"Ah, Monsieur d'Exmès!" she cried. "You are such a welcome visitor; for it may perhaps be that you have come to give me some news of my dear mistress."
"On the contrary, Denise, I have come to learn of her from you," said Gabriel.
"Ah, Holy Virgin! I know nothing at all, and I am terribly frightened about her."
"But why so anxious, Denise?" asked Gabriel, who began to be anxious himself.
"Why!" replied the maid; "why, you must know where Madame de Castro is now!
"Indeed, no! I know nothing about it, Denise; and it is just what I hoped to learn from you."
"Holy Virgin! and didn't you know, Monseigneur, that she asked leave of the king to enter a convent a month ago?"
"I know that; and then?"
"And then! Ah, that is the terrible part of it. For do you know what convent she chose? That of the Benedictines, of which her old friend, Sister Monique, is superior, at St. Quentin, Monseigneur,—at St. Quentin, at this very moment besieged and perhaps taken by these English and Spanish heathens. She had not been there a fortnight, Monseigneur, when the siege began."
"Oh," cried Gabriel, "the hand of God is in all this! He awakens the son in me to new life, by arousing the lover anew, and thus doubles my courage and my strength. Thanks, Denise. This for your good news," he added, placing a purse in her hand. "Pray to Heaven for your mistress and for me."