How my heart leaped as I saw that blazon! And then, in an instant, it fell again, for what could three hundred men,—yes, or three thousand men,—be they brave as Bayard, hope to accomplish against this castle in the air? Roquefort might sit on the battlement and laugh at them. True, they might starve him out in the course of months, if their patience could last so long, but ere that Roquefort would have had his will of me and d’Aurilly of Mademoiselle Valérie. Had they been but an hour earlier!
So I watched them with gloomy face as they drew away from the walls and pitched their camp a little distance down the valley, at the crest of a small hill. Evening was at hand, and the shadows, deepening first at the foot of the valley, stole silently up the hill-sides until all the world below me was wrapped in darkness. Through my window I could see a broad strip of sky, with a galaxy of stars twinkling brightly in it, and I knew that the night was a fair, sweet, clear one. If only Claire and I might wander through it with none but the stars for company!
Soon the fires of the camp gleamed out, first one and then another, and finally many of them. To right and left of the camp beacons were lighted to guard against surprise, and I knew that M. le Comte was preparing for any fortune. In the town too a light shone here and there, and the murmur which floated up from the streets proved that the town-people had not yet done with discussing the advent of this new enemy.
A noise at the door brought me from the window. I heard the bolts thrown back, the door opened, and Drouet appeared on the threshold, bearing a flickering lantern in one hand and a plate of bread and meat and can of water in the other. These he set upon the floor, and with a not unfriendly gesture motioned me to them. In faith, I was hungry enough, and needed no second bidding! Drouet placed his lantern on the floor and sat down opposite me. For a time he watched me in silence, as though enjoying the sight of my hunger, but I knew that he could not keep silence long, for I had already proved his love of gossip.
“I dare say you saw that little show down yonder,” he remarked at last. “Cadillac would better have remained at home. Here he can only starve. He will find scant forage in these hills.”
“You do not know M. le Comte,” I retorted with a confidence I confess I did not feel. “He will smoke you out of this hole yet, and then ’twill be time to say your prayers. Possibly you have already felt his hand and so know its weight.”
Drouet smiled somewhat ruefully.
“Possibly,” he admitted; “yet if he venture to assault this place, he nor his men will see Cadillac again.”
At the bottom of my heart I believed him, but I held my smile.
“Yet he has his points,” he continued after a moment. “He sent a warning to M. le Duc just now, threatening I know not what if the girl and you two youngsters were not surrendered unharmed forthwith. You should have seen M. le Duc’s face! He sent back a warm message too. ‘Tell your master,’ he said to the envoy, ‘I propose to change Mademoiselle de Cadillac into Madame d’Aurilly. We will then make such treaty as we see fit to prevent d’Aurilly wearying of his wife. This spy from Marsan is going to bawl his life out on the rack. As for the other, I have not yet decided.’ And the envoy went away to deliver this pretty news. One can imagine how Cadillac will receive it! How those two hate each other! France is not wide enough to hold them both.”