I will tell you afterwards." Etienne and Gabrielle knelt down at the prie-dieu, and the nurse recited her rosary.
"O God!" prayed the girl, with a fervor which carried her beyond terrestrial space, "if we have not sinned against thy divine commandments, if we have not offended the Church, not yet the king, we, who are one and the same being, in whom love shines with the light that thou hast given to the pearl of the sea, be merciful unto us, and let us not be parted either in this world or in that which is to come." "Mother!" added Etienne, "who art in heaven, obtain from the Virgin that if we cannot--Gabrielle and I--be happy here below we may at least die together, and without suffering.

Call us, and we will go to thee." Then, having recited their evening prayers, Gabrielle related her interview with Baron d'Artagnon.
"Gabrielle," said the young man, gathering strength from his despair, "I shall know how to resist my father." He kissed her on the forehead, but not again upon the lips.

Then he returned to the castle, resolved to face the terrible man who had weighed so fearfully on his life.

He did not know that Gabrielle's house would be surrounded and guarded by soldiers the moment that he quitted it.
The next day he was struck down with grief when, on going to see her, he found her a prisoner.

But Gabrielle sent her nurse to tell him she would die sooner than be false to him; and, moreover, that she knew a way to deceive the guards, and would soon take refuge in the cardinal's library, where no one would suspect her presence, though she did not as yet know when she could accomplish it.