ting in a rude
measure, "Chiquita whisks through key-holes, and dances on the sharp
points of spear-heads and the broken glass on garden walls, without ever
hurting herself one bit--and nobody can catch her."

Isabelle, left alone, awaited the break of day with trembling
impatience, unable to sleep after the fright and agitation she had
experienced, and momentarily dreading some fresh cause of alarm; but
nothing else happened to disturb her. When she joined her companions
at breakfast, they were all struck with her extreme pallor, and the
distressed expression of her countenance. To their anxious questions
she replied by giving an account of her nocturnal adventure, and de
Sigognac, furious at this fresh outrage, could scarcely be restrained
from going at once to demand, satisfaction for it from the Duke of
Vallombreuse, to whom he did not hesitate to attribute this villainous
scheme.

"I think," said Blazius, when he could make himself heard, "that we
had better pack up, and be off as soon as we can for Paris; the air is
becoming decidedly unwholesome for us in this place."

After a short discussion all the others agreed with him, and it was
decided that they should take their departure from Poitiers the very
next day.

CHAPTER XI. THE PONT-NEUF

It would be too long and tedious to follow our comedians, step by step,
on their way up to Paris, the great capital. No adventures worthy of
being recorded here befell them; as they were in good circumstances
financially, they could travel rapidly and comfortably, and were not
again subjected to such hardships and annoyances as they had endured
in the earlier stages of their long journey. At Tours and Orleans they
stopped to give a few representations, which were eminently successful,
and very satisfactory to the troupe as well as the public. No attempt
being made to molest them in any way, Blazius after a time forgot his
fears, which had been excited by the vindictive character of the Duke of
Vallombreuse, but Isabelle could not banish from her memory the wicked
plot to abduct her, and many times saw again in her dreams Chiquita's
wild, weird face, with the long, tangled elf-locks hanging around it,
just as it had appeared to her that dreadful night at the Armes de
Frame, glaring at her with fierce, wolfish eyes. Then she would start
up, sobbing and trembling, in violent agitation, and it required the
most tender soothing from her companion, Zerbine, whose room she