“Yes, you ought to blush for your forgetfulness when the man you love is at such a dangerous pass.” “What do you mean?” cried Gabrielle, searching her memory vainly for some clue. “What have I forgotten?” “Why, the passage that leads from the chapel crypt to the old burial ground and out to the woods beyond. Were the Duke’s soldiers swarming in thousands round the house, that way would still be clear for every man and woman inside to pass out in safety.” “My wits must have been dull indeed not to think of it,” cried Gabrielle, as excited now as Lucette. “You have saved us all, Lucette. We must tell them at once. That it should have been left for you to remind me of it!” “I have been in it: you have only heard of it; and it’s easy to remember what one’s actually seen. I’ll go for them,” and she was hurrying out when Gerard and Pascal came. Gerard held the permit taken from Dauban, and greeted Lucette with a smile and many thanks for what she had done. “This will clear the way for us, Gabrielle,” he said then. “We can get out of the city, and I have decided to go at once if you are willing to run the risk.” “Ah, but Lucette has done more than bring that, Gerard. She has reminded me of what, to my shame, I had forgotten,” and she told him of the underground passage. “We can wait now in confidence for the coming of the Duke and use that permit in the last resort.” “We are never to be out of your debt, it seems, Lucette,” said Gerard. “Shall I go and see that the way is clear?” asked Pascal. “Perhaps Mademoiselle Lucette will show me?” “How quick and ready-witted she is,” said Gerard, when the two had left. “And how dull I am not to have thought of it,” replied Gabrielle. “I feel almost humiliated. Lucette hit me harder than she deemed with her words.” “She has a sharp tongue. What said she?” Gabrielle’s colour heightened and she smiled. “That with you in such peril my wits should have been specially sharp; yet that very peril dulled them.” “There is no such peril. I have no doubt as to the end. See, we have first the chance that the Governor may not discover our presence here until it is too late for him to force us to yield before my cousin gets up from Cambrai. Next, we have means of resistance for some hour or two at worst. Then we have the means to get from Malincourt should he drive us out. Then again, we have this permit to pass the city gates. And besides, we have yet to see that he will dare to resist me when he knows that I am here in Bourbon’s name. I have no fears of the issue; my distress is that you have had to endure so much.” “But don’t you know we women like such trials, Gerard, even if our hearts are not so stout to face them as yours? It is for you I fear--yet not fear; I have too much confidence in you. Besides, there is always a last resource.” “We are very far from any last resource,” he answered cheerily. “But what is the one you have in mind?”