f the convent, 'We have the Valois!'"

"You are both skillful and prudent, Mayneville. Do you know, though,
that my responsibility is great, and that no woman will ever have
conceived and executed such a project?"

"I know it, madame; therefore I counsel you in trembling."

"The monks will be armed under their robes?"

"Yes."

"Mind you kill those two fellows whom we saw pass, riding at the sides
of the carriage, then we can describe what passes as pleases us best."

"Kill those poor devils, madame! do you think that necessary?"

"De Loignac! would he be a great loss?"

"He is a brave soldier."

"A parvenu, like that other ill-looking fellow who pranced on the left,
with his fiery eyes and his black skin."

"Oh! that one I do not care so much about; I do not know him, and I
agree with your highness in disliking his looks."

"Then you abandon him to me?" laughed the duchess.

"Oh! yes, madame. What I said was only for your renown, and the morality
of the party that we represent."

"Good; Mayneville, I know you are a virtuous man, and I will sign you a
certificate of it if you like. You need have nothing to do with it; they
will defend the Valois and get killed. To you I recommend that young
man."

"Who?"

"He who just left us; see if he be really gone, and if he be not some
spy sent by our enemies."

Mayneville opened the window, and tried to look out.

"Oh! what a dark night," said he.

"An excellent night: the darker the better. Therefore, good courage, my
captain."

"Yes, but we shall see nothing."

"God, whom we fight for, will see for us."

Mayneville, who did not seem quite so sure of the intervention of
Providence in affairs of this nature, remained at the window looking
out.

"Do you see any one?" asked the duchess.

"No, but I hear the tramp of horses."

"It is they; all goes well." And the duchess touched the famous pair of
golden scissors at her side.

CHAPTER XLII.

HOW DOM GORENFLOT BLESSED THE KING AS HE PASSED BEFORE THE PRIORY OF THE
JACOBINS.

Ernanton went away with a full heart but a quiet conscience; he had had
the singular good fortune to declare his love to a princess, and to get
over the awkwardness which might have resulted from it by the important
conversation which followed. He had neither betrayed the king, M. de
Mayenne, nor himself. Therefore he was content, but he still wished for
many things, and, among others, a quick return to Vincennes, where