“’I shall now leave you to think over the matter.  I shall not pester you with my attentions, and for another month you will not see me again.  At the end of that time, I trust that you will have seen the futility of condemning yourself to further captivity, and will be disposed to make more allowance, than at present, for the step to which my passion for yourself has driven me.’

“It was just a month since she had been carried off, and, the very day when you rescued her, the old woman had informed her that the vicomte would do himself the pleasure of calling upon her the next day.  For the first fortnight she had held up bravely, in the hope that I should discover the place where she had been hidden.  Then she began to feel the imprisonment and silence telling upon her, for the old woman only entered to bring in her meals, and never opened her lips, except on the first occasion, when she told her that she was strictly forbidden to converse with her.  After that she began to despair, and the news that her abductor would visit her, the next day, decided her to make an attempt to escape.  She had no difficulty in letting herself down from the window by the aid of her bedclothes, but she found that what had been said respecting the wall and gate was true, and that she was no nearer escape than she had been, before she had left her room.  She was trying, in vain, to unbar the gate, which, indeed, would have been useless could she have accomplished it, as it was also locked.  But she was striving, with the energy of desperation, when the door of the house opened, and the men rushed out and seized her.  As they dragged her back to the house, she uttered the cries that brought you to her assistance.  The rest you know.

“As soon as I heard her story, I went to the palace and asked for a private interview with the king.  The king received me graciously enough, and asked, with an appearance of great interest, if I had obtained any news of my daughter.

“’I have more than obtained news, Your Majesty.  I have my daughter back again, and I have come to demand justice at your hands.’

“‘I congratulate you, indeed, Baron,’ the king said, with an appearance of warmth, but I saw his colour change, and was convinced that he knew something, at least, of the matter.

“‘And where has the damsel been hiding herself?’ he went on.

“‘She has not been hiding herself, at all, Sire,’ I said.  ’She has been abducted, by one of Your Majesty’s courtiers, with the intention of forcing her into a marriage.  His name, Sire, is the Vicomte de Tulle, and I demand that justice shall be done me, and that he shall receive the punishment due to so gross an outrage.’

“The king was silent for a minute, and then said: 

“’He has, indeed, if you have been rightly informed, acted most grossly.  Still, it is evident that he repented the step that he took, and so suffered her to return to you.’