ambition, her very life
itself.

Forgetting all prudence, she cast aside her mask of affected
indifference, and, with her eyes flashing angry gleams of fire, and her
cheeks burning, she said,--

"Listen to me. I, too, have sworn an oath, and it is that Norbert
shall be my husband; and I tell you that he shall be so! Shut him up in
prison, subject him to every indignity at the hands of your menials, but
you will never break his spirit, or make him go back from his plighted
word. If I bid him, he will resist your will even unto the bitter end.
He and I will never yield. Believe me when I tell you, that before you
attack a young girl's honor, you had better pause; for one day she will
be a member of your family. Farewell."

Before the Duke could recover his senses, Diana was far down the path
on her way homewards; and then he burst into a wild storm of menaces,
oaths, and insults. He fancied that he was alone, but he was mistaken;
for the whole of that strange scene had a hidden witness, and that
witness was Daumon. He had heard of the treatment of the young Marquis
from one of his servants at the Chateau, and his first thought had been
to acquaint Diana with it. Unfortunately he saw no means of doing this.
He dared not go to Laurebourg, and he would have died sooner than put
pen to paper. He was in a position of the deepest embarrassment when the
idea struck him of going to the lovers' trysting place. The little cry
that Diana had uttered upon perceiving the Duke had put him upon his
guard. Bruno had found him out; but, as he knew him, merely fawned upon
him. He was delighted at the fury of the Duke, whom he hated with
cold and steady malignity; but the courage of Diana filled him with
admiration. Her sublime audacity won his warmest praises, and he longed
for her as an ally to aid him in his scheme of revenge. He knew that the
girl would find herself in a terribly embarrassing position, and thus
she would be sure to call upon him for advice before returning home.

"Now," thought he, "if I wish to profit by her anger, I ought to strike
while the iron is hot; and to do so, I should be at home to meet her."

Without a moment's delay, he dashed through the woods, striving to
get home without the young girl's perceiving him. His movements in the
underwood caught the Duke's eye.

"Who is there?" exclaimed he, moving towards the spot from whence the
rustling came. There was no reply. Surely he had not been mistaken.
Cal