"
"Permit me to go with you. The guards may be set."
"Do so, my friend," Rochefoucauld answered. "Ah, Tignonville, is it
you?"
"I am come to attend you to your lodging," the young man said. And he
ranged up beside the other, as, the curtain fallen behind them, they
walked along the gallery.
Rochefoucauld stopped and laid his hand on Tignonville's sleeve.
"Thanks, dear lad," he said, "but I am going to the Princess Dowager's.
Afterwards to his Highness's. I may be detained an hour or more. You
will not like to wait so long."
M. de Tignonville's face fell ludicrously. "Well, no," he said. "I--I
don't think I could wait so long--to-night."
"Then come to-morrow night," Rochefoucauld answered, with good nature.
"With pleasure," the other cried heartily, his relief evident.
"Certainly. With pleasure." And, nodding good night, they parted.
While Rochefoucauld, with Nancay at his side and his gentlemen attending
him, passed along the echoing and now empty gallery, the younger man
bounded down the stairs to the great hall of the Caryatides, his face
radiant. He for one was not sleepy.
CHAPTER III. THE HOUSE NEXT THE GOLDEN MAID.
We have it on record that before the Comte de la Rochefoucauld left the
Louvre that night he received the strongest hints of the peril which
threatened him; and at least one written warning was handed to him by a
stranger in black, and by him in turn was communicated to the King of
Navarre.
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