read, fruits, and cream. How
well I remember that supper! We put the untouched cake away in a sort
of buffet, and poured the cold coffee out of the window, in order that
the servants might not take offence at the apparent fancifulness of
sending down for food I could not eat. I was so anxious for all to be
in bed, that I told the footman who served that he need not wait to
take away the plates and dishes, but might go to bed. Long after I
thought the house was quiet, Amante, in her caution, made me wait. It
was past eleven before we set out, with cat-like steps and veiled
light, along the passages, to go to my husband's room and steal my own
letter, if it was indeed there; a fact about which Amante had become
very uncertain in the progress of our discussion.

To make you understand my story, I must now try to explain to you the
plan of the chateau. It had been at one time a fortified place of some
strength, perched on the summit of a rock, which projected from the
side of the mountain. But additions had been made to the old building
(which must have borne a strong resemblance to the castles overhanging
the Rhine), and these new buildings were placed so as to command a
magnificent view, being on the steepest side of the rock, from which
the mountain fell away, as it were, leaving the great plain of France
in full survey. The ground-plan was something of the shape of three
sides of an oblong; my apartments in the modern edifice occupied the
narrow end, and had this grand prospect. The front of the castle was
old, and ran parallel to the road far below. In this were contained the
offices and public rooms of various descriptions, into which I never
penetrated. The back wing (considering the new building, in which my
apartments were, as the centre) consisted of many rooms, of a dark and
gloomy character, as the mountain-side shut out much of the sun, and
heavy pine woods came down within a few yards of the windows. Yet on
this side--on a projecting plateau of the rock--my husband had formed
the flower-garden of which I have spoken; for he was a great cultivator
of flowers in his leisure moments.

Now my bedroom was the corner room of the new buildings on the part
next to the mountains. Hence I could have let myself down into the
flower-garden by my hands on the window-sill on one side, without
danger of hurting myself; while the windows at right angles with these
looked sheer down a descent of a hundred feet at least. Going