em, and sharply ordered that they
should instantly be put back where they belonged, though her own dress
was very much the worse for the rough treatment it had been subjected to
on the preceding day, and it was a trial to the sweet, dainty creature
to be so untidy. But she was determined to accept nothing from the duke,
no matter how long her captivity might last. The maid did not insist,
but acceded to her wishes with a mild, pitying air--just as indulgence
is shown, as far as possible, to all the little whims and caprices of
prisoners condemned to death. Isabelle would have liked to question her
attendant, and endeavour to elicit some information from her, but
the girl was more like an automaton than anything else, and it was
impossible to gain more than a monosyllable from her lips. So Isabelle
resigned herself with a sigh to her mute ministerings, not without a
sort of vague terror.

After the maid had retired, dinner was served as before, and Isabelle
made a hearty meal--feeling that she must keep up her strength, and
also hopeful of hearing something in a few hours more from her faithful
lover. Her thoughts were all of him, and as she realized the dangers to
which he would inevitably be exposed for her sake, her eyes filled
with tears, and a sharp pang shot through her heart. She was angry with
herself for being the cause of so much trouble, and fain to curse her
own beauty--the unhappy occasion of it all. She was absorbed in these
sad thoughts when a little noise as if a hail-stone had struck against
the window pane, suddenly aroused her. She flew to the casement, and saw
Chiquita, in the tree opposite, signing to her to open it, and swinging
back and forth the long horse-hair cord, with the iron hook attached to
it. She hastened to comply with the wishes of her strange little ally,
and, as she stepped back in obedience to another sign, the hook, thrown
with unerring aim, caught securely in the iron railing of the little
balcony. Chiquita tied the other end of the cord to the branch to which
she was clinging, and then began to cross over the intervening space
as before; but ere she was half-way over, the knot gave way, and poor
Isabelle for one moment of intense agony thought that the child was
lost. But, instead of falling into the moat beneath her, Chiquita, who
did not appear to be in the least disconcerted by this accident, swung
over against the wall below the balcony, and climbing up the cord hand
over hand