y, has run the truth to earth.
But he knows only half: I have never been either so much in love or so
stupid as to allow myself to be trapped. I have given you my promise to
be discreet and not to misuse my power, and as long as was compatible
with my own safety I have kept my word. But now you must see that I am
bound to defend myself, and to do that I shall be obliged to summon
you as a witness. So leave Paris tonight and seek out some safe retreat
where no one can find you, for to-morrow I shall speak. Of course if I
am quit for a woman's tears, if no more difficult task lies before me
than to soothe a weeping wife, you can return immediately; but if, as is
too probable, the blow has been struck by the hand of a rival furious
at having been defeated, the matter will not so easily be cut short; the
arm of the law will be invoked, and then I must get my head out of the
noose which some fingers I know of are itching to draw tight."

"You are quite right, sir," answered the commander; "I fear that my
influence at court is not strong enough to enable me to brave the matter
out. Well, my success has cost me dear, but it has cured me for ever of
seeking out similar adventures. My preparations will not take long, and
to-morrow's dawn will find me far from Paris."

Quennebert bowed and withdrew, returning home to console his Ariadne.

CHAPTER IX

The accusation hanging over the head of Maitre Quennebert was a very
serious one, threatening his life, if proved. But he was not uneasy; he
knew himself in possession of facts which would enable him to refute it
triumphantly.

The platonic love of Angelique de Guerchi for the handsome Chevalier de
Moranges had resulted, as we have seen, in no practical wrong to the Duc
de Vitry. After her reconciliation with her lover, brought about by the
eminently satisfactory explanations she was able to give of her conduct,
which we have already laid before our readers, she did not consider
it advisable to shut her heart to his pleadings much longer, and
the consequence was that at the end of a year she found herself in a
condition which it was necessary to conceal from everyone. To Angelique
herself, it is true, the position was not new, and she felt neither
grief nor shame, regarding the coming event as a means of making her
future more secure by forging a new link in the chain which bound the
duke to her. But he, sure that but for himself Angelique would never
have strayed from vir