"Perfectly, my lord," replied D'Aubin, signing the paper with a smile. "I merely thought that, by delaying the marriage till the following morning, I and you, and your noble sister of Montpensier, might, perhaps, have more time to reason her out of her prejudices; but, as you say, it will after all be better tomorrow night, for the only danger of interruption on my journey lies in the neighbourhood of Paris, and it will be better to take our departure under cover of the darkness. As for the rest, let us but show this fair lady that it is inevitable, and I will engage that she shall soon make up her mind to it. For this purpose, my lord, let me beseech you to furnish me with a billet to her, under your own hand, telling her what we have determined, couched in what courteous terms you will, but sufficiently explicit to let her know that there is no chance of evasion." "Perhaps you are right," said Mayenne, "perhaps you are right; but nevertheless, D'Aubin, try all gentle means. You are not one, as far as ever I have heard, to fail in persuasion, when you choose to use your eloquence against a woman's heart." D'Aubin smiled, but replied, "Nevertheless, my lord, it goes somewhat against the grain to flatter, and to soothe, and to beseech, when one is treated with scorn, and has, at the same time, the right to command; but still, fear not; I will do my best; and, if ever woman was won with fair words and soft entreaties, Eugenie de Menancourt shall come willingly to the altar; but, to give those entreaties greater force, it will be necessary to show her, by your handwriting, that it is not from want of power that I use the gentler before the harsher means." Mayenne took up the pen, but mused for many minutes ere he put it to the paper, and even then wrote no less than three billets before he could satisfy himself in a species of composition to which he was not accustomed. At length, abandoning all formal excuses, he contented himself with simply announcing to the unhappy Eugenie de Menancourt, that motives of importance to the state compelled him to require her without farther hesitation to fulfil her father's engagement to the Count d'Aubin; and that he had appointed the hour of nine on the succeeding evening for the celebration of her marriage. "There!" he said, as he handed the note to D'Aubin--"There, sir Count! Seldom has my hand so unwillingly traced a few lines as to-night. But I will send my sister Catherine early in the morning to soften the matter to the poor girl; and now, farewell! for I have matters of much import to attend to."