itself. But it was too soon yet to risk so bold a venture, for his absence might be at this moment the cause of search round all the castle, and ordinary prudence suggested that he should permit some time. to pass before venturing near the dwelling that now was in his view, its lights blurred by haze, no sign apparent that they missed or searched for him.

For an hour or more, therefore, he kept his blood from congelation by walking back and forward in the thicket into which the softly breathing but shrewish night wind penetrated less cruelly than elsewhere, and at last judged the interval enough to warrant his advance upon the enterprise.

Behold then Count Victor running hard across the white level waste of the park into the very boar's den -a comic spectacle, had there been any one to see it, in a dancer's shoes and hose, coatless and excited. He looked over the railing of the fosse to find the old silence undisturbed.

Was his flight discovered yet? If not, it was something of a madness, after all, to come back to the jaws of the trap. ·

"Here's a pretty problem!" he told himself, hesitating upon the brink of the ditch into which dipped a massive stair-" Here's a pretty problem! to have the roquelaire or to fly without it and perish of cold, because there is one chance in twenty that monsieur the warder opposite my chamber may not be wholly a fool and may have looked into his mouse-trap. I do not think he has: at all events, here are the alternatives, and the wiser is invariably the more unpleasant. Allons! Victor, advienne que pourra, and Heaven help us!"

He ran quickly down the stair into the fosse, crept along in the shelter of the ivy for a little, saw that no one was visible, and darted across and up to a postern in the eastern turret. The door creaked noisily as he entered, and a flight of stairs, dimly lit by candles, presented itself, up which he ventured with his heart in his mouth. On the first landing

were two doors, one of them ajar; for a second or two he hesitated with every nerve in his flesh pulsating and his heart tumultuous in his breast, then hearing nothing, took his courage in his hands and blandly entered, with his feet at a fencer's balance for the security of his retreat if that were necessary. There was a fire glowing in the apartment—a tempting spectacle for the shivering refugee—a dim light burned within a glass shade upon the mantel, and a table laden with drug-vials was drawn up to the side of a heavily curtained bed.

Count Victor compassed the whole at a glance, and not the least pleasant part of the spectacle was the sight of a coat-not a greatcoat, but still a coat -upon the back of a chair that stood between the bed and the fire.

"With a thousand apologies to his Grace," he whispered to himself, and tiptoed in his soaking shoes across the floor without reflecting for a second. that the bed might have an occupant. He examined the coat it had a familiar look that might have indicated its owner even if there had not been the flageolet lying beside it. Instinctively Count Victor turned about and went up to the bed, where, silently peeping between the curtains, he saw his enemy of the morning so much in a natural slumber as it seemed that he was heartened exceedingly. Only for a moment he looked; there was the certainty of some one returning soon to the room, and accordingly he rapidly thrust himself into the coat and stepped back upon the stair.

There was but one thing wanting-a sword. Why should he not have his own back again? As he remembered the interview of the morning, the chamber in which he had left his weapon at the bidding of the Duke was close at hand, and probably it was still there. Each successive hazard audaciously faced emboldened him the more; and so he ventured along, searching amid a multitude of doors in dim rush-light till he came upon one

that was different from its neighbours only inasmuch as it had a French motto painted across the panels. The motto read "Revenez bientôt," and smiling at the omen, Count Victor once more took his valour in his fingers and turned the handle. Revenez bientôt" he was whispering softly to himself as he noiselessly pushed in the door. The sentence froze on his lips when he saw the Duchess seated in a chair, and turned half round to look at him.

253

CHAPTER XXXII.

HER GRACE THE DUCHESS.

THERE was no drawing back; the circumstances positively forbade it, even if a certain smile following fast upon the momentary embarrassment of the Duchess had not prompted him to put himself at her mercy.

"A thousand pardons, Madame la Duchesse," he said, standing in the doorway. "Je vous dérange."

She rose from her chair composedly, a figure of matured grace and practised courtliness, and above all with an air of what he flattered himself was friendliness. She directed him to a seat.

"The pleasure is unexpected, monsieur," she said; "but it is a moment for quick decision, I suppose. What is the cue? To be desperate?" -here she laughed softly,-" or to take a chair? Monsieur has called to see his Grace. I regret exceedingly that a pressing business has called my husband to the town, and he is unlikely to be back for another hour at least. If monsieur-assuming desperation is not the cue-will please to be seated

Count Victor was puzzled for a second or two, but came farther into the room, and, seeing the lady resume her seat, he availed himself of her invitation and took the chair she offered.

"Madame la Duchesse," he went on to say with. some evidence of confusion that prejudiced her

the more in his favour, "I am, as you see, in the drollest circumstances, and-pardon the bétise time is at the moment the most valuable of my assets."

"Oh!" she cried with a low laugh that gave evidence of the sunniest disposition in the world -“Oh! that is not a pretty speech, monsieur! But there! you cannot, of course, know my powers of entertainment. Positively there need be no hurry. On my honour, as the true friend of a gentleman who looked very like monsieur, and was, by the way, a compatriot, I repeat there is no occasion. for haste. I presume monsieur found no servants -those stupid servants!-to let him into the house, and wisely found an entrance for himself? droll! It is our way in these barbaric places; people just come and go as they please; we waive ceremony. By the way, monsieur has not done me the honour to confide to me his name.'

66

Upon my word, Madame la Duchesse, I—I forget it myself at the moment," said Count Victor, divining her strategy, but too much embarrassed to play up to her lead. "Perhaps madame may remember."

She drew down her brows in a comical frown, and then rippled into low laughter. "Now, how in the world should I know if monsieur does not? I, that have never "-here she stared in his face with a solemnity in which her amusement struggled-“ never, to my knowledge, seen him before. I have heard the Duke speak of a certain Monsieur Soi-disant ; perhaps monsieur is Monsieur Soi-disant?"

66

Sans doute, Madame la Duchesse, and madame's very humble servant," acquiesced Count Victor, relieved to have his first impression of strategy confirmed, and inclining his head.

She looked at him archly and laughed again. "I have a great admiration for your sex, M. Soi-disant,” she said; "my dear Duke compels it, but now and then-now and then-I think it a little stupid. Not