"No, Monjoy; I repeat to you that I never saw the Count until the day subsequent to Minden, and I did not know him even then, or until yesterday, when we stood together in the presence of Maréchal Broglie." "_Parbleu!_ 'tis most singular!" "What?" "How all this hostility on his part came to pass." "I shall tell you, and the narrative may serve to shorten our journey." I then related to him the whole story of my adventures in Brittany; my love for Jacqueline, and how strangely we were thrown together in that sequestered château; her abduction, and her supposed death. He seemed much struck by the recital, and when I concluded he sighed and said-- "I, too, have not been fortunate in the field of Cupid, and could tell you a story, not so stirring as yours certainly, but nevertheless full of most mournful interest to me." "Ah! I now remember the miniature of that beautiful girl concerning whom Boisguiller rallied and warned you." "Boisguiller is thoughtless," replied the young Frenchman, "but good-hearted and brave; yet he is not the kind of man to understand the depth of a passion such as mine--a passion all the deeper because its object is lost for ever!" "Dead?" "Worse, monsieur, she is married to another, and this little locket is all I possess to remind me of many happy, happy days that can never come again. I shall be equally confiding with you, monsieur, and will relate how I came to suffer so deeply." After a little pause, he began thus. "My aunt is Prioress of the Convent of Les Dames de Notre Dame de Charité, in the Rue St. Jacques, at Paris, where they occupy the ancient house of the Nuns of the Visitation. Her devotees observe the general vows of the four monastic orders, and occupy themselves with the education of young ladies of good family, who are boarded in the convent to acquire accomplishments. "When a mere youth attending school, I used frequently to visit my aunt, and spent all my holidays at her convent in the Rue St. Jacques, and thus among the boarders I first saw Isabelle du Platel, who was placed there for her education. She was just past girlhood; her family were old Normans, and hence that exquisite fairness of complexion and golden-tinted hair which you remarked in her miniature. "We were always playmates and companions in the convent garden; but after a time this was interdicted by my aunt the Prioress, who, foreseeing what might happen, wisely exiled me from the convent, and would only consent to receive me in the parlour, and then on stated days and certain occasions.