A spoken message, corroborated by my presence, should suffice: '_Bid the monk who is now with Mademoiselle_,' it will run, '_bring her to me at the Arsenal, and let four pikes guard them hither_.' When I begged M.de Biron to do this, he laughed.

'I can do better,' he said.

'They shall bring one of Count Hannibal's gloves, which he left on my table.

Always supposing my rascals have done him no harm, which God forbid, for I am answerable.'" Tignonville, delighted with the stratagem which the meeting with Biron had suggested, could see no flaw in it.

She could, and though she heard him to the end, no second glow of hope softened the lines of her features.