“I am at your orders, monsieur,” said Madame du Maine, proudly, and d’Ancenis bowed again.
Hérault returned to the entrance and ordered in a company of the guards, whom he posted at all the doors, while d’Ancenis prepared to take a list of all the people in the room. This occupied some time, and while it was in progress I again gained the side of Madame du Maine.
“Permit me to compliment you, madame,” I said in a low tone, “upon the heroic manner in which you withstand this reverse. It is magnificent.”
The duchess looked at me with a smile.
“Perhaps all is not yet lost, monsieur,” she said, glancing quickly around to see that no one else could hear.
“Not yet lost?” and I looked at her in amazement. “I do not understand, madame.”
“Can I trust you?” she asked, looking at me a moment. “Yes, I think I can. At four o’clock this afternoon, monsieur, the Duc d’Orleans, accompanied only by three or four gentlemen, left Paris to visit the king at Versailles, to lay before him, I do not doubt, the details of our plans and to get his signature to certain papers which Orleans might himself hesitate to enforce without the royal approval. St. Aulaire was mistaken in saying that the regent was in the city this evening.”
“What then, madame?” I asked. “I confess that I am still in the dark.”
“At nine o’clock this evening the regent was to leave Versailles to return to Paris. Two hours later he will arrive at that part of the road near St. Cloud where it passes through a strip of woodland. At that point he will disappear. He will enter the wood at one side, but he will never come out at the other. He will vanish as though the earth had opened and swallowed him. It is a detail of the plan which, until this moment, I have kept to myself, and of which I am certain the police know nothing. I was arranging a pleasant little surprise for our confederates, for with Orleans out of the way what serious opposition could there be to Philip of Spain? Ah, well, it seems that it is this detail which is to save us, and which may yet make Philip of Spain regent of France. You understand now, monsieur?”
I gazed in amazement at this extraordinary woman, who permitted nothing to stand in the way of her ambition.