"I can guess what it is," brave Jean interrupted. "You desire me, do you not, to seek one Ambroise Paré, who may be able to save your poor squire? I fly to do it; and that he may be the better cared for, I will have him taken at once to our house, if it can be done without endangering his life." Pierre Peuquoy, in a sort of stupefaction, listened to Gabriel and his cousin, and looked from one to the other, as if he was dreaming. "Come, Pierre," said Jean, "you will help me in this. Oh! of course you are astonished, and do not understand; but I will explain everything to you as we go along, and I shall have no difficulty in making you see the matter as I now do; and then you will be the very first one--for I know you well--to wish to repair the wrong which you have unwittingly committed." Thereupon, after saluting Diane and Gabriel, Jean left the room with Pierre, who had already begun to ask questions. When Madame de Castro was left alone with Gabriel, she fell on her knees in the first impulse of pious gratitude, and raising her eyes and her hands toward heaven and to him who had been the instrument of her salvation,-- "I thank Thee, O God!" said she; "thrice over I thank Thee, for having saved me, and for having saved me by his hand!" CHAPTER XXII LOVE REQUITED Then Diane threw herself into Gabriel's arms,--"And you, too, Gabriel," said she, "you, too, I must thank and bless. With my last conscious thought, I invoked my guardian angel, and you came to me. Thanks! oh, thanks!" "Oh, Diane," he replied, "how I have suffered, and what a weary time it has been since I saw you last!" "And I too have suffered, and have found the waiting weary," she cried. They then began--at too great length to be dramatic, it must be confessed--to tell what each had endured and felt during their unhappy separation. Calais, the Duc de Guise, vanquished and victors,--all were forgotten. All the strife and all the deadly passion which was rife about the two lovers did not reach them. Lost in their world of love and ecstasy, they no longer saw or heard the sights or sounds of the sad world around them. When one has undergone so much grief and terror, the heart is enfeebled and softened to a certain extent by suffering, and though brave to overcome disaster, can no longer resist happiness. In this balmy atmosphere of chaste emotion, Diane and Gabriel gave themselves up without restraint to the sweet influences of peace and joy, to which they had so long been strangers. To the scene of insane passion which we have described succeeded another similar, and yet widely different at the same time. "How good it seems to be with you, my friend," said Diane. "Instead of the presence of that impious wretch whom I hated so, and whose love made me shudder, what ecstasy to have you near me, so reassuring, and so precious!"