"Westwards," she answered impulsively, her voice quivering with eagerness
and emotion and hope. "Westwards, Monsieur--on the sea. The causeway
from the land is long, and ten can hold it against ten hundred."

"Westwards? And how far westwards?"

Tignonville answered for her; in his tone throbbed the same eagerness,
the same anxiety, which spoke in hers. Nor was Count Hannibal's ear deaf
to it.

"Through Challans," he said, "thirteen leagues."

"From Clisson?"

"Yes, Monsieur le Comte."

"And by Commequiers less," the Countess cried.

"No, it is a worse road," Tignonville answered quickly; "and longer in
time."

"But we came--"

"At our leisure, Madame. The road is by Challans, if we wish to be there
quickly."

"Ah!" Count Hannibal said. In the darkness it was impossible to see his
face or mark how he took it. "But being there, I have few men."

"I have forty will come at call," she cried with pride. "A word to them,
and in four hours or a little more--"

"They would outnumber mine by four to one," Count Hannibal answered
coldly, dryly, in a voice like ice-water flung in their faces. "Thank
you, Madame; I understand. To Vrillac is no long ride; but we will not
ride it at present." And he turned sharply on his heel and strode from
them.

He had not covered thirty paces before she overtook him in the middle of
a broad patch of moonlight, and touched his arm. He wheeled swiftly, his
hand halfway to his hilt. Then he saw who it was.

"Ah," he said, "I had forgotten, Madame. You have come--"

"No!" she cried passionately; and standing before him she shook back the
hood of her cloak that he might look into her eyes. "You owe me no blow
to-day. You have paid me, Monsieur. You have struck me already, and
foully, like a coward. Do you remember," she continued rapidly, "the
hour after our marriage, and what you said to me? Do you remember what
you told me? And whom to trust and whom to suspect, where lay our
interest and where our foes'? You trusted me then! What have I done
that you now dare--ay, dare, Monsieur," she repeated fearlessly, her face
pale and her eyes glittering with excitement, "to insult me? That you
treat me as--Javette? That you deem me capable of _that_? Of luring you
into a trap, and in my own house, or the house that was mine, of--"

"Treating me as I have treated others."

"You have said it!" she cried. She could not herself understand why his
distrust had w