A plan had then apparently formed in
Percy's mind which he had set forth during the brief half-hour's respite
which those fiends had once given him. Since then they had never given
him ten consecutive minutes' peace; since then ten days had gone by how
much power, how much vitality had gone by too on the leaden wings of all
those terrible hours spent in solitude and in misery?

"We can but hope, Lady Blakeney," said Sir Andrew Ffoulkes after a
while, "that you will be allowed out of Paris; but from what Armand
says--"

"And Percy does not actually send me away," she rejoined with a pathetic
little smile.

"No. He cannot compel you, Lady Blakeney. You are not a member of the
League."

"Oh, yes, I am!" she retorted firmly; "and I have sworn obedience, just
as all of you have done. I will go, just as he bids me, and you, Sir
Andrew, you will obey him too?"

"My orders are to stand by you. That is an easy task."

"You know where this place is?" she asked--"the Chateau d'Ourde?"

"Oh, yes, we all know it! It is empty, and the park is a wreck; the
owner fled from it at the very outbreak of the revolution; he left some
kind of steward nominally in charge, a curious creature, half imbecile;
the chateau and the chapel in the forest just outside the grounds have
oft served Blakeney and all of us as a place of refuge on our way to the
coast."

"But the Dauphin is not there?" she said.

"No. According to the first letter which you brought me from Blakeney
ten days ago, and on which I acted, Tony, who has charge of the Dauphin,
must have crossed into Holland with his little Majesty to-day."

"I understand," she said simply. "But then--this letter to de Batz?"

"Ah, there I am completely at sea! But I'll deliver it, and at once too,
only I don't like to leave you. Will you let me get you out of Paris
first? I think just before dawn it could be done. We can get the cart
from Lucas, and if we could reach St. Germain before noon, I could come
straight back then and deliver the letter to de Batz. This, I feel, I
ought to do myself; but at Achard's farm I would know that you were safe
for a few hours."

"I will do whatever you think right, Sir Andrew," she said simply;
"my will is bound up with Percy's dying wish. God knows I would rather
follow him now, step by step,--as hostage, as prisoner--any way so long
as I can see him, but--"

She rose and turned to go, almost impassive now in that great calm born
of despair.