“Ah! Monsieur, Monsieur,” she cried “save yourself! here comes my master the Count!”
“The Count!” exclaimed the Countess.
“Yes, the Count in person, and his huntsman Lestocq, with him.”
“Impossible!”
“I assure you, Madame, Cramoisi saw them as plain as I see you; the poor fellow was quite pale with fright.”
“Ah! then the meet at Thury was all a pretence, a trap to catch me?”
“Who can tell, Madame? Alas! alas! men are such deceiving creatures!”
“What is to be done?” asked the Countess.
“Wait for the Count and kill him,” said Thibault resolutely, furious at again seeing his good fortune escaping from him, at losing what above all things it had been his ambition to possess.
“Kill him! kill the Count? are you mad, Raoul? No, no, you must fly, you must save yourself.... Lisette! Lisette! take the Baron through my dressing-room.” And in spite of his resistance, Lisette by dint of pushing got him safely away. Only just in time! steps were heard coming up the wide main staircase. The Countess, with a last word of love to the supposed Raoul, glided quickly into her bedroom, while Thibault followed Lisette. She led him rapidly along the corridor, where Cramoisi was keeping guard at the other end; then into a room, and through this into another, and finally into a smaller one which led into a little tower; here, the fugitives came again on to a staircase corresponding with the one by which they had gone up, but when they reached the bottom they found the door locked. Lisette, with Thibault still following, went back up a few steps into a sort of office in which was a window looking over the garden; this she opened. It was only a few feet from the ground, and Thibault jumped out, landing safely below.