"You can swear him to silence, monsieur," she cried quickly.
"What use? He would not keep silence."
"He will if I ask it," she returned, flinging me a look of bright confidence that made the blood dance in my veins. But Mayenne laughed.
"When you have lived in the world as long as I have, you will not so flatter yourself, Lorance."
Thus it happened that I was not bound to silence concerning what I had seen and heard in the house of Lorraine.
Mayenne took out his dagger.
"What I do I do thoroughly. I said I'd set you free. Free you shall be."
Mademoiselle sprang forward with pleading hand.
"Let me cut the cords, Cousin Charles."
He recoiled a bare second, the habit of a lifetime prompting him against the putting of a weapon in any one's hand. Then, ashamed of the suspicion, which indeed was not of her, he yielded the knife and she cut my bonds. She looked straight into my eyes, with a glance earnest, beseeching, loving; I could not begin to read all she meant by it. The next moment she was making her deep curtsey before the duke.