"It is clear to me that de Termes' postscript is a warning for you not to go to Périgueux. I knew that he would be incapable of carrying out such orders as he has received--and I can read his meaning between the lines of his message. Denise, you must not be with me when my husband and I meet."
"God Himself seems to have abandoned me. What can I do--where shall I hide?"
"I will tell you. My sister Louise is Abbess of Our Lady of Meymac. I will send you to her. The convent has special rights of sanctuary that even Catherine herself would not dare to violate--but she will never know you are there. Yet it is a long journey, and you will have to cross the mountains. Will you risk it tonight?"
"I am ready now, madame."
"Very well," and, calling to her maid, she asked for Lalande, and when the equerry came she turned to him:
"Lalande, how long is it that you have followed Monsieur le Vicomte?"
"Thirty years, madame, from the days when Monsieur was a simple cavalier of the guard."
"And you would do anything for Monsieur?"
"Madame, I have been his man in lean times and in fat--in famine and in full harvest. He saved my life at Cerisolles, and it was I who got him out of the Bastille; I have been by his side from the time he was a simple gentleman to the present day, when Monsieur is a marshal and a peer of France. You ask if I would do anything for Monsieur. If Monsieur le Vicomte were to ask me to lay down my life to-morrow I would do so willingly."
"I believe you, Lalande. Now listen. Madame de Lorgnac here is in great danger. It is Monsieur le Vicomte's wish that she should be conveyed to the Convent of Our Lady of Meymac, and we trust her to you. No one is to know where she is placed. You must protect her with your life--do you understand? And you must start now--and alone--for Madame's hiding-place is a secret."