up under the belief that Bigot would
never dare accuse any one of a deed which would be the means of
proclaiming his own falseness and duplicity towards the King and the
Marquise de Pompadour.

"I have only to deny all knowledge of it," said she to herself, "swear
to it if need be, and Bigot will not dare to go farther in the matter.
Then will come my time to turn the tables upon him in a way he little
expects! Pshaw!" continued she, glancing at her gay hat in the mirror,
and with her own dainty fingers setting the feather more airily to her
liking. "Bigot is bound fast enough to me now that she is gone! and when
he discovers that I hold his secret he will not dare meddle with mine."

Angelique, measurably reassured and hopeful of success in her desperate
venture, descended the steps of her mansion, and, gathering up her robes
daintily, mounted her horse, which had long been chafing in the hands of
her groom waiting for his mistress.

She bade the man remain at home until her return, and dashed off down
the Rue St. Louis, drawing after her a hundred eyes of admiration and
envy.

She would ride down to the Place d'Armes, she thought, where she knew
that before she had skirted the length of the Castle wall half a dozen
gallants would greet her with offers of escort, and drop any business
they had in hand for the sake of a gallop by her side.

She had scarcely passed the Monastery of the Recollets when she was
espied by the Sieur La Force, who, too, was as quickly discovered by
her, as he loitered at the corner of the Rue St. Ann, to catch sight
of any fair piece of mischief that might be abroad that day from her
classes in the Convent of the Ursulines.

"Angelique is as fair a prize as any of them," thought La Force, as
he saluted her with Parisian politeness, and with a request to be her
escort in her ride through the city.

"My horse is at hand, and I shall esteem it such an honor," said La
Force, smiling, "and such a profit too," added he; "my credit is low in
a certain quarter, you know where!" and he laughingly pointed towards
the Convent. "I desire to make HER jealous, for she has made me madly
so, and no one can aid in an enterprise of that kind better than
yourself, Mademoiselle des Meloises!"

"Or more willingly, Sieur La Force!" replied she, laughing. "But you
overrate my powers, I fear."

"Oh, by no means," replied La Force; "there is not a lady in Quebec but
feels in her heart that Angelique des Me