“Monsieur,” she said, “we women are proud of a brave man.” And then she stepped back amid the surrounding smiles, and I turned with a sob in my throat, for my eyes to fall on Marie, where she stood a little apart, gazing at me gravely, and as the sun lit the gold of her hair, and I caught the look on her face, my mind went back like a flash to the vision I had seen in Russy wood, and I stood there tongue-tied and staring, as without a word she turned aside from me.
The tumult of feelings raging within me almost choked me. My mind travelled with lightning rapidity from remorse to a savage, relentless fury, from the deepest pity to a stony apathy. It came to me once, as we entered the house, to draw my dagger and plunge it into my own heart, and on the heels of the thought followed another. There was no one here who knew, and Achon and Richelieu would perhaps be silent. What mattered it to the priest how he gained his end as long as he did gain it? And as for Richelieu, bandit and ruffian though he was, he had shown me a stately courtesy when my life was in his hands, so I leaned upon the self-interest of the one and the chivalry of the other, and held myself in.
We had gained the hall by this. Twice had I felt, rather than heard, Coqueville speaking to me. At last he put a hand on my shoulder and shook me gently.
“Mon ami!” he said, “do you dream?”
“Ay!” I answered, my hand to my forehead. Then, with a sudden rush of feeling I could not control, “Coqueville!” I said, “take them away at once. Delay not here a moment. There is danger—danger, I say.”
My voice was harsh and high. The words arrested all, and the Princess began nervously:
“Yes. Let us go! We are quite ready.”
“And so are the horses in the inner court, madame,” said Coqueville; while Condé, reckless and gay, slipped his arm round his wife’s waist and kissed her. “Fear not,” he said; “Vibrac has sniffed danger the whole way. Not a soul suspects——”
And a single shot rang sharply through the air.
We started, even I, so suddenly, so crisply did the sound come to us through that winter day; and then another and another followed it, but from the other side of the house.