"There is then no time to be lost. Let us go immediately."
The two men turned and a way was immediately opened for them by the crowd, while a suppressed murmur greeted them as they passed. A frail girl, with azure veil drawn closely over her face, hung heavily on the arm of the elder. When they reached the corner of Fabrique-street, which debouches into the Square at the north-west angle of the Cathedral, these two separated.
"What does it mean, father?" asked the girl in a timid voice.
"Nothing, my child. Go home directly and await my return. I will be with you within an hour."
The girl went up the narrow street, and the two men wended their way in silence to the Chateau St. Louis.
After this incident the Square gradually emptied until only a few idlers were left.
[V.]
[RECEIVING DESPATCHES.]
A little before noon Roderick Hardinge stepped down from his quarters into the courtyard of the barracks, booted and spurred. A full-blooded iron-grey charger, instinct with speed and strength in every limb, stood saddled and bridled for him. The man who held him by the head happened to be the soldier whose watch Hardinge had kept the night before.