"You have time after time told me I am not a prisoner. Why, then——"
"Because Châtellerault no longer contains your friends, and Monsieur de
Randan now commands there."
She turned as white now as she had been red before, and a bitter pang of jealousy went through me as I thought for whom all this feeling was; but she brought herself together and faced Montluc.
"Very well, monsieur. I understand your friendship and your kindness now. I tell you plainly that I will escape at the first opportunity. I shall never reach Paris."
"That is M. Broussel's affair; and, mademoiselle, the marches are long in Poitou."
She gave him no answer, but, as it were, resigning herself to the present, went up to her horse, accepting only the assistance of the groom to mount.
When all was ready Montluc called me aside, and we stood together for a moment on the wide steps.
"Mordieu!" he muttered as he glanced at mademoiselle, "I do not envy your task. Upon my soul, I am glad that Jean de Paradis won her mother's hand and not I!" And then in an altered manner:
"I have your word to do all that man can for her safety?"
"I have said so, monsieur."