"The same. The postmaster is with us, and we shall have only to explain to him."
"Well," said Valef, "if her royal highness will allow me, I will to-morrow call together seven or eight friends, wait for the regent in the Bois de Vincennes, carry him off; and in three days I am at Pampeluna."
"An instant, my dear baron," said D'Harmental. "I would observe to you that you are stepping into my shoes, and that this undertaking belongs to me of right."
"You, my dear chevalier! you have already done what you had to do: now it is our turn."
"Not at all, if you please, Valef. My honor is concerned in it, for I have revenge to take. You would annoy me infinitely by insisting on this subject."
"All that I can do for you, my dear D'Harmental," said Valef, "is to leave it to her highness's choice. She knows that we are equally devoted to her; let her decide."
"Will you accept my arbitration, chevalier," said the duchess.
"Yes, for I trust to your justice, madame," said D'Harmental.
"And you are right; yes, the honor of the undertaking belongs to you. I place in your hands the fate of the son of Louis the Fourteenth, and the granddaughter of the great Conde. I trust entirely to your devotion and courage, and I have the greater hope of your success, that fortune owes you a compensation. To you, my dear D'Harmental, all the honor, and all the peril."
"I accept both with gratitude," said D'Harmental, kissing the duchess's hand; "and to-morrow, at this hour, I shall be dead, or the regent will be on the way to Spain."