'You go by Dieuze and Sarrebourg?' said the Prince.
'Yes; but would not a route by Rosiers and Luneville be safer?'
'It would be a longer detour; but as for the safety, I do not see much difference. De Bitche has property and adherents both at Luneville and Rosiers, and I suspect him of conspiring with Pappenheim, so keep well to the left of the main road to Elsace-Zaberne. They have just had a long conference in the court-yard; I watched them from a window, and the moment it was concluded, De Bitche departed towards the bridge of the Meurthe, with ten petardiers of his company on horseback. Thus, I fear me, the Luneville road may be beset, and pray you to be wary.'
'Beset by De Bitche?'
'Sacre, yes!'
'A curse on him and on all his generation.'
'It will not mend the matter: but in case you are actually watched, leave Nanci to-night, as pre-arranged; but do not set forward, lest there be an ambuscade on one or both of the roads. There is an old chapel of St. Nicolas in the Wood, a mile below the city, on the right bank of the river. A pathway diverging to the left near an old stone cross leads directly to it; there you can remain till morning, and then ride boldly forward. You will have a long summer day's march before you, and by nightfall may see the ramparts of Elsace-Zaberne still glittering, I hope, with the helmets of Mulheim's brave Lorrainers.'
I thanked Vaudemont, and bade him adieu with a depth of feeling that must have surprised him; but he was the brother of her I loved more than all the world beside; and, moreover, with all his recklessness and devil-may-care spirit, he was a gallant and generous youth, who struggled nobly but vainly in after years to regild the faded glories of his house.
I rode from the palace and through the principal street of Nanci, that my departure might be seen by all who felt any interest therein; and quitting the city by one of its northern gates, trotted along the well-wooded highway, that led towards the frontier. At the stone cross, which stood near a well, I turned my horse, as directed by the Prince; and after throwing a sharp glance round me, to assure myself that no secret eye was upon me, I descended into a dell, covered by thick dark copsewood, and rode rapidly in search of the ancient chapel, in which, like a hero of the Round Table, I was to pass the night alone.
The sun had set beyond the valleys of the Meuse and the Moselle, and the last gleams of the west bathed with a saffron tint the walls and towers, the spires and ducal palace, of Nanci, as they rose to the eastward of my path, above green groves of full-bearing orange and plum trees.