Left alone with Ambroisine, Bathilde, who had but one thought, one hope, hastily scribbled this note to Léodgard:
"My parents have found out everything, and they have turned me out of their house. Ambroisine has taken me in; she is like a sister to me. But without you, Léodgard, I cannot hope for pardon. I must tell you what I dared not tell you before, something that makes me glad and miserable at once: I am a mother! Oh! my dear, remember your oaths, and come, come quickly, to give your child a father."
She handed her letter to her friend and said:
"It's on Place Royale; you will find the place, won't you?"
"Never fear," Ambroisine replied, placing the paper in her bosom. "Place Royale is not very hard to find; I passed through it not so long ago, on my way home from Vincennes, where I had been to see my godmother; she gave me a message for somebody who lives on Place Royale.—Ah! I shall never forget that day; for on the road that I took—— But, great heaven! here I am telling you things that don't interest you; and I read in your eyes that you wish that I had started before this with your letter. That is natural enough, since what you have written is sure to interest the count so deeply.—Come, be calm, I am going—I am going at once!"
"Dear Ambroisine! what torment, what trouble I cause you!"
"Will you be kind enough not to say that? I tell you once more that your not being in your father's house now is my fault. If it had not been for that infernal idea of mine of taking you to see the Fire of Saint-Jean, you would still be on Rue Dauphine, working by your mother's side. As I am the prime cause of the trouble, the least that I can do is to try to repair it."
Ambroisine left the house, walked very fast, did not stop on the way, and reached Place Royale in less than half an hour. She asked at a shop where the Hôtel de Marvejols was; it was pointed out to her, and in a moment the girl saw the heavy gate leading into the courtyard swing open before her.
"What do you want?" cried the concierge, in a rough voice, and without leaving the large armchair in which he sat at the back of his lodge.
"I would like to speak to Monsieur le Comte Léodgard de Marvejols."