tered; so, bidding Pillot go
straight to the Abbe, I turned off in the direction of the Luxembourg.

At the Palace the change from the stillness of the city was startling.
The gates were closed and guarded; soldiers, fully equipped, stood at
their posts; the courtyard was filled with nobles in a state of
excitement. Happily for my purpose Raoul observed me and came to the
gate.

"What has alarmed you so down here?" I inquired. "Is the Duke afraid
of a siege?"

"Have you not heard the news? Come inside where we can talk. It has
all happened just as we reckoned it would. Conde has thrown off the
mask and broken with the Court. It is rumoured that Spain has offered
him a body of troops, and that he intends to tempt fortune in a Civil
War. The Queen is firm and does not mean to let him back out; it is do
or die for him now."

"All the better; we shall be able to distinguish friends from enemies.
It will be an awful thing, but once Conde is well beaten the country
will stand a chance of peace. The Duke of Orleans will join forces
with the Queen?"

"I cannot say," answered Raoul shamefacedly; "he is pulled this way and
that, by both parties. Most probably he will wait to find how things
go."

"Then he is a coward as well as a traitor! _Faugh!_ I wonder you have
patience to stay with him! I can understand a loyalist and even a
rebel, but a weather-cock like the Duke is beyond me. Why does he not
come boldly into the open? This twisting and turning will do him no
good. One would imagine he was a hunted hare."

"There is no need to ask what you will do?"

"Not a bit, I shall join the royal army and serve as a trooper, if no
better berth offers. Thank goodness the field is clear now, and we
shall know where we stand. But first I must get Marie and her aunt out
of the city. Paris will not be safe for them when the mob rises, as it
is sure to do. But I have some further news; my cousin is dead."

"I thought you said he died weeks ago."

"Pillot spread that rumour about, but there can be no mistake now, as I
have just come from his deathbed," and, while my friend listened
attentively, I related the strange story of the past night.

"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Raoul; "we were never very friendly, but I am
sorry for him. He would have made a name for himself in time. He must
have had some good points for Pillot to stick to him so closely. The
little man will be lost without his master."

"He has taken