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It was not until eighteen months had elapsed that he was able to tell me he came from Leigoutte, among the Vosges mountains." "Ah!" The Marquis drew his breath with pain. "Go on! go on!" he muttered in a hoarse voice. "He said his father's name was Simon, his mother's name Françoise, and a little sister was called Francinette, but he gave me no family name.

While the Russians burned the cottage where Françoise and the children had taken shelter, Talizac, in order to ensure his possession of the title and Fongereues estates, set fire to the inn which was Simon's home. The emigrés took fiendish delight in destroying the school-room. Was it not there that the Republicans talked of duty and their country to the children?

"He said nothing; that is, he cried out very angrily, 'Never! no, never!" In order to prevent any suspicions arising in the girl's mind, Mademoiselle de Laurebourg contrived to force a laugh, exclaiming: "Ah! indeed, that is just what I expected." Francoise seemed as if she had something to say on the tip of her tongue, but Diana hurriedly dismissed her, pressing a coin into her hand.

Here was the true Francoise de Montespan, a feline creature crouching for a spring, very far from that humble and soft-spoken Francoise who had won the king back by her gentle words. Madame de Maintenon's hand had been cut in the struggle, and the blood was dripping down from the end of her fingers, but neither woman had time to spare a thought upon that.

Simon had dropped into a chair. He was as white as a sheet, and his eyes were fixed on vacancy. The soldier looked at him for a moment. "Come!" he said, "give me another glass, and we will drink to our country!" At this moment Françoise came in hurriedly. "Simon!" she cried, "the peasants are coming here from every direction. They say that the foreigners are coming this way, and they bid us fly!"

In the shadow of the house a man watched the encounter, and a sift of rank tobacco smoke hinted the pipes of fathers and sons resting from the day's labor on the cabin door-sill or the sward. Voices of children could be heard, and other dogs gave mouth, so that Brown laid severe commands on Jim before he could tremblingly speak to Françoise. "Oh, M'sieu' Brownee, I t'ink maybe you come!"

In spite of all this, however, Mademoiselle de Laurebourg was secretly delighted at the departure of Daumon and Francoise; for she experienced an intense feeling of relief at knowing that she no longer was in any risk of meeting her accomplice in her daily walks.

Her ladies of honor obeyed her as they would their God. Marguerite of Valois said of her: "I did not dare to speak to her, and when she looked at me I trembled for fear of having done something that displeased her." Ladies who had been delinquent were stripped and beaten with lashes; for correctionfrequently for mere pastimeshe would have them undressed and slapped vigorously with the back of the hand. Françoise of Rohan, cousin of Jeanne d'Albret, wrote the following poem: "Plus j'ai de toi souvent esté battue, Plus mon amour s'efforce et s'évertue De regretter ceste main qui me bat; Car ce mal-l

The King was courting her, it is true, and favouring her already with marked respect; but Francoise d'Aubigne, thoughtful and meditative as I knew her to be, could certainly not have failed to appreciate the voluptuous and inconstant character of the monarch.

To be hunting Françoise with a blood-hound out of leash how horrible was this! He tied his horse to a tree and took Jim by the collar, restraining the creature's fierce joy of discovery. Françoise must be near, unless a hound whose scent was unerring had become a fool. What if she had left camp of her own will? She was so quiet, one could not be sure of her thoughts.