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He did not know how near we then were to it. He did not then know that I was La Tournoire." "But there was much talk of La Tournoire on the journey. Did you at any time drop any hint of this place, and how it might be reached?" "None that could have reached his ears. I told only Mlle. de Varion, and we were quite alone when I did so." Blaise looked at the ground in silence.

"Mlle. de Varion," he answered, never quailing. Filled with a, great wrath, my powers of thought for the time paralyzed, my mind capable of no perception, but that of mademoiselle's sweetness and purity opposed to this horrible charge of black treason, I could answer only: "Then the devil is no more the king of liars, unless you are the devil!

"I do your wit the credit of admitting that so well-wrought a lie was never before told. Only two things prevent its being believed. It is to me that you tell it, and it is of Mile, de Varion! You complained a while ago of being chilly. Let us now warm ourselves!" And so we went at it. I had no reason now to repeat the trick by which I had before disarmed him.

Mlle. de Varion, who had heard my last words with a look of keen attention and also of bitter pain of mind, now rose and walked to and fro as if meditating. Inwardly I lamented my inability to drive from her face the clouds which I attributed to her increasing distress, as she found herself further and further from her father and her home, bound for still gloomier shades and wilder surroundings.

The lady smiled at my description, and adjusting her gloves, replied: "And I am Mlle. de Varion, daughter of a gentleman of Fleurier " "What!" I interrupted, "the Catholic gentleman who has been imprisoned for sheltering a Huguenot?"

I might have killed De Berquin when I disarmed him on the previous night, but I did not wish to make him, in the least, an object of mademoiselle's pity, and, moreover, I was curious to see what means he would adopt towards hunting me down and betraying me. Not only the dejection of Mlle. de Varion made our ride a melancholy one, despite the radiance of the autumn morning.

When he addressed me and introduced himself, I was surprised that he should already know my name." I then recalled that the governor's secretary, Montignac, at one time, during his talk with De Berquin outside our window, had pointed towards the inn. Was it, then, of Mlle. de Varion that he had been talking?

It destroys your whole edifice. The father of Mlle. de Varion is now a prisoner, held by the governor's order, on a charge of treason for having harbored Huguenots. Would his daughter undertake to do the work of a spy and a traitor for that governor against a Huguenot? Now for your ingenuity, monsieur!" "Such things have been known," he answered, not at all discomfited.

I will say that we have ridden ahead of our baggage and attendants, which is literally true, for my baggage remains at Hugues's house and you have left Mathilde there." "Very well, Monsieur," she replied. "I should have some name to call you by upon occasion," said I. "I will travel as Henri de Varion, for De Varion was my mother's name, and if you are willing to use it " "Certainly, Monsieur.

Aside from the desirability of our reaching safe territory, there was no reason for great haste. M. de Varion had not yet been tried, and the attempt to deliver him from prison need not be made immediately. Time would be required in which I might form a satisfactory plan of action in this matter.