Traitor and True

Krone--at this time the principal hostelry of Basle--rolled the great trave

round him, partly with the object of warning pedestrians to get out of the way of the carriage, and partly to announce to the villages they passed through that some one of importance was on the road. Now, when the inn was reached, the man sprang f

entered the porch, "requires rooms for herself and following. Also accommodation f

e visitor was proclaimed until he had learnt all her requirements--which must n

apartments au premier; all that Madame la Comtesse can de

peaking now; "let the luggage be taken of

p the extremely narrow stairs, common enough in

t as they should have been kept. Yet, as she told herself, this was but the salon of an inn in which she would pass some week or two ere flying once more to Paris and the man she loved; therefore it would do very well. The great leather chairs, picked out with gilt, and threadbare by the constant use of strangers, would serve her to sit upon as they had served other

l that is a-doing and to be done. And then--then--to Louis, my bien-aimé, to fortune and happiness extreme, or--to death.

f the Rhine, and ate her supper while her maid attended to her. As she made that meal she pondered on what her life was to be in the future, and whether De Beaurep

or of Brussels, with whom he was in communication through Van den Enden with regard to the scheme which was on foot for i

fairest of conspirators, must take your share of the spoil," while, as he spoke, he drew from his pocket a wallet stuffed f

d, looking into his eyes. "

from me--t

those who will profit most--the Spaniards. For th

in furtherance of the--the--well! conspiracy in Normandy. You are one of the intriguers, ay! and the sweetest and best of all, therefore you must be well paid. No

r! I wil

will serve you well both as servant and courier. Also, though he may rob you he will allow none other to do so. As for

own hair a dozen ways myself, an

pain now, and Spain pays handsomely for service. Her instruments, too, must make a brave

e knows," the adventure

r gems and jewels befitting your ass

er how poor a daub, that I can wear close to me by day and night; something, if I can have it so, that shall prick and sting me when I move or turn, and thereby remind me that the

done it, or partly done it, and was yet to do more; was to con

ney, with clothes and the wherewithal to travel sumptuously; with the means to engage a maid who should attend to her every want--the wants of a woman who, not a month ago, had nightly to mend and brush her rags ere she could sally forth the next da

bove all if they were meditating treachery to him, her adoré; as, too, she had tried to see and sometimes to possess herself of a letter here and there that had been written by any one of them--so she must continue to do. That those others would put up at the Krone in this city, she knew: she

he so thought and mused, her eyes would turn furtively towards the window-curtains that shut out the sight of the river though not the sound of its rushing, and

is softer moments, have spoken gently to me. Ah! would he! To me, 'Emérance de Villiers-Bordéville,'" and she smiled bitterly, "whose name is false, whose title and rank are spurious. Yet," she went on, endeavouring perhaps to excuse herself to

bells from above sounded dreamily to her ears and as though afar off. Even the tall, well-knit and superbly moulded figure and the handsome, dark face of the man wh

e rough stones beneath the windows; orders were being shouted, and, mixed with these sounds, the shuffling of feet inside

"What? Nothing can be known yet, nothing discovered to warrant their taking me,

ed to see as much as was possible through the long-since uncleaned,

ch she had herself journeyed; a coach which had a table inside it and, on that table, a fixed travelling lamp that shone upon and lit up the faces of two women. One,

screaming similar ones above; the escort--for an escort it was, with which the Duke of Lorraine had furnished the Duchess from Nancy to Basle--ha

es in the rooms adjoining her own. "Ah! we shall be neighbours. 'Tis we

she endeavoured to discover what person might have taken poss

of a rapier being thrown on the table after having been unlooped from the wearer's body. And she heard also a man's voice giving orders, and a call from one woman to another in rooms still farther of