"By admitting your soldiers into the very heart of the fortress."
"Are you a fairy, madame, that you undertake such a task?" La Rochefoucauld asked her.
"No, monsieur, I am a landowner," said the viscountess.
"Madame is pleased to jest," retorted the duke.
"Not at all, not at all," said Lenet. "I can imagine a world of meaning in the three words just uttered by Madame de Cambes."
"Then that is all I require," said the viscountess; "Monsieur Lenet's approval means everything to me. I say again that Saint-Georges is as good as taken, if I may be allowed to say four words in private to Monsieur Lenet."
"Madame," chimed in Madame de Tourville, "I too can take Saint-Georges, if I can have my way."
"Let Madame de Tourville first set forth her plan so that we can all hear," said Lenet, checking the effort Madame de Cambes was making to lead him into a corner; "then you shall whisper yours to me."
"Say on, madame," said the princess.
"I would start at night with twenty boats carrying two hundred musketeers; another party, equal in number, would creep along the right bank; four or five hundred more would ascend the left bank; meanwhile ten or twelve hundred Bordelais—"