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Updated: May 19, 2025
"I saw her and Mayenne and Lucas and ever so many things," I told him. "And they had me flogged, and mademoiselle loves you." "She does!" he cried, flushing. "Félix, does she? You cannot know." "But I do know it," I answered, not very lucidly. "You see, she wouldn't have wept so much, just over me." "Did she weep? Lorance?" he exclaimed. "They flogged me," I said. "They didn't hurt me much.
He paced the floor once more, and presently faced me again with the declaration: "Lucas shall have her only over my dead body." "He will only have her own dead body," I said. He turned away abruptly and stood at the window, looking out with unseeing eyes. "Lorance Lorance," he murmured to himself. I think he did not know he spoke aloud. "If I could get word to her " he went on presently.
But you will slip out, you will find a way, and come to me." Silently, sadly, she shook her head. His arms loosened, and she freed herself from him. But instantly he was close on her again. "But you must! you will, you must! Ah, Lorance, my father is won over. He bids me win you. He has sworn to welcome you; when he sees you he will be your slave." "But my cousin Mayenne is not won over."
"I took you into my household," Mayenne went on. "I let you wear the name of Lorraine. I did not deny you the hand of my cousin and ward, Lorance de Montluc." "Deny me! No, you did not. Neither did you grant it me, but put me off with lying promises. You thought then you could win back the faltering house of St. Quentin by a marriage between your cousin and the Comte de Mar.
If they have it, they can pass, whoever they are." "They have not," the captain answered at once. "I think you would do well, sir, to demand the lady's name." Mademoiselle started forward for a bold stroke just as the superior officer demanded of her, "The countersign?" As he said the word, she pronounced distinctly her name: "Lorance " "Enough!" the colonel said instantly.
He sat down again and began his story, striving as he talked to reconquer something of his old coolness. "The thing was ruined by the advent of this boy, Mar's lackey I spoke of. You said he had not been here?" "You may go to Lorance with that question," Mayenne answered; "I have something else to attend to than the intrigues of my wife's maids."
"You are a good girl, Lorance," Mayenne said. "Will you let the boy go now, Cousin Charles?" she asked. "Yes, I will let your boy go," he made answer. "But if I do this for you, I shall expect you henceforth to do my bidding." "You have called me a good girl, cousin." "Aye, so you are. And there is small need to look so Friday-faced about it.
"Come, come, Lorance," Mayenne interposed, his caution setting him ever on the side of compromise. "Paul is no worse than the rest of us. He hates his enemies, and so do we all; he works against them to the best of his power, and so do we all. They are Kingsmen, we are Leaguers; they fight for their side, and we fight for ours.
"I am grieved most bitterly to have been the means of bringing this lad into danger. Since Paul cozened me into doing what I did not understand, and since this is not the man you wanted but only his servant, will you not let him go free?" "Why, my pretty Lorance, I did not mean to harm him," Mayenne protested, smiling.
"Lorance," he was fiercely beginning, when Mlle. de Tavanne bounded in. "On guard!" she hissed at us. "They come!" She looked behind her into the corridor. Mademoiselle gave her lips to monsieur in one last kiss, and slipped like water from his arms. I was at his side, and we busied ourselves over the trinkets, he with shaking fingers, cheeks burning through the stain.
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