“Oh, yes, M. le Duc,” she answered. “Come. She is awaiting you.”
“While I have been idling here!” cried Richelieu, and sprang forward.
“And I?” I asked.
“Come also, M. de Brancas,” she said, smiling over her shoulder. “We have seen that you know how to be of service and that you are discreet.”
I needed no second bidding.
A bank of clouds obscured the moon, but Mlle. Dacour advanced without hesitation and led the way, as I had expected, towards the right wing of the palace with the little garden in front. A gate in the low surrounding wall yielded to her touch, but instead of advancing straight forward across the garden she kept to the right in the shadow of the buildings, where suddenly she stopped. I looked about to discover the reason for this, for there was an apparently solid wall beside us, when I saw her passing her hand slowly over it, and in a moment a section of the masonry swung back, operated by a spring which she had pressed.
“What wonder is this?” asked Richelieu.
“No wonder at all,” replied the girl. “Simply one of the devices arranged many years ago by Cardinal Mazarin for purposes of his own. There are many such in the building, if one only knows how to find them. Enter, messieurs.”
We bowed our heads and entered, Mlle. Dacour following us and closing the hidden door after her. There was a lighted lantern standing in one corner of the small room in which we found ourselves, and she picked it up and motioned us to follow. A long, narrow passage led to the right, and after traversing this we came to a small spiral staircase. Up this we mounted, and found that it ended apparently in a blank wooden wall. Along this Mlle. Dacour felt with one hand, and as I watched her closely, a section of the wall swung outward. We passed through and it closed after us. I saw with astonishment that the wall through which we had come was covered with shelving, filled with jars of various preserved fruits, glasses of jelly, and boxes of sweetmeats. At that instant Mlle. Dacour held up a warning finger and blew out the light.
“It is, indeed, an unexpected honor,” I heard a voice say, which I recognized as that of the princess. “To what happy chance do I owe it, monsieur?”