the spell of _diablerie_?"

"You may be an enchantress, mistress, but the spell you cast is not
_diablerie_," he answered in the same tone.

"Fine words!" she said, mockingly. "But it remains to be seen into
what a world I am going to lead you!" And rode on.

The rush of air, the swift motion, the changing aspect of nature were
apparently not without their effect on her spirits, for as they
galloped along she appeared to forget their danger, the certainty of
pursuit and the possibility of capture. Blithesome she continued;
called his attention to a startled hare; pointed with her whip to a
red-eyed boar that sullenly retreated at their approach; laughed when
an overhanging branch swept her little cap from her head and merrily
thanked him when he hastily dismounted and returned it to her.

"You see, fool, what a burden I am like to prove!" she said,
readjusting the cap, and, ere he could answer, had passed on, as if
challenging him to a test of speed.

"Have a care!" he cried warningly, as they came to a rough stretch of
ancient highway, but she seemed not to hear him.

That she could ride in such madcap fashion, seemingly oblivious of the
gravity of their desperate fortunes, was not ill-pleasing to the
jester; no timorous companion, shrinking from phantoms, he surmised she
would prove. Thus mile after mile they covered and the shadows had
reached their minimum length, when, coming to a clear pool of water,
they drew rein to refresh themselves from the provisions in the
saddle-bags. Bread and wine--sumptuous fare for poor fugitives--they
ate and drank with keen relish. Dreamily she watched the green insects
skimming over the surface of the shimmering water. On the bank swayed
the rushes, as though making obeisance to a single gorgeous lily, set
like a queen in the center of this little shining kingdom.

"Was the repast to your liking?" she asked, suddenly looking from the
pool to him.

"Entirely, fair Jacqueline. The wine was excellent. Hunger gave it
bouquet, and appetite aged it. Never did bread taste so wholesome, and
as for the service--"

"It was perfect--lacking grand master, grand chamberlain, grand
marshals, grand everybody," she laughed.

In the reflected glow from pool and shining leaves, her eyes were so
full of light he could but wonder if this were the same person who had
so gravely stood by his bedside in the cell. That she should thus seem
carelessly to dismiss all thought of danger