"None, save to keep this poor girl about the fort; and that is easily obeyed, since we can scarce do otherwise with her."
"I meant to ask in the first breath how he fared in the outset of his expedition."
"With a lowering sky overhead, and wet red clay under-foot. But I thanked Heaven, while we were tossing with a broken mast, that he was at least on firm land and moving to his expectations."
They entered the gateway, Madame La Tour's cheeks tingling richly from the effort of climbing. She saluted her garrison, and her garrison saluted her, each with a courteous pride in the other, born of the joint victory they had won over D'Aulnay de Charnisay when he attacked the fort. Not a man broke rank until she entered her hall. There was a tidiness about the inclosure peculiar to places inhabited by women. It added grace even to military appointments.
"You miss the swan, madame," noted Klussman. "Le Rossignol is out again."
"When did she go?"
"The night after my lord and you sailed northward. She goes each time in the night, madame."
"And she is still away?"
"Yes, madame."