"You argue well, Monsieur de Blenau," answered the Governor, thoughtfully; "and your reasoning would be convincing, if it extended to all the circumstances of the case. But you do not know one half;--you do not know, that Chavigni, from whose eyes nothing seems hidden, knew of this girl's coming, and sent me an order to detain her, which that sottish fool the Porter never gave me till she had escaped--How am I to get over that, pray?" "Then, positively, she has escaped?" demanded De Blenau. "Yes, yes, she has escaped!" replied the Governor pettishly: "you seem to consider nothing but her; but, let me tell you, Monsieur de Blenau, that you are fully as much concerned as I am, for if they discover that she has got in, you will have a touch of the _peine forte et dure_, to make you confess who she is, and what she came for." "Truly, I know not what can be done," answered the Count. "Chavigni seems to know all about it." "No, no! he does not know all," replied the Governor; "for he says here, in his note, that if a young lady dressed in a _jupe_ of red serge, with a black bodice, comes to the gate of the prison, asking any thing concerning the Count de Blenau, we are to detain her: now she never mentioned your name, and, God knows, I heeded not what she was dressed in." "Then the matter is very simple," replied the Count; "no such person as he bade you detain, has been here. This is no matter of honour between man and man, where you are bound to speak your suspicions as well as your knowledge. No person has come to the gate of the prison asking any thing concerning me; and so answer Chavigni." "But the Porter, Monsieur de Blenau," said the officer, anxiously,--"he may peach. All the other dependents on the prison are my own, placed by me, and would turn out were I to lose my office; but this porter was named by the Cardinal himself.--What is to be done with him?" "Oh! fear not him," answered De Blenau; "as his negligence was the cause of your not receiving the order in time to render it effectual, your silence will be a favour to him." "True! true!" cried the Governor, rubbing his hands with all the rapture of a man suddenly relieved from a mortal embarrassment: "True! true! I'll go and bully him directly--I'll threaten to inform the Cardinal, and Chavigni, and the whole Council; and then--when he begins to fancy that he feels the very rope round his neck--I'll relent, and be charitable, and agree to conceal his mistake, and to swear that the lady never came.--How will Chavigni know? She will never confess it herself, and at that hour it was too dark for any one to watch her up to the gates.--_Morbleu!_ that will do precisely." "I see little or no danger attending upon it," said the prisoner; "and, at all events, it is a great deal better than conveying your neck into the noose, which you would certainly do by confessing to Richelieu the circumstances as they have occurred."