We shook hands.  I followed his directions; we met no one; I opened the door; the guard, as soon as I uttered the password, led me, through a mass of carriages, to where one stood back under some overhanging trees.  The footman hurried to open the door.  I gave my hand to Estella; she sprang in; I followed her.  But this little movement of instinctive courtesy on my part toward a woman had been noticed by one of the many spies hanging around.  He thought it strange that one man should offer his hand to assist another into a carriage.  He whispered his suspicions to a comrade.  We had hardly gone two blocks from the palace when Maximilian leaned down and said:  “I fear we are followed.”

Our carriage turned into another street, and then into another.  I looked out and could see—­for the streets were very bright with the magnetic light—­that, some distance behind us, came two carriages close together, while at a greater distance, behind them, I caught sight of a third vehicle.  Maximilian leaned down again and said: 

“We are certainly pursued by two carriages.  The third one I recognize as our own—­the man with the bombs.  We will drive to the first of the houses we have secured.  Be ready to spring out the moment we stop, and follow me quickly into the house, for all depends on the rapidity of our movements.”

In a little while the carriage suddenly stopped.  I took Estella’s hand.  She needed no help.  Maximilian was ascending the steps of a house, key in hand.  We followed.  I looked back.  One of our pursuers was a block away; the other a little behind him.  The carriage with the bombs I could not see—­it might be obscured by the trees, or it might have lost us in the fierce speed with which we had traveled.

“Quick,” said Maximilian, pulling us in and locking the door.

We followed him, running through a long, lighted hall, out into a garden; a gate flew open; we rushed across the street and sprang into another carriage; Maximilian leaped to his place; crack went the whip, and away we flew; but on the instant the quick eyes of my friend saw, rapidly whirling around the next corner, one of the carriages that had been pursuing us.

“They suspected our trick,” said he.  “Where, in heaven’s name, is the man with the bombs?” he added, anxiously.

Our horses were swift, but still that shadow clung to us; the streets were still and deserted, for it was after midnight; but they were as bright as if the full moon shone in an unclouded sky.

“Ah! there he comes, at last,” said Maximilian, with a sigh of relief.  “I feared we might meet another carriage of the police, and this fellow behind us would call it to his help, and our case would be desperate, as they would know our trick.  We should have to fight for it.  Now observe what takes place.”

Estella, kneeling on the cushions, looked out through the glass window in the back of the carriage; I leaned far out at the side.