In an instant I saw my opportunity. I crept along the street until I reached my horse. Quickly mounting, I turned him down a side street, and came out again a little distance away on the road by which the courier had come. With a touch of the spur I urged my horse into a gallop, and approached the gate precisely as the first courier had done.
“Open!” I cried. “On the king’s service.”
“Pardieu,” growled the sentry, “it seems to me there are many couriers passing here to-night. Something must be afoot. The pass-word, if you please.”
“Rocroy,” I answered.
“All right, my friend, wait a moment,” and he placed his hand on one of the gates and half opened it as the commandant came running from the house, his orders still in his hand.
“Hold, Batard!” he cried to the sentry, “I wish to see this gentleman.” The man paused, still holding the gate half open.
“Let me see,” he continued, holding the paper up to the light and scanning it closely. “About twenty—gray suit—gray cloak—light moustache—light hair—mounted on black horse—” he looked at me for a moment keenly. “You cannot pass, monsieur,” he said. “It seems to me that you are Monsieur de Brancas, whom I have just received an order to arrest and hold at all hazard. Close the gate, Batard.”
But I had understood before he finished. I drove my spurs deep into the horse’s flanks, and with one bound upset the fellow who was still holding the half-opened gate. At the same instant the horse struck the gate, the force of the shock swinging it still farther open. We were through the opening before the guards had time to realize that I was escaping and plunged into the darkness without the walls. For the third time that night I knew that I should receive a volley in the rear, and I bent low in my saddle as the shots rang out behind me. Luckily, the rascals were too astonished to aim accurately, and the bullets whistled harmlessly over me. But there might be a pursuit, and I did not allow my horse to slacken his pace until the barrier was far behind.
As I rode I reflected upon this new perfidy of the duchess, for that she had furnished Hérault the description which had been sent to the Versailles gate I did not doubt, and was amazed anew at the daring and ingenuity of this woman, who knew how to use even her enemies in accomplishing her ends. At last, believing myself safe from pursuit, I drew up and looked about me. It was lighter here than in the narrow streets of the city, and the moon was just peeping over the horizon, but still I could see little. I had been delayed not less than half an hour at the barrier and knew that I had no time to lose, so I put spurs to my horse again and continued rapidly onward. In a few moments I came to a place where the road forked. Which was the road to Versailles, the right or the left? I did not know, and seeing no way of finding out, chose the left at a hazard and continued on. I had not ridden far when I saw at the side of the road ahead of me a dim light. As I drew nearer I perceived that it came from the window of a low and squalid hut. Here, perhaps, I might be able to gain the information I sought. I rode my horse up to the door, and, drawing a pistol from the holster, rapped with its butt.
There was silence for a moment within the house, and then the door slowly opened. As it did so, I was astonished to see that the candle which had been burning a moment before had been extinguished.