who
hastened to give it to Bertrand. The old retainer's horse was waiting in
the courtyard, saddled; the man himself was ready. He started, and met
the duke twelve miles from Herouville.

"Come with me to the gate of the courtyard," said Gabrielle to her
friend when they were alone.

The pair passed through the cardinal's library, and went down through
the tower, in which was a door, the key of which Etienne had given to
Gabrielle. Stupefied by the dread of coming evil, the poor youth left
in the tower the torch he had brought to light the steps of his beloved,
and continued with her toward the cottage. A few steps from the
little garden, which formed a sort of flowery courtyard to the humble
habitation, the lovers stopped. Emboldened by the vague alarm which
oppressed them, they gave each other, in the shades of night, in the
silence, that first kiss in which the senses and the soul unite, and
cause a revealing joy. Etienne comprehended love in its dual expression,
and Gabrielle fled lest she should be drawn by that love--whither she
knew not.

At the moment when the Duc de Nivron reascended the staircase to the
castle, after closing the door of the tower, a cry of horror, uttered by
Gabrielle, echoed in his ears with the sharpness of a flash of lightning
which burns the eyes. Etienne ran through the apartments of the chateau,
down the grand staircase, and along the beach towards Gabrielle's house,
where he saw lights.

When Gabrielle, quitting her lover, had entered the little garden, she
saw, by the gleam of a torch which lighted her nurse's spinning-wheel,
the figure of a man sitting in the chair of that excellent woman. At
the sound of her steps the man arose and came toward her; this had
frightened her, and she gave the cry. The presence and aspect of the
Baron d'Artagnon amply justified the fear thus inspired in the young
girl's breast.

"Are you the daughter of Beauvouloir, monseigneur's physician?" asked
the baron when Gabrielle's first alarm had subsided.

"Yes, monsieur."

"I have matters of the utmost importance to confide to you. I am the
Baron d'Artagnon, lieutenant of the company of men-at-arms commanded by
Monseigneur the Duc d'Herouville."

Gabrielle, under the circumstances in which she and her lover stood, was
struck by these words, and by the frank tone with which the soldier said
them.

"Your nurse is here; she may overhear us. Come this way," said the
baron.

He left the garden, and