"Without the knowledge of her parents or the consent of her family?" cried the duke.
"She had neither, monseigneur; and was probably about to be sold to some nobleman when she left the person who had been set to watch her."
"But who informed you that Mademoiselle Helene de Chaverny was to be the victim of a shameful bargain?"
"What she herself told me of a pretended father, who concealed himself; of diamonds which had been offered to her. Then, do you know where I found her, monseigneur? In one of those houses destined to the pleasures of our roués. She! an angel of innocence and purity. In short, monseigneur, this young girl fled with me, in spite of the cries of her duenna, in broad daylight, and in the face of the servants who surrounded her. She stayed two hours alone with me; and, though she is as pure as on the day when she received her mother's first kiss, she is not the less compromised. I wish this projected marriage to take place."
"In your situation, monsieur?"
"A still greater reason."
"But perhaps you may deceive yourself as to the punishment reserved for you!"
"It is probably the same which, under similar circumstances, was inflicted on the Count de Chalais, the Marquis de Cinq-Mars, and the Chevalier Louis de Rohan."
"Then you are prepared even for death, monsieur?"
"I prepared for it from the day I joined the conspiracy: the conspirator's only excuse is, that, while robbing others of their lives, he risks his own."