unaway.

"Hold there--I will open for you," commanded Mariana, as he saw that
they were approaching the door within which lay Valentine; "I will go
in, and you can follow. But let no one dare to disturb the repose of the
lady, my niece. Or--ye know well the seal and mandate of the King
concerning her!"

Mariana went softly in, not closing the door, and having satisfied
himself that all was well, he beckoned the inquisitors to approach.
Valentine la Nina lay on the oaken settle, her head on the pillow,
exactly as he had placed her, but thanks to the few drops from the phial
which he had compelled her to swallow, she was now sleeping peacefully,
her bosom rising and falling with her measured breathing.

The men stood a moment uncertain, perhaps a little awestruck. Serra
would have retreated, but the suspicious Neapolitan walked softly across
and tested the bars of the window. They were firmly and deeply enough
sunk in the stone to convince even Frey Tullio.

* * * * *

So it chanced that while the messenger of the Gesu sped northward to the
frontier with orders to arrest one Jean d'Albret, a near relative of the
Bearnais, clad in frayed court-suit of pale blue, and even while the
couriers of the Holy Office posted in the same direction seeking a
criminal whom it was death to shelter or succour, the Abbe John, looking
most abbatical in his decent black cloak, passed out of the city by the
empty bed of the Tet, the same which it had occupied before the straight
cut known as the Basse led it to southward of the town. Then--marvel of
marvels--the hunted man turned to the south and made across the hills in
the direction of the House of La Masane upon the slopes of the hills
behind Collioure.

And as he went he communed with himself.

"I will show her!" affirmed the Abbe John grimly (for there was a hot
and lasting temper under that light exterior, perhaps that of the
aboriginal Bourbon, who to this day "never learns and never forgives").
"I will show her! If I loved her as an ordinary man, I would hasten to
follow and overtake her! But she is safe and has no need of me. If she
has any thought for me--any care (he did not say 'any love'), it will be
none the worse for keeping. I will go back to Jean-aux-Choux. He was to
return and care for all that remained at La Masane. Well, surely he is
no braver than I. What he does I can do. I will go and help him. Also, I
shall be able to keep an eye