As the two men retired, the light of dawn silvered the stern turrets of Picmort.
[Chapter II]
BAD NEWS
On the following day, Amélie and Louis Pierre had a serious talk.
"I do not consider," remarked the girl, "that René has reason to complain of my compliance with his instructions. I have obeyed him blindly, and that is not so easy a thing for me to do. But now I demand to know why, instead of accompanying my father to Paris and of hearing our faithful adherents acclaim him King, I am banished as tho I were a prisoner and enjoined to remain in a peasant's dress behind closed windows. In order to breathe fresh air, I must ascend the dizzy heights of a tower."
Louis Pierre did not at once reply. He sat for a few moments in that gloomy attitude which he so often assumed.
"Mademoiselle," he said after a few moments, "courage!"
"Speak the truth," demanded Amélie imperiously. "I am no weakling."
And her face was so gloriously brave that the Knight of Liberty spoke with more than his accustomed frankness.