"There is still time to see Raoul," I muttered; so, bidding Pillot go straight to the Abbé, I turned off in the direction of the Luxembourg.
At the Palace the change from the stillness of the city was startling. The gates were closed and guarded; soldiers, fully equipped, stood at their posts; the courtyard was filled with nobles in a state of excitement. Happily for my purpose Raoul observed me and came to the gate.
"What has alarmed you so down here?" I inquired. "Is the Duke afraid of a siege?"
"Have you not heard the news? Come inside where we can talk. It has all happened just as we reckoned it would. Condé has thrown off the mask and broken with the Court. It is rumoured that Spain has offered him a body of troops, and that he intends to tempt fortune in a Civil War. The Queen is firm and does not mean to let him back out; it is do or die for him now."
"All the better; we shall be able to distinguish friends from enemies. It will be an awful thing, but once Condé is well beaten the country will stand a chance of peace. The Duke of Orleans will join forces with the Queen?"
"I cannot say," answered Raoul shamefacedly; "he is pulled this way and that, by both parties. Most probably he will wait to find how things go."
"Then he is a coward as well as a traitor! Faugh! I wonder you have patience to stay with him! I can understand a loyalist and even a rebel, but a weather-cock like the Duke is beyond me. Why does he not come boldly into the open? This twisting and turning will do him no good. One would imagine he was a hunted hare."
"There is no need to ask what you will do?"
"Not a bit, I shall join the royal army and serve as a trooper, if no better berth offers. Thank goodness the field is clear now, and we shall know where we stand. But first I must get Marie and her aunt out of the city. Paris will not be safe for them when the mob rises, as it is sure to do. But I have some further news; my cousin is dead."
"I thought you said he died weeks ago."