"With all my heart, mademoiselle! Think no more of it, I pray you." And then, to change the subject, I pointed to a grove of trees in front of us. "There, mademoiselle, is where we halt for an hour or so. What say you to a race there?" "Are you not afraid of that?" "I will risk it," I said. And, with a laugh, she touched her Norman with the whip, and I kept Lizette pounding after her, until she pulled up, flushed and hot, near the trees, beside which the Mable purled past. "Beaten again," she said as I came up. "It is my fate." And, pulling up, I pointed to the river. "Do you remember this river, mademoiselle?" "The Mable!" And she shuddered. "But surely it was not here that we crossed on that awful night?" "No; some miles lower down." And then I helped her to dismount, and attended to the horses, whilst she borrowed my sword, and tying her 'kerchief to the point signalled to our men to come on. There are days when all that happens is trivial, yet the memory of which is ever to be marked in white; and this was such an one to me. I let myself forget the impossible during that brief two hours' halt; nor ever had I known Diane so gracious. We spoke much of Paris. She had never seen the great city nor the Court, and I told her what I knew, though my knowledge of the Louvre was a little old. As a child she had seen the Queen once--on the day of the Lists of Amboise--and wondered whether she were altered. "She is much the same. Time has dealt gently with her." "Is it true that in secret she is of our--I mean my faith?" "It is said that she favours the new religion, but I know not if this is true. It is certain, however, that she has never joined in the persecution, and 'tis said that both D'Andelot and Marot owed their escape to her." "And you, monsieur--are you too of the faith?" "Mademoiselle, I think, if the truth be told, that men who, like myself, have lived much in the world do not bind themselves in their hearts to this faith or to that, whatever they profess with their lips." "But, monsieur----" "Listen, mademoiselle. This does not mean that we do not know how infinite is the distance between us and God nor how hard the road is to His throne." "There is the path of faith, monsieur." "That is the path we search for, sometimes unconsciously; and perhaps, with God's aid, I may find it ere I die." Then there was a silence, and after that the talk drifted to other things. And I but mention this conversation because it was due to it and it alone that I was set upon the track that led to the True Road.