At his own door he was met by Anne Mie in tears.
"She has gone," murmured the young girl. "I feel as if I had murdered her."
"Gone? Who? Where?" queried Déroulède rapidly, an icy feeling of terror gripping him by the heart-strings.
"Juliette has gone," replied Anne Mie; "those awful brutes took her away."
"When?"
"Directly after you left. That man Merlin found some ashes and scraps of paper in her room ..."
"Ashes?"
"Yes; and a torn letter-case."
"Great God!"
"She said that they were love letters, which she had been burning for fear you should see them."