slept, he
collected his whole strength, seized his wife once more by the sleeve
of her gown, and strove with his other hand to cling to the gate of the
church; but the ardor of love carried the day against jealous fury.
The young man took his mistress round the waist, and carried her off so
rapidly, with the strength of despair, that the brocaded stuff of silk
and gold tore noisily apart, and the sleeve alone remained in the hand
of the old man. A roar like that of a lion rose louder than the shouts
of the multitude, and a terrible voice howled out the words:--

"To me, Poitiers! Servants of the Comte de Saint-Vallier, here! Help!
help!"

And the Comte Aymar de Poitiers, sire de Saint-Vallier, attempted
to draw his sword and clear a space around him. But he found himself
surrounded and pressed upon by forty or fifty gentlemen whom it would be
dangerous to wound. Several among them, especially those of the highest
rank, answered him with jests as they dragged him along the cloisters.

With the rapidity of lightning the abductor carried the countess into an
open chapel and seated her behind the confessional on a wooden bench. By
the light of the tapers burning before the saint to whom the chapel was
dedicated, they looked at each other for a moment in silence, clasping
hands, and amazed at their own audacity. The countess had not the cruel
courage to reproach the young man for the boldness to which they owed
this perilous and only instant of happiness.

"Will you fly with me into the adjoining States?" said the young man,
eagerly. "Two English horses are awaiting us close by, able to do thirty
leagues at a stretch."

"Ah!" she cried, softly, "in what corner of the world could you hide a
daughter of King Louis XI.?"

"True," replied the young man, silenced by a difficulty he had not
foreseen.

"Why did you tear me from my husband?" she asked in a sort of terror.

"Alas!" said her lover, "I did not reckon on the trouble I should feel
in being near you, in hearing you speak to me. I have made plans,--two
or three plans,--and now that I see you all seems accomplished."

"But I am lost!" said the countess.

"We are saved!" the young man cried in the blind enthusiasm of his love.
"Listen to me carefully!"

"This will cost me my life!" she said, letting the tears that rolled
in her eyes flow down her cheeks. "The count will kill me,--to-night,
perhaps! But go to the king; tell him the tortures that his daughter has