he has given him the wrong key."

Mathilde thought a moment. "No; he will rather suppose you robbed him of
the right key during the night and substituted the other to delay
discovery. He will suspect anything rather than Brigitte, whom he thinks
too great a fool for the least craft; and even if she is accused, she
can play the innocent. I assure you."

"So much for that, then. There is yet the door of entrance to the
tower."

"At present it has an old broken key in the lock, which is therefore
useless. But no doubt that will be remedied--so we must act soon.
Meanwhile, that door is guarded by the man at the foot of the stairs."

"But are the two guards on duty at night also? There is no Brigitte to
be let in and out then. And surely the Count doesn't think you can break
your lock."

"There are guards on duty, nevertheless. Last night I heard one call
down the stairs to another, asking the time. They are there, no doubt,
not for fear of our breaking out, but for fear of somebody breaking in
to help Madame. I don't suppose there are ever more than two. If the
rule has not been changed, the rest of the household sleeps, except a
porter in the gate-house and a man on top of the tower. But this man
watches the roads, as well as he can in the darkness, and the porter too
is more concerned about people who might want to enter the chateau than
about what goes on inside. So in the dead of night you can go silently
downstairs and let yourself out of the hall--"

"But is not the hall door locked with a key?"

"Yes; but the key is left always in the lock. You have then only to
cross the two court-yards to the lower, without making any noise to
alarm the porter at the gate-house or to warn the guard at the tower
entrance."

"Will he be inside or outside the tower door, I wonder?"

"Probably inside, where there is a bench just at the foot of the stairs.
He and his comrade above will be your only real difficulty, Monsieur. If
you can take them by surprise, one at a time--"

"One at a time, or two at a time," said I, beginning to walk up and down
the chamber, and grasping my sword and dagger. "But the trouble will be,
the noise that may be made when I encounter them,--it may arouse the
chateau and spoil all."

"But heaven may grant that you will surprise the men inside the tower,
one at the foot of the stairs, the other on our landing, as they must
have been last night. In that case, if you can keep the fighting inside
th