"God has received your oath and will help you to keep it; remember that, whether dead or alive, you belong to me as I belong to you, and that no person on earth shall break the ties that unite us. Now farewell, and keep your courage."
"Farewell!" she muttered, as she fell back in her chair and buried her face in her hands.
"Let us go, gentlemen! Do with me what you please," the Count said as he turned to the exempt and the guards, who were involuntarily affected by this scene.
The Duke bounded with a tiger leap on his daughter, and seizing her right arm with a frenzied gesture, he forced her to raise her tear-swollen face to his, and fixing on her a glance loaded with all the rage that swelled his heart, he said in a voice which fury rendered sibilant —
"Daughter, prepare to marry within two days, the man I destine for you. As for your child, you will never see it again; it no longer exists for you."
The young lady uttered a cry of despair and fell back deprived of her senses in the arms of Dame Tiphaine.
The Count, who at this moment was leaving the room, stopped short and turned round to the Duke with his arm stretched out toward him:
"Hangman," he shouted in a hoarse voice which chilled his auditors with horror, "I curse you, I swear on my honor as a gentlemen to take on you and yours so terrible a vengeance, that the memory of it shall remain eternal; and if I cannot reach you, you and the whole nation to which you belong shall be buried beneath the implacable weight of my hatred. Between us henceforth there is a war of savages and wild beasts, without truce or mercy; farewell."
And leaving the proud Spaniard horrified by this fearful anathema, the gentleman quitted the room with a firm step, and taking a last loving glance at the woman he adored, from whom he was perhaps eternally separated.
The passages, stairs, and inn garden were filled with armed men; it was evidently a miracle that the two sailors had succeeded in escaping and getting away safe and sound; this gave the Count, hope and he went down the stairs with an assured step, carefully watched by his escort who did not let him out of sight.
The guards had been long before warned that they would have to do with a naval officer possessing an inordinate violence of character, prodigious vigour and indomitable courage; hence the resignation of the prisoner, which they believed to be assumed, only inspired them with very slight confidence, and they were continually on the defensive.
When they came out into the garden the chief of the exempts noticed the coach, which was still standing at the door.
"Why," he said with a grin and rubbing his hands, "here's the very thing we want. In our hurry to get here, we forgot to provide ourselves with a coach; be good enough to get in, my lord," he said as he opened the door.
The Count got in without any further hesitation; and the exempts then addressed the driver who was sitting motionless on his box.
"Come down, scamp," he said in a tone of authority; "I require the use of this coach for an affair of state. Give up your place to one of my men. Wideawake," he added, turning to a tall impudent looking fellow standing by his side, "get up on the box in that man's place – let us be off."
The driver did not attempt to resist this peremptory order; he descended and his place was immediately taken by Wideawake; the exempt then entered the carriage, seated himself facing his prisoner, closed the door, and the steeds, aroused by a vigorous, lash, dashed forward dragging after them the heavy vehicle round which the twenty odd soldiers were collected.
For a considerable period the coach rolled along without a word being exchanged between the prisoner and his guard.
The Count was thinking, the exempt sleeping, or, to speak more correctly, pretending to sleep.
In the month of March the nights are beginning to shorten; daylight soon appeared, and broad white stripes were beginning to cross the sky.
The Count, who up to this moment had remained motionless, gave a slight start.
"Are you suffering, my lord?" the exempt inquired. This question was addressed to him with an intonation so different from that hitherto employed by the man who had made him prisoner; there was in the sound of his voice an accent so really gentle and sympathizing, that the Count involuntarily started, and took a fixed look at his singular companion: but so far as he could see by the faint light of coming dawn, the man in front of him still had the same crafty face and the same ironical smile stereotyped on his lips. The Count found himself in error, and throwing himself back, merely uttered one word, "No," in a tone intended to break off any attempt at conversation between his guardian and himself.
But the former was probably in a humour for talking, for he would not be checked; and pretending not to remark the manner in which his advances had been received, he continued —
"The nights are still chill, the breeze enters this coach on all sides, and I feared lest the cold had struck you."
"I am habituated to suffer heat and cold," the Count answered; "besides, it is probable that if I have not yet made my apprenticeship, I am about to undergo one which will accustom me to endure everything without complaining."
"Who knows, my lord?" the exempt said, with a shake of the head.
"What?" the other objected, "Am I not condemned to a lengthened captivity in a fortress?"
"Yes, according to the terms of the order, which it is my duty to carry out."
There was a momentary silence. The Count gazed absently at the country which the first beams of day were beginning to illumine. At length he turned to the exempt.
"May I ask whither you are taking me?" he said.
"I see no objection to your doing so."
"And you will answer my question?"
"Why not? There is nothing to prevent it."
"Then we are going?"
"To the isles of St. Marguerite, my lord."
The Count trembled inwardly. The islands of Lerins, or Sainte Marguerite, enjoyed at that time, even, a reputation almost as terrible as the one they acquired at a later date, when they served as a prison to the mysterious iron mask, whom it was forbidden to take even a glance at under penalty of death.
The exempt looked at him fixedly without speaking.
It was the Count who again resumed the conversation.
"Where are we now?" he asked.
The exempt bent out of the window, and then resumed his seat.
"We are just arriving at Corbeil, where we shall change horses."
"Ah!" said the Count.
"If you wish to rest, I can give orders for an hour's stay. Perhaps you feel a want of some refreshment?"
This singular man was gradually acquiring in the Count's eyes all the interest of an enigma.
"Very good," he said.
Without replying the exempt let down the window.
"Wideawake!" he shouted.
"What is the matter?" the latter asked.
"Pull up at the Golden Lion."
"All right."
Ten minutes later the coach halted in the Rue St. Spire, in front of a door over which creaked a sign representing an enormous gilt cat, with one of its paws on a ball. They had arrived.
The exempt got out, followed by the Count, and both entered the inn: one portion of the escort remained in the saddle in the street, while the others dismounted and installed themselves in the common room.
The Count had mechanically followed the exempt, and on reaching the room, seated himself in a chair by the fire, in a first floor decently furnished room. He was too busy with his own thoughts to attach any great attention to what was going on around him.
When the landlord had left them alone, the exempt bolted the door inside, and then placed himself in front of his prisoner.
"Now," he said, "let us speak frankly, my lord."
The