ert said, laughing. "I can
guess what 'the fact is.' I suppose that there is somebody in your
case too, and that you are just waiting to be married till
mademoiselle goes."

Margot laughed and coloured, and was going to speak, when the door
opened, and the marquis beckoned him in.

"Mr. Holliday," he said, as Rupert on entering found Adele leaning
on her father's shoulder, with a rosy colour, and a look of
happiness upon her face. "I have laid my commands upon my daughter,
Mademoiselle Adele de Pignerolles, to receive you as her future
husband, and I find no disposition whatever on her part to defy my
authority, as she has that of his Majesty.

"There, my children, may you be happy together!"

So saying, he left the room, and went to look after the horse,
leaving Adele and Rupert to their new-found happiness.

Chapter 25: Flight and Pursuit.

It was early in the afternoon when Monsieur Perrot, with his
daughter behind him on a pillion, and his servant riding a short
distance in the rear, rode under the gateway of Parthenay. A party
of soldiers were at the gateway, and a gendarmerie officer stood
near. The latter glanced carelessly at the passport which the
merchant showed him, and the travellers rode on.

"Peste!" one of the soldiers said; "what is monsieur the Marquis de
Pignerolles doing here, riding about dressed as a bourgeois, with a
young woman at his back?"

"Which is the Marquis de Pignerolles?" one of the others said.

"He who has just ridden by. He was colonel of my regiment, and I
know him as well as I do you."

"It can't be him, Pierre. I saw Louis Godier yesterday, he has come
home on leave--he belongs to this town, you know--wounded at Lille.
He was telling me about the siege, and he said that the marquis was
taken prisoner by the English."

"Prisoner or not prisoner," the other said obstinately, "that is
the marquis. Why, man, do you think one could be mistaken in his
own colonel?--a good officer, too; rather strict perhaps, but a
good soldier, and a lion to fight."

The gendarme moved quietly away, and repeated what he had heard to
his captain.

"The Marquis de Pignerolles, travelling under the name of Monsieur
Perrot, silk merchant of Nantes, with a young lady behind him," the
officer exclaimed. "While he is supposed to be a prisoner in
England? This must be his daughter, for whom we made such a search
two years ago, and who has been on our lists ever since.

"This is important,