One evening, a soldier entered my room, whom in the half-darkness
I did not recognize, till a voice said, "There's orders new! Not
dungeon now, but this room Governor bespeaks for gentlemen from
France."

"And where am I to go, Gabord?"

"Where you will have fighting," he answered.

"With whom?"

"Yourself, aho!" A queer smile crossed his lips, and was followed
by a sort of sternness. There was something graver in his manner
than I had ever seen. I could not guess his meaning. At last he
added, pulling roughly at his mustache, "And when that's done, if
not well done, to answer to Gabord the soldier; for, God take my
soul without bed-going, but I will call you to account! That
Seigneur's home is no place for you."

"You speak in riddles," said I. Then all at once the matter burst
upon me. "The Governor quarters me at the Seigneur Duvarney's?"
I asked.

"No other," answered he. "In three days to go."

I understood him now. He had had a struggle, knowing of the
relations between Alixe and myself, to avoid telling the Governor
all. And now, if I involved her, used her to effect my escape from
her father's house! Even his peasant brain saw my difficulty, the
danger to my honour--and hers. In spite of the joy I felt at being