not promise," said Milady, "for no one has more respect for a
promise or an oath than I have; and if I make a promise I must keep it."

"Well," said Felton, "only promise till you have seen me again. If, when
you have seen me again, you still persist--well, then you shall be free,
and I myself will give you the weapon you desire."

"Well," said Milady, "for you I will wait."

"Swear."

"I swear it, by our God. Are you satisfied?"

"Well," said Felton, "till tonight."

And he darted out of the room, shut the door, and waited in the
corridor, the soldier's half-pike in his hand, and as if he had mounted
guard in his place.

The soldier returned, and Felton gave him back his weapon.

Then, through the grating to which she had drawn near, Milady saw the
young man make a sign with delirious fervor, and depart in an apparent
transport of joy.

As for her, she returned to her place with a smile of savage contempt
upon her lips, and repeated, blaspheming, that terrible name of God, by
whom she had just sworn without ever having learned to know Him.

"My God," said she, "what a senseless fanatic! My God, it is I--I--and
this fellow who will help me to avenge myself."

56 CAPTIVITY: THE FIFTH DAY

Milady had however achieved a half-triumph, and success doubled her
forces.

It was not difficult to conquer, as she had hitherto done, men prompt to
let themselves be seduced, and whom the gallant education of a court
led quickly into her net. Milady was handsome enough not to find much
resistance on the part of the flesh, and she was sufficiently skillful
to prevail over all the obstacles of the mind.

But this time she had to contend with an unpolished nature, concentrated
and insensible by force of austerity. Religion and its observances had
made Felton a man inaccessible to ordinary seductions. There fermented
in that sublimated brain plans so vast, projects so tumultuous, that
there remained no room for any capricious or material love--that
sentiment which is fed by leisure and grows with corruption. Milady had,
then, made a breach by her false virtue in the opinion of a man horribly
prejudiced against her, and by her beauty in the heart of a man hitherto
chaste and pure. In short, she had taken the measure of motives
hitherto unknown to herself, through this experiment, made upon the most
rebellious subject that nature and religion could submit to her study.

Many a time, nevertheless, during the evening s