"If your Majesty does
not--"
But he cut me short. "Answer me!" he said harshly, his mouth
working in his beard and his eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Have you not deceived me?"
"No, sire!" I said.
"Yet you have told me day by day that Madame de Conde remained in
Brussels?"
"Certainly!"
"And you still say so?"
"Most certainly!" I answered firmly, beginning to think that his
passion had turned his brain. "I had despatches to that effect
this morning."
"Of what date?"
"Three days gone. The courier travelled night and day."
"They may be true, and still she may be here to-day?" he said,
staring at me.
"Impossible, sire!"
"But, man, I have just seen her!" he cried impatiently.
"Madame de Conde?"
"Yes, Madame de Conde, or I am a madman!" Henry answered,
speaking a little more moderately. "I saw her gallop out of the
patch of rocks at the end of the Dormoir--where the trees begin.
She did not heed the line of the hounds, but turned straight down
the boxwood ride; and, after that, led as I followed.
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