orders?"

"My orders were to take you to the Bois de Vincennes, between the
Chateau and Nogent-sur-Marne, and here we are."

"And where is the escort?" asked D'Harmental.

"Oh, the escort left us at the barrier!"

"Oh, mon Dieu!" cried D'Harmental, while Bathilde--panting with
hope--joined her hands in silence, "is it possible?"

And the chevalier jumped out of the carriage, looked round him
anxiously, then clasping Bathilde in his arms, they uttered together a
cry of joy and thankfulness.

They were free as the air they breathed, but the regent had ordered that
they should be taken to the very place where D'Harmental had carried off
Bourguignon, mistaking him for himself.

This was the only revenge of Philippe le Debonnaire.

* * * * *

Four years after this event, Buvat, reinstated in his place--and with
his arrears paid--had the satisfaction of placing a pen in the hand of a
fine boy of three years old--he was the son of Raoul and Bathilde.

The two first names which the child wrote were Albert du Rocher and
Clarice Gray. The third was that of Philippe d'Orleans, regent of
France.

POSTSCRIPTUM.

Perhaps some persons may have taken sufficient interest in those who
have played a secondary part in our history to wish to know what became
of them after the events which lost the conspiracy and saved the regent.
We will satisfy them in a few words.

The Duc and Duchesse de Maine, whose plotting they wished to stop for
the future, were arrested--the duke at Sceaux, and the duchess in her
house in the Rue Saint Honore. The duke was taken to the chateau of
Doullens, and the duchess to that of Dijon, and afterward to the citadel
of Chalons. Both left at the end of a few months, disarming the regent,
one by an absolute denial, the other by a complete avowal.

Richelieu was arrested, as Mademoiselle de Valois had warned him, the
day after that on which he had procured Bathilde's interview with the
regent; but his captivity was a new triumph for him. It was reported
that the handsome prisoner had obtained permission to walk on the
terrace of the Bastille. The Rue Saint Antoine was filled with most
elegant carriages, and became, in twenty-four hours, the fashionable
promenade. The regent--who declared that he had proofs of the treason of
M. de Richelieu, sufficient to lose him four heads if he had them--would
not, however, risk his popularity with the fair sex by keeping him