“What alarms you, Monsieur Plessis?” said Mabel. “Mon Dieu! I hope nothing serious——”
“Nay,” interrupted the intendant, soothingly. “I do not feel alarmed at all, but merely anxious to let Monsieur Thornton know what I heard to-day, and to put him on his guard. I was told when in Havre that an English frigate or corvette was seen close in with the coast off Lyon Head this morning, and that some days before a very fine armed brig was chased by that vessel, but that, aided by a thick fog, the brig got into Palos Creek, and was at anchor in the pool, where the Vengeance lies. Ten or twelve of the coast-guard had at once set out for Lyon Head, at the instigation of some person residing with Monsieur Gramont who is at Rouen, and thirty or forty men belonging to an infantry regiment were to march for Palos Creek, to protect the Vengeance and the brig, should this frigate discover them to be within the creek. It would be just as well that Monsieur Thornton did not meet or fall in with the coast-guard.”
“Then do not lose a moment,” cried both mother and daughter, anxiously, “in sending Joseph; he can run through the village, which is a mile shorter, and probably overtake him.”
“Deuce take my leg, I was going to say!” said Julian, with a flush on his cheek from vexation; “but I mean deuce take the stone that caused me to sprain my ankle. Now that I might be of service I’m no more use than an old woman!”
“But old women are sometimes very useful, Monsieur Julian,” returned Julia, with a smile, and a look at the handsome speaker, trying to rouse the mother and daughter from their sombre thoughts.
“I perfectly agree with you, mademoiselle,” answered Julian. “So they are, provided they are not guardians to very pretty grand-daughters, then they are no longer old women, but dragons, Ah, here is your father again. You have dispatched Joseph?”
“Yes, I made him take the post pony; he will go the quicker,” replied the intendant. “I have not mentioned my plans to you as yet, madame,” continued Jean Plessis, turning to the Duchess, “because I was not quite certain I could carry them out, but now I think I can effect what we wish.”
“I felt certain,” observed Madame Coulancourt, in reply, “that you were planning something, by your frequent visits to Havre.”
“Yes, madame, you have conjectured correctly. It will not do to remain too long here whilst Monsieur Gramont is, with his spies, watching our movements.”
“Spies!” repeated Julian; “then you suspect this Gramont is watching us?”