s
the remembrance of the cardinal. What must the mistrustful, restless,
suspicious cardinal think of her silence--the cardinal, not merely her
only support, her only prop, her only protector at present, but still
further, the principal instrument of her future fortune and vengeance?
She knew him; she knew that at her return from a fruitless journey it
would be in vain to tell him of her imprisonment, in vain to enlarge
upon the sufferings she had undergone. The cardinal would reply, with
the sarcastic calmness of the skeptic, strong at once by power and
genius, "You should not have allowed yourself to be taken."

Then Milady collected all her energies, murmuring in the depths of her
soul the name of Felton--the only beam of light that penetrated to her
in the hell into which she had fallen; and like a serpent which folds
and unfolds its rings to ascertain its strength, she enveloped Felton
beforehand in the thousand meshes of her inventive imagination.

Time, however, passed away; the hours, one after another, seemed to
awaken the clock as they passed, and every blow of the brass hammer
resounded upon the heart of the prisoner. At nine o'clock, Lord de
Winter made his customary visit, examined the window and the bars,
sounded the floor and the walls, looked to the chimney and the
doors, without, during this long and minute examination, he or Milady
pronouncing a single word.

Doubtless both of them understood that the situation had become too
serious to lose time in useless words and aimless wrath.

"Well," said the baron, on leaving her "you will not escape tonight!"

At ten o'clock Felton came and placed the sentinel. Milady recognized
his step. She was as well acquainted with it now as a mistress is with
that of the lover of her heart; and yet Milady at the same time detested
and despised this weak fanatic.

That was not the appointed hour. Felton did not enter.

Two hours after, as midnight sounded, the sentinel was relieved.
This time it WAS the hour, and from this moment Milady waited with
impatience. The new sentinel commenced his walk in the corridor. At the
expiration of ten minutes Felton came.

Milady was all attention.

"Listen," said the young man to the sentinel. "On no pretense leave the
door, for you know that last night my Lord punished a soldier for having
quit his post for an instant, although I, during his absence, watched in
his place."

"Yes, I know it," said the soldier.

"I recommen