Traitor and True

ed to speak to Fleur de Mai and his companion, and, consequently, ere that

with some other person. This idea, however--as consciousness became stronger and stronger--especially after he had rolled over once in his warm, soft bed, and, once, had thrown out his arms afte

to rest, made inspection of the room in which he was. That is to say, he had peered behind the tapestry that hung down all round the room over the bare, whitewashed walls; he had looked behind the bed and its great hangings, full of dust and flue--to look underneath it was impossible since the frame of the bedstead was always at this period within an inch or so of the floor, and only high enough to permit of the castors being inser

of a man subdued almost to a whisper; the softe

e ascribed the voices which reached his ears to the conversation of some husband and wife who were occupying the next room

caused him to, in common parlance, prick up those ears

ioned was that of

lier's wife. But, still, who are these who talk at this hour? The woman's voice, low as it is--and sweet and soft also--is neither the voice of Jacquette nor of her mistress, and we have no other woman in our cortége. While for the other--ah!" Humphrey exclaimed beneath his breath, for

d caught was "Sangdieu," and Sangdieu was the p

repaire and his doings with some strange woman who, for aught he, Humphrey, knew, was an accessory to the flight of the Duchess towards her family in Italy. A woman who, he reflected, might have come from Italy by order of the Duchess to esco

to continue his night's rest. "Doubtless. And to-morrow I shall know all. Likewise, by

his eyes in that vain hope, he plainly heard the word "Louise" uttered, followed by the sibilant "Hsh" from the woman, this bei

aumont exclaim clearly and dis

r to stumble on in the dead of the night, he next heard

of France! Oh! i

shortly followed by the sound of a door opened softly and shut equally softly an instant later, and then by the stealthy, cautious step of a

scarcely probable. In listening to it, in being forced to listen to that conversa

the woman who had been in that next room but a short time before, and not the one who was in the next room on the other si

La Grande Chambre, by La Grande Chambre itself. Were there not men detained in the Bastille, in Vincennes, in Bicêtre at this very moment, ay, even in far off Pignerol, for similar actions, while in their case they had, or pretended to have, the one great, the one supreme excuse that they loved the women whom they had assisted in evading thei

king of what? Of what. Of what other land than France could he, a De Beaurepaire, have dreams of becoming king! And by what means? Ah! great heavens, by what means? In what way but by the most b

proaching dawn. He thought of it unceasingly; he thought of the terrors that must threaten this man whom he now befriended and helped; this man who, haughty, cruel, hostile as he

of Le Dieudonné since, as a child, he had ascended that throne thirty years ago, not one of them had ever approached even near to succes

wheel for such a crime as this talked of in that next room this very night. This very year the Comte de Sardan has suffered in the same way; there have been a dozen attempts all ending in disaste

ould hope for little farther rest that night; and, since sleep would come no more, he endeavoured to arrange some plan of act

he must make himself acquainted with who and what this woman was who harboured in the very house where was now reposing the woman he had to help

ld do that, it woul

e rest; at last, when daylight had come, the workings

arth in her salon. Yet this clatter on the cobble-stones of the place heralded no such arrival as that which the woman had witnessed, no handsome travelling carriage escorted by soldiers and adventurers as represented by La Tr

ing travelling-waggons of the period, while being a combination of all. A frouzy, evil-smelling, dirty thing it was, in which men and women were huddled together and even thrown into each other's arms and across each other's knees as the wheels of th

unharnessed and reach their stalls, and the cries of the ostlers and other noises, a venerable-looking old man o

tively to all and every who arrived at their doors, no matter whether they were likely to spen

ble. I desire also that Madame la Marquise de Villiers-B

ng, between this old man and his daughter, the illustrious Marquise who had arrived in a handsome coach. "The father of Madame la Marq

ay I will visit my daughter." After which the old man entered

ndow which the former had no difficulty in feeling sure was that of the room to the left of his own. Humphrey saw, too, that he gave a grin as he

onversation with La Truaumont had taken place over night, and the feet glide swiftly across the floor towards where the window was, caused