges will dismiss us. And this diagnosis is entirely different from
that of a dismissal by physicians. When the doctor gives up the patient
it is because he cannot cure him, but when the judge gives up the
accused it is because he has no further hope of having h