"Gaston?"
"Has escaped from the Bastille half-an-hour ago."
"You lie, abbe; people do not escape from the Bastille."
"I beg your pardon, monseigneur; people escape from any place when they are condemned to death."
"He escaped, knowing that to-morrow he was to wed her whom he loved?"
"Listen, monseigneur, life is a charming thing, and we all cling to it; then your son-in-law has a charming head which he wishes to keep on his shoulders—what more natural?"
"And where is he?"
"Perhaps I may be able to tell you to-morrow evening; at present, all I know is that he is at some distance, and that I will answer for it he will not return."
The regent became deeply thoughtful.
"Really, monseigneur, your naïveté causes me perpetual astonishment; you must be strangely ignorant of the human heart if you suppose that a man condemned to death would remain in prison when he had a chance of escape."