"Great God!" ejaculated the princess, "we are lost! Dear Lenet, what are we to do?"
"There is but one thing to be done."
"What is it?"
"Undress Monsieur le Duc d'Enghien immediately and dress Pierrot in his clothes."
"But I won't have you take off my clothes and give them to Pierrot!" cried the young prince, ready to burst into tears at the mere thought, while Pierrot, in an ecstasy of joy, feared that he could not have heard aright.
"We must do it, monseigneur," said Lenet, in the impressive tone which comes to one in emergencies, and which has the power of inspiring awe even in a child, "or else they will take you and your mamma this very moment to the same prison where your father is."
The prince said no more, while Pierrot, on the other hand, was quite unable to control his feelings, and indulged in an indescribable explosion of joy and pride; they were-both taken to a room on the ground-floor near the chapel, where the metamorphosis was to take place.
"Luckily," said Lenet, "the princess dowager is here; otherwise we were surely outwitted by Mazarin."
"How so?"
"Because the messenger was in duty bound to begin by calling upon her, and he is in her antechamber at this moment."