"And you understood?"
"So well that I dare not believe it."
"Let us see; repeat the signs."
"First, then, he touched his eye to indicate he had some news for us; then he passed his napkin from his left to his right, which meant that they were occupied in our deliverance. Then he put his hand to his face, to signify that the expected aid would reach us from the interior, and not from a stranger; then when you asked him not to forget the milk of almonds to-morrow, he made two knots in his pocket-handkerchief. Thus it is again the Chevalier de Maison-Rouge,—noble-hearted man that he is."
"It is he," said Madame Elizabeth.
"Are you asleep, my child?" demanded the queen.
"No, ma mère," replied Madame Royale.
"Then pray for you know whom."
Madame Elizabeth quietly regained her chamber, and for some minutes during the silence of the night the soft, sweet voice of the youthful princess might be heard addressing her prayer to God. It was at that moment, at a signal from Morand, the first stroke of the pick-axe sounded in the small house at Rue de la Corderie.