"Stay," said the viscountess, taking from her breast a portrait which she handed to Canolles; "take this portrait, and at every pang that this unhappy affair causes you, look at it, and say to yourself that you suffer for her whose image is before you, and that every such pang is paid for in regret." "Is that all?" "In esteem." "Is that all?" "In sympathy." "Ah! madame, one word more!" cried Canolles. "Why should it cost you so dear to make me altogether happy?" Claire stepped quickly toward him, put out her hand, and opened her mouth to add:-- "In love." But simultaneously with her mouth, the door was thrown open and the pseudo-captain of the guards appeared upon the threshold, accompanied by Pompée. "I will finish at Jaulnay," said the viscountess. "Your sentence, or your thought?" "Both; one always expresses the other." "Madame," said the captain of the guards, "your Highness's carriage is waiting." "Feign astonishment," said Claire, in an undertone. "Where does your Highness propose to go?" he asked, with a smile of pity for his own plight. "I am going away." "But does your Highness forget that I am instructed by her Majesty not to leave you for an instant?" "Monsieur, your mission is at an end." "What does this mean?" "That I am not her Highness, Madame la Princesse de Condé, but Madame la Vicomtesse de Cambes, her first maid of honor. Madame la Princesse left Chantilly last evening, and I go to join her." Canolles did not stir. It was plainly most distasteful to him to continue to play this comedy before an audience of lackeys. Madame de Cambes, to encourage him, bestowed one of her sweetest glances upon him; that glance restored his courage in some measure. "So the king has been deceived," he said. "And where is Monsieur le Duc d'Enghien?" "I have given orders that Pierrot return to his flower-beds," said a grave voice at the door. It was the voice of the princess dowager, who was standing near the door, supported by two of her tire-women. "Return to Paris, to Mantes, to the court, in a word, wherever it may be; your mission here is at an end. You will say to the king that the persecuted have resorted to stratagem, which renders fruitless the use of force. You are at liberty, however, to remain at Chantilly, to stand guard over me, who have not left, and shall not leave the château, because such is not my design. With this, Monsieur le Baron, I take my leave of you." Canolles, red with shame, could hardly summon strength to bend his head, as he glanced at the viscountess, and murmured reproachfully:-- "O, madame! madame!" She understood the glance and heard the words.