CHAPTER XLII.
HOW DOM GORENFLOT BLESSED THE KING AS HE PASSED BEFORE THE PRIORY OF THE JACOBINS.
Ernanton went away with a full heart but a quiet conscience; he had had the singular good fortune to declare his love to a princess, and to get over the awkwardness which might have resulted from it by the important conversation which followed. He had neither betrayed the king, M. de Mayenne, nor himself. Therefore he was content, but he still wished for many things, and, among others, a quick return to Vincennes, where the king expected him; then to go to bed and dream. He set off at full gallop as soon as he left Bel-Esbat, but he had scarcely gone a hundred yards when he came on a body of cavaliers who stretched right across the road. He was surrounded in a minute, and half a dozen swords and pistols presented at him.
"Oh!" said Ernanton, "robbers on the road, a league from Paris—"
"Silence, if you please," said a voice that Ernanton thought he recognized. "Your sword, your arms; quick."
And one man seized the bridle of the horse, while another stripped him of his arms.
"Peste! what clever thieves!" said Ernanton. "At least, gentlemen, do me the favor to tell me—"
"Why it is M. de Carmainges!" said the man who had seized his sword.