there were no preparations to
be made, no packing to be done, for during my sojourn there I had been
indebted to the generous hospitality of the Vicomte for my very apparel.
We supped quietly together that night the Vicomte and I--for the
Vicomtesse was keeping her room.

I withdrew early to my chamber, and long I lay awake, revolving a gloomy
future in my mind. I had given no thought to what I should do after
having offered my explanation to Monsieur de Marsac on the morrow, nor
could I now bring myself to consider it with any degree of interest. I
would communicate with Chatellerault to inform him that I accounted
my wager lost. I would send him my note of hand, making over to him
my Picardy estates, and I would request him to pay off and disband my
servants both in Paris and at Bardelys.

As for myself, I did not know, and, as I have hinted, I cared but
little, in what places my future life might lie. I had still a little
property by Beaugency, but scant inclination to withdraw to it. To Paris
I would not return; that much I was determined upon; but upon no more.
I had thoughts of going to Spain. Yet that course seemed no less futile
than any other of which I could bethink me. I fell asleep at last,
vowing that it would be a mercy and a fine solution to the puzzle of how
to dispose of the future if I were to awaken no more.

I was, however, destined to be roused again just as the veil of night
was being lifted and the chill breath of dawn was upon the world. There
was a loud knocking at the gates of Lavedan, confused noises of voices,
of pattering feet, of doors opening and closing within the chateau.

There was a rapping at my chamber door, and when I went to open, I found
the Vicomte on the threshold, nightcapped, in his shirt, and bearing a
lighted taper.

"There are troopers at the gate!" he exclaimed as he entered the room.
"That dog Saint-Eustache has already been at work!"

For all the agitation that must have been besetting him, his manner was
serene as ever. "What are we to do?" he asked.

"You are admitting them--naturally?" said I, inquiry in my voice.

"Why, yes"; and he shrugged his shoulders. "What could it avail us to
resist them? Even had I been prepared for it, it would be futile to
attempt to suffer a siege."

I wrapped a dressing-gown about me, for the morning air was chill.

"Monsieur le Vicomte," said I gravely, "I heartily deplore that Monsieur
de Marsac's affairs should have detained