wn. Stopped by a sentry,
she showed the glove. The moon lighted her face, and the muzzle of the
gun already pointed at her was dropped by the Chouan, who uttered a
hoarse cry, which echoed through the place. She now saw large buildings,
where a few lighted windows showed the rooms that were occupied, and
presently reached the walls without further hindrance. Through the
window into which she looked, she saw Madame du Gua and the leaders
who were convoked at La Vivetiere. Bewildered at the sight, also by
the conviction of her danger, she turned hastily to a little opening
protected by iron bars, and saw in a long vaulted hall the marquis,
alone and gloomy, within six feet of her. The reflection of the fire,
before which he was sitting in a clumsy chair, lighted his face with a
vacillating ruddy glow that gave the character of a vision to the scene.
Motionless and trembling, the girl stood clinging to the bars, to catch
his words if he spoke. Seeing him so depressed, disheartened, and pale,
she believed herself to be the cause of his sadness. Her anger changed
to pity, her pity to tenderness, and she suddenly knew that it was not
revenge alone which had brought her there.

The marquis rose, turned his head, and stood amazed when he saw, as if
in a cloud, Mademoiselle de Verneuil's face; then he shook his head with
a gesture of impatience and contempt, exclaiming: "Must I forever see
the face of that devil, even when awake?"

This utter contempt for her forced a half-maddened laugh from the
unhappy girl which made the young leader quiver. He sprang to the
window, but Mademoiselle de Verneuil was gone. She heard the steps of a
man behind her, which she supposed to be those of the marquis, and, to
escape him, she knew no obstacles; she would have scaled walls and flown
through air; she would have found and followed a path to hell sooner
than have seen again, in flaming letters on the forehead of that man, "I
despise you,"--words which an inward voice sounded in her soul with the
noise of a trumpet.

After walking a short distance without knowing where she went, she
stopped, conscious of a damp exhalation. Alarmed by the sound of voices,
she went down some steps which led into a cellar. As she reached the
last of them, she stopped to listen and discover the direction her
pursuers might take. Above the sounds from the outside, which were
somewhat loud, she could hear within the lugubrious moans of a human
being, which added