arts of the lock were still
strong. In my petulance I flung the door back against the wall.

As one sometimes gives the improbable a trial, from mere impulse of
experiment, I took from my pocket the two keys I had brought from
Lavardin. I tried first that of the room in which I had been imprisoned:
it was too small, and of no avail. I then inserted the key of the
postern. To my surprise, it fit. I turned it partly around; it met
resistance: I used all my power of wrist; the lock, which had stuck
because it was rusted and long unused, yielded to the strength I
summoned.

"Thank God!" I cried. "It seems like the work of providence, that I kept
the postern key."

I now reversed and withdrew the key, and applied it to the lock from the
inside of the door, which I had meanwhile closed. But alas!--no force of
mine could move the lock from that side, though I tried again and again.

I went outside and easily enough locked the door from there. I then
renewed my endeavours from the inside, but with failure.

"Alas!" said I, turning to the Countess; "if I cannot lock the door from
within, how much less will you be able to do so."

"But you can lock it from without," she answered, taking trouble to
secure my peace of mind. "Why not lock me in? It will be the same thing.
In either case I should not go out during your absence."

"That is true," I said. "I will make haste. If the door is locked
against intruders, what matters it which of us has the key? I will guard
it as my life,--nay, that too I will guard as never before, for yours
will depend upon it."

I then questioned the Countess as to what part of the forest we were in,
but her knowledge of the location of the tower, with regard to roads or
paths, was vague.

I decided to take both horses with me, lest one, being heard or seen, in
or about the tower, might excite the curiosity of some chance passer
through the forest. But I left the saddles with the Countess. Anxious to
lose no more time, I knelt and kissed her hand, receiving a faint smile
in acknowledgment of my care; led out the horses, locked the door,
pocketed the key, mounted, and was off. I went haunted by the sweet,
sorrowful eyes of the Countess as they had followed me to the door.

With the sun to guide me, I rode Westward, for in that direction must be
the highway we had left the day before. By keeping a straight course,
and taking note of my place of emergence from the forest, I should be
able to find