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Updated: May 13, 2025
Between the suddenness of the alarm, the uproar without, and the panic within, none but a man whose people served him at a nod and dreaded his very gesture could have got his party mounted in time. Javette would fain have swooned, but she dared not. Tignonville would fain have questioned, but he shrank from the venture.
Javette began to whimper, but she paid no heed to her; a man came and went along the passage below, and she heard the outer door unbarred, and the jarring tread of three or four men who passed through it. But all without disturbance; and afterwards the house was quiet again.
Through a country which had lost its smiling wooded character and grew more sombre and less fertile the farther they left the Loire behind them. Trot, trot! Trot, trot! for ever, it seemed to some. Javette wept with fatigue, and the other women were little better.
And whom to trust and whom to suspect, where lay our interest and where our foes'? You trusted me then! What have I done that you now dare ay, dare, Monsieur," she repeated fearlessly, her face pale and her eyes glittering with excitement, "to insult me? That you treat me as Javette? That you deem me capable of that? Of luring you into a trap, and in my own house, or the house that was mine, of "
One of the frightened women it was Mademoiselle's tiring-maid, a girl called Javette made a movement, as if to throw herself at her mistress's feet. Tignonville drove her to her place with a word. He turned to Count Hannibal. "But, M. le Comte," he said, "you must be mad! Mad, to wish to marry her in this way! You do not love her. You do not want her. What is she to you more than other women?"
Tuez!" drew nearer and nearer, and the lights of the oncoming multitude began to flicker on the shuttered gables, the fortitude of the servants gave way. Madame Carlat, shivering in every limb, burst into moaning; the tiring-maid, Javette, flung herself in terror at Mademoiselle's knees, and, writhing herself about them, shrieked to her to save her, only to save her!
The words stayed them where they stood in an astonishment scarce less than their alarm. The Countess tried twice to speak; the third time "Have you escaped?" she muttered. Tignonville nodded, his eyes bright with triumph. "So far," he said. "But they may be on our heels at any moment! Where can we hide?" The Countess, her hand pressed to her side, looked at Javette.
It was possible that he might pass unrecognized, if Tavannes' stay was brief; at any rate, the risk must be run. In a half stifled voice she bade her woman, Javette, open the door. Count Hannibal bowed low as he entered; and he deceived the others. But he did not deceive her.
Javette even, hearing from her neighbour that they were over the Loire, plucked up courage; while La Tribe, gazing before him with moistened eyes, cried "Comfort" to the scared and weeping girl who clung to his belt.
Your mistress says that he knows that I am here." For a moment Javette looked startled. "It is possible," she muttered. "But he has gone out." Madame Carlat clapped her hands. "I heard the door close," she said, "three minutes ago."
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