"Gone!"
"Ay, gone. Either to De Beaurepaire--if he be their tool; to the King if he be a chief mover in this wickedness. Gone to France, to Paris, ere they can do aught to stop or harm me."
"Gone! And the Duchess and I left without you."
"If it must be it must. And you will be well escorted, even though the escort is none too trustworthy. For, think. Reflect. La Truaumont's orders are never to quit Madame la Duchesse until she is safe in the hands of her sister and her family in Milan. While, as for the others, his jackals, what can they do without his will? They whom he pays week by week."
"And the others? Those two. That old man and that intriguing woman!"
"They will not cross the pass. Nor, if I must travel back, can they travel as fast as I on 'Soupir'."
"But you, my heart, you? My love, my companion, my comrade?" Jacquette asked. "What if you are gone without one word, one last farewell?"
"If I am gone, if 'tis necessary that I start even ere dawn, then you will know the why and the wherefore, my own. You will know 'tis for life and death, for the sake of one Louis or the other. In hinting this to the Duchess you will thus obtain my pardon. As for our last farewell--ah! ma mie, we can say it now. We can now take our last embrace until we meet again. While, if I set not out, 'tis one more to the good account."
Whereupon he again drew the girl to him under the shade of the acacias and kissed her long and fondly.