"At last! He is not here now!" said the king, breathing deeply, as if relieved of a heavy burden. "Sire," said Madame de Poitiers, "be calm, and try to regain your self-command. You came very near betraying yourself before that man." "That is no man, Madame," said the king, as one dreaming; "that is my ever-living remorse: it is my reproachful conscience." "Well, Sire," said Diane, who was herself again, "you have done very well to accede to this Gabriel's request, and to send him where he is now going; for I am very much mistaken, or your remorse will soon die before St. Quentin, and you will then be rid of your conscience." The Cardinal de Lorraine returned at this moment with the letter he had been writing to his brother, and the king had no time to reply. Meanwhile Gabriel, leaving the king with a light heart, had only one thought and one wish in the world: it was to see once more, with hope beating high in his breast, her whom he had left with death in his soul; to say to Diane de Castro all that he hoped from the future, and to draw from her loved glances the courage of which he should stand so much in need. He knew that she had gone into a convent; but into what convent? It might be that her women had not gone with her; and he turned his steps in the direction of her former apartment at the Louvre, to question Jacinthe. Jacinthe was with her mistress; but Denise, the second waiting-maid, had stayed behind; and it was she who received Gabriel. "Ah, Monsieur d'Exmès!" she cried. "You are such a welcome visitor; for it may perhaps be that you have come to give me some news of my dear mistress." "On the contrary, Denise, I have come to learn of her from you," said Gabriel. "Ah, Holy Virgin! I know nothing at all, and I am terribly frightened about her." "But why so anxious, Denise?" asked Gabriel, who began to be anxious himself. "Why!" replied the maid; "why, you must know where Madame de Castro is now! "Indeed, no! I know nothing about it, Denise; and it is just what I hoped to learn from you." "Holy Virgin! and didn't you know, Monseigneur, that she asked leave of the king to enter a convent a month ago?" "I know that; and then?" "And then! Ah, that is the terrible part of it. For do you know what convent she chose? That of the Benedictines, of which her old friend, Sister Monique, is superior, at St. Quentin, Monseigneur,--at St. Quentin, at this very moment besieged and perhaps taken by these English and Spanish heathens. She had not been there a fortnight, Monseigneur, when the siege began." "Oh," cried Gabriel, "the hand of God is in all this! He awakens the son in me to new life, by arousing the lover anew, and thus doubles my courage and my strength. Thanks, Denise. This for your good news," he added, placing a purse in her hand. "Pray to Heaven for your mistress and for me." In hot haste he went down once more into the courtyard of the Louvre, where Martin-Guerre was awaiting him.