‘It shall be as you wish, Camille,’ replied the Marchioness with a sigh. ‘I will not give you cause for the lightest rebuke.’
Some of the people of the inn appeared at that moment, and at Camille’s orders laid out a table for supper. When they left the room he said—
‘Have you no other dress? In my quiet vehicle your rich costume would at least excite curiosity; and the more unobserved we are the safer.’
‘I have provided against any suspicion,’ said Marie; and taking up the bundle she had brought with her, she left the room, returning within five minutes attired as a paysanne of the Forêt de l’Aigue. Her hair, which she usually wore in showering ringlets about her neck and shoulders, was knotted and disordered by her journey, and she stood before a large mirror in the room, to put it up beneath a small country cap, first letting fall its entire flowing length, with a coquetry that was intended to produce its effect upon Theria. But Camille’s affections were fixed at present rather on a brioche that adorned the table, and the effect was lost.
Whilst thus occupied, an unusual stir was heard in the street below the inn. Marie, alive to every sound, again rushed to the window, and to her dismay perceived that her worst fears were realised. A mounted escort of guards had surrounded a carriage, in which, by the lights they carried, she could plainly recognise Desgrais, and two other exempts. He had closely followed her, making up for the time lost in the wild-goose chase towards Beauvais by double speed as soon as he found himself on the right track; and, as Camille had imagined, came first to the principal hotel.
‘I am lost!’ she exclaimed, as she retreated from the window. ‘They have traced me!’
‘Not yet,’ said Camille, jumping up. ‘But you must be off directly. Where is your passport?’
A cry of terror broke from Marie’s lips at the question. She had left home without one, forgetting that it would be demanded at the frontier.
‘Never mind,’ cried Theria; ‘this way. We can get into the court before they enter by this staircase, and thence to some of the back streets. You must run every risk, if you wish to escape; though I should imagine, for a matter of debt, they would not be very hard upon you. Come—come!’
Little persuasion was needed to induce Marie to accompany her new guide. They flew down the small flight of stairs indicated by Theria, and were quickly in the street in the rear of the hotel, whence a few turns conducted them to the river side, where the Meuse was chafing amidst the huge blocks of ice which had floated down its stream, and were gathering into one solid mass.