Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France. Stanley John Weyman

my breath coming quickly.

      "That I loved," she answered boldly, raising her clear eyes to mine. "And therefore that I was not ashamed to beg, even on my knees. Nor ashamed to be with my lover, even in prison."

      I fell on my knees, and caught her hand before the last word passed her lips. For the moment I forgot King and Cardinal, prison and the future, all--all except that this woman, so pure and so beautiful, so far above me in all things, loved me. For the moment, I say. Then I remembered myself. I stood up and thrust her from me, in a sudden revulsion of feeling. "You do not know me," I said. "You do not know me. You do not know what I have done."

      "That is what I do know," she answered, looking at me with a wondrous smile.

      "Ah, but you do not," I cried. "And besides, there is this--this between us." And I picked up the Cardinal's letter. It had fallen on the floor.

      She turned a shade paler. Then she said, "Open it! Open it! It is not sealed, nor closed."

      I obeyed mechanically, dreading what I might see. Even when I had it open I looked at the finely scrawled characters with eyes askance. But at last I made it out. It ran thus:--

      "The King's pleasure is, that M. de Berault, having mixed himself up with affairs of state, retire forthwith to the manor of Cocheforêt, and confine himself within its limits, until the King's pleasure be further known.

      "Richelieu."

      On the next day we were married. The same evening we left Paris, and I retraced, in her company, the road which I had twice traversed alone and in heaviness.

      A fortnight later we were at Cocheforêt, in the brown woods under the southern mountains; and the great Cardinal, once more triumphant over his enemies, saw, with cold, smiling eyes, the world pass through his chamber. The flood-tide, which then set in, lasted thirteen years; in brief, until his death. For the world had learned its lesson, and was not to be deceived a second time. To this hour they call that day, which saw me stand for all his friends, "The day of Dupes."

THE END

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COUNT HANNIBAL

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SORORI

       SUÂ CAUSSÂ CARAE

       PIO ERGA MATREM AMORE

       ETIAM CARIORI

       HOC FRATER

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I.	CRIMSON FAVOURS.
II.	HANNIBAL DE SAULX, COMTE DE TAVANNES.
III.	THE HOUSE NEXT THE GOLDEN MAID.
IV.	THE EVE OF THE FEAST.
V.	A ROUGH WOOING.
VI.	"WHO TOUCHES TAVANNES?"
VII.	IN THE AMPHITHEATRE.
VIII.	TWO HENS AND AN EGG.
IX.	UNSTABLE.
X.	MADAME ST. LO.
XI.	A BARGAIN.
XII.	IN THE HALL OF THE LOUVRE.
XIII.	DIPLOMACY.
XIV.	TOO SHORT A SPOON.
XV.	THE BROTHER OF ST. MAGLOIRE.
XVI.	AT CLOSE QUARTERS.
XVII.	THE DUEL.
XVIII.	ANDROMEDA, PERSEUS BEING ABSENT.
XIX.	IN THE ORLÉANNAIS.
XX.	ON THE CASTLE HILL.
XXI.	SHE WOULD, AND WOULD NOT.
XXII.	PLAYING WITH FIRE.
XXIII.	A MIND, AND NOT A MIND.
XXIV.	AT THE KING'S INN.
XXV.	THE COMPANY OF THE BLEEDING HEART.
XXVI.	TEMPER.
XXVII.	THE BLACK TOWN.
XXVIII.	IN THE LITTLE CHAPTER HOUSE.
XXIX.	THE ESCAPE.
XXX.	SACRILEGE!
XXXI.	THE FLIGHT FROM ANGERS.
XXXII.	THE ORDEAL BY STEEL.
XXXIII.	THE AMBUSH.
XXXIV.	"WHICH WILL YOU, MADAME?"
XXXV.	AGAINST THE WALL.
XXXVI.	HIS KINGDOM.

COUNT HANNIBAL.

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CHAPTER I.

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