e since he had been
seen there, and that His Majesty hoped that he would be
accompanied by his daughter, of whose beauty reports had reached
him. It was certain that neither she nor her father had attended
any of the receptions or fetes at Versailles, since the rumour
first spread, although the baron had had a private interview with
the king a few hours afterwards, and had left his chamber with a
frowning brow, that showed that the interview had not been a
pleasant one. He had not again appeared at court, whether in
consequence of the royal command, or not, no one knew.

The baron was one of the richest proprietors in the south of
France. He was a specimen of the best type of the French nobles,
preferring to spend his time among his own wide estates to coming
up to the capital, where his visits had at all times been rare.

During the daytime, Desmond went out but little. When the hours of
drill and exercise were over, he spent some time in visiting the
quarters of the men of his company, making their personal
acquaintance, and chatting freely with them. They were glad to
hear from him about their native country; and, as some of them
came from his own neighbourhood, they took a lively interest in
the news--the first that had reached them for years--of families
with whom they were acquainted. He spent two or three hours in the
afternoons in the salle d'armes of the regiment, or at the schools
of one or other of the maitres d'armes most in vogue, and then
paid visits, with one or other of the officers of the regiment, to
great houses of which they had the entree.

Of an evening he went out, accompanied by Mike Callaghan, and
wandered about the less fashionable part of the town, which
pleased him better than the more crowded and busy quarters.

One evening, he had gone farther than usual, had passed through
the gates, and had followed the road by the banks of the river. As
an officer in uniform, he was able to re-enter the town after the
gates were closed, the rules being by no means strict, as, during
the reign of Louis the 14th, France, though engaged in frequent
wars abroad, was free from domestic troubles.

Presently, he passed a lonely house of some size, standing back
from the road and surrounded by a high wall. As he did so, he
heard a scream in a female voice, followed by angry exclamations
from two male voices, while loudly rose a woman's cries for help.

"There is bad work of some sort going on in there,"