“He belongs to the Holy Office, monsieur, and to none else beside.”
De Bresy remained silent, and with this we entered. In the courtyard there was a little bustle as we dismounted, and, awaiting my fate, I looked around me in stony apathy. Then moved, perhaps, by the same impulse that sometimes makes a stag, wounded to death, nibble at the grass around it, I cast my eyes on the sunset, and the strangeness of it held and arrested me, in spite of myself. There was a broad red sash of light across the west, that cut abruptly, and without any gradations of tint, into the sombre gray of the sky. Against this weird background rose the brown and purple silhouettes of the houses, the white and glistening spires of Ste. Croix, and the grim keep of the palace, the Royal standard flaunting from the staff. Even as I looked it seemed to slip down a little with a jerk, and then fluttered slowly down to half-mast height. No one noticed this. All were busily engaged, and Richelieu, Achon, and the others were in earnest converse. Achon was urging something, a desperate resolve on his face; but de Bresy shook his head, his hand to the hilt of his sword, and Comminges said loudly:
“No! It would be murder. We are not here for that.”
Whereat Richelieu put his hand on the priest’s shoulder, saying: “Let it rest. ’Tis but a matter of hours.” Then, as if to end the colloquy, he turned to the guards, saying sharply:
“Bring on the prisoners!”
It was then that Condé looked at me for the first time since the discovery of my shame. “He!” he said. “And with me!”
“No, monseigneur,” Achon answered, “with me—he remains in my sight from now,” and his hand once more touched his bruised cheek.
So, guarded and still bound, I was taken with them, as the Prince was led back to his old prison. In the landing at the end of the corridor I was stopped.
“Let him be kept here until I come back,” said Achon. “See that he does not escape you!”
And the troopers on each side of me smiled grimly in answer. The fate of Le Brun was too recent to allow them to forget their vigilance. With a parting look at me, Achon followed the others into the room, and the door being open, I was enabled to see and hear what passed.