"Nay, nay," replied D'Aubin, "say not a word, dear lady. I know the whole as well as if I had been one of your triumvirate at the Jacobins the day before yesterday, all the means employed, the vision of the angel, and all----" "Either some one has betrayed me, or you deal in magic, D'Aubin!" cried the Duchess. D'Aubin smiled to see her consternation; for although, by combining the information he had received from St. Real with the hints that had been given him by the dwarf, and adding thereunto his own knowledge of the parties, he had been able to form a very correct guess at the truth--and although he knew the effect which vague hints of greater knowledge than one possesses, supported by one or two distinct facts, will produce upon a mind loaded with a heavy secret and apprehensive of discovery, yet he had hardly calculated upon so completely deceiving such a shrewd intriguer as Madame de Montpensier, in regard to the extent of his information. "No one has betrayed you," he replied; "nor do I deal in magic; but I have far greater means of knowing things that pass both in the city and in the camp than you suppose. What I have said just now I said but to tease you; and, indeed, fair lady, you deserve somewhat worse at my hands." "Wherefore, wherefore? How so?" demanded Madame de Montpensier; "how have I offended you, D'Aubin?" "Why, I do think," replied D'Aubin, "that considering all the old friendships which had existed between us, it should not have been you who attempted to mar my fortunes, and thwart my purposes. Did you not only last night propose to my cousin St. Real to bestow on him the hand of my promised bride?" "I did," replied Madame de Montpensier, boldly, recovering in a moment all her composure--"I did, and I will tell you why I did so, Philip d'Aubin. I saw, by your conversation of the day before, that you had irretrievably attached yourself to the party of the tyrant; and I consider the interests of our cause far before any private interests or friendships. I am resolved, and so I know also is Mayenne, that the hand of Mademoiselle de Menancourt shall never be given to any but a member of the union; and it was therefore that I offered her hand to your cousin, if he would bring his forces to our side." "Ah! but, lady," replied D'Aubin, "how could you venture on such an offer, when your own brother, the very morning before, had made the same to me, and left me a certain time to deliberate and act?" "Nay, of that I know nothing," replied Madame de Montpensier. "Had I been aware of that, of course I should have acted differently."