“Do you accompany me?”

“No, I go first, to tell the duke you are coming,” and he rapidly disappeared.

“Well?” said the duke.

“He is coming.”

“And he suspects nothing?”

“Nothing; but if he did, what matter? is he not your creature? Does he seem to you less guilty than he did yesterday?”

“No, a hundred times more so.”

“He has carried off, by treason, a noble young girl, and married her equally treasonably; either he must ask for the dissolution of the marriage himself, or you must do it for him.”

“I have promised.”

“I have your word?”