ell. And a
hundred fathoms deeper in love,' he added, eyeing me roguishly, 'than
when I saw her last.'

It was my turn to colour now, and I did so, feeling all the pleasure
and delight such, a statement was calculated to afford me. Picturing
mademoiselle as I had seen her last, leaning from her horse with love
written so plainly on her weeping face that all who ran might read, I
sank into so delicious a reverie that M. la Varenne, entering suddenly,
surprised us both before another word passed on either side.

His look and tone were as abrupt as it was in his nature, which was soft
and compliant, to make them. 'M. de Marsac,' he said, 'I am sorry to
put any constraint upon you, but I am directed to forbid you to your
friends. And I must request this gentleman to withdraw.'

'But all day my friends have come in and out,' I said with surprise. 'Is
this a new order?'

'A written order, which reached me no farther back than two minutes ago,
'he answered plainly. 'I am also directed to remove you to a room at the
back of the house, that you may not overlook the street.'

'But my parole was taken,' I cried, with a natural feeling of
indignation.

He shrugged his shoulders. 'I am sorry to say that I have nothing to
do with that,' he answered. 'I can only obey orders. I must ask this
gentleman, therefore, to withdraw.'

Of course M. d'Agen had no option but to leave me; which he did, I could
see, notwithstanding his easy and confident expressions, with a good
deal of mistrust and apprehension. When he was gone, La Varenne lost
no time in carrying out the remainder of his orders. As a consequence I
found myself confined to a small and gloomy apartment which looked, at
a distance of three paces, upon the smooth face of the rock on which the
Castle stood. This change, from a window which commanded all the life
of the town, and intercepted every breath of popular fancy, to a closet
whither no sounds penetrated, and where the very transition from noon to
evening scarcely made itself known, could not fail to depress my spirits
sensibly; the more as I took it to be significant of a change in my
fortunes fully as grave. Reflecting that I must now appear to the King
of Navarre in the light of a bearer of false tidings, I associated the
order to confine me more closely with his return from St. Cloud; and
comprehending that M. de Turenne was once more at liberty to attend to
my affairs, I began to look about me with forebodings wh