"Not one step, Sir!" cried he. "Monsieur de Chavigni, you have strangely forgot yourself. How is it you presume, Sir, to interrupt my conversation with any one? And let me ask, what affair it is of yours, if a lady chose to give me five minutes of her company even here! You have slackened your gallantry not a little." "But was the Cardinal's garden a place fitted for such love stories?" demanded Chavigni, feeling, at the same time, very sure that the conversation he had interrupted had not been of love; for in those days politics and faction divided the heart of a Frenchwoman with gallantry, and, instead of quarrelling for the empire of her breast, these apparently opposite passions went hand in hand together; and exempt from the more serious dangers incurred by the other sex in similar enterprises, women were often the most active agents and zealous partisans in the factions and conspiracies of the times. It had been Chavigni's determination, on accompanying De Blenau to the Palais Cardinal, not to lose sight of his companion for a moment, in order that no communication might take place between him and any of the Queen's party till such time as the Cardinal had personally interrogated him concerning the correspondence which they supposed that Anne of Austria carried on with her brother, Philip of Spain. Chavigni, however, had been stopped, as we have seen, by the Cardinal himself, and detained for some time in conversation, the principal object of which was, the Count de Blenau himself, and the means of either persuading him by favour, or of driving him by fear, not only to abandon, but to betray the party he had espoused. The Cardinal thought ambition would do all; Chavigni said that it would not move De Blenau; and thus the discussion was considerably prolonged. As soon as Chavigni could liberate himself, he had hastened after the Count, and found him as we have described. To have ascertained who was his companion, Chavigni would have risked his life; but now that she had escaped him, the matter was past recall; and willing again to throw De Blenau off his guard, he made some excuses for his intrusion, saying he had thought that the lady was not unknown to him. "Well, well, let it drop," replied De Blenau, fully more desirous of avoiding farther inquiries than Chavigni was of relinquishing them. "But the next time you come across me on such an occasion, beware of your heart's blood, Monsieur de Chavigni." And thus saying, he thrust back his sword into the scabbard. Chavigni, however, was resolved not to lose sight of him again, and passing his arm through that of the Count, "You are still too hot, Monsieur de Blenau," said he; "but nevertheless let us be friends again." "As far as we ever were friends, Sir," replied De Blenau. "The open difference of our principles in every respect, must always prevent our greatly assimilating."