"I said, madame, that without having seen your face, I know who you are, and without fear of making a mistake, may say that I love you."
"Then you are sure that I am her whom you expected to find here?"
"Really! you, a provincial, only just-arrived, you already know the women of Paris?"
"By your voice, your grace, and your beauty."
"My voice, perhaps; I cannot disguise it. My grace; I may appropriate the compliment; but as for my beauty, it is veiled."
"It was less so, madame, on the day when, to bring you into Paris, I held you so near to me that your breast touched my shoulders, and I felt your breath on my neck."
"Then, on the receipt of my letter, you guessed that it came from me?"
"Oh! no, madame, not for a moment; I believed I was the subject of some joke, or the victim of some error, and it is only during the last few minutes that, seeing you, touching you--" and he tried to take her hand, but she withdrew it.
"Enough!" said the lady; "the fact is, that I have committed a great folly."
"In what? You say that you know me, and then ask."
"Oh! it is true, madame, that I am very insignificant and obscure near your highness."
"Mon Dieu! monsieur, pray be silent. Have you no sense?"
"What have I done?" cried Ernanton, frightened.
"You see me in a mask, and if I wear one, it is for disguise, and yet you call me your highness."
"Ah, pardon me, madame," said Ernanton, "but I believed in the discretion of these walls."
"And you are convinced that I reciprocate this love?"
"I believe that you have something important to say to me, and that, not wishing to receive me at your hotel, or at Bel-Esbat, you preferred this isolated spot."
"And what do you think I could have to say to you?" asked the lady, rather anxiously.
"How can I tell? Perhaps something about M. de Mayenne."
"Had you not already told me all you knew of him?"
"Perhaps, then, some question about last night's event."
"What event? of what do you speak?" asked the lady, visibly agitated.
"Of the panic experienced by M. d'Epernon and the arrest of the Lorraine gentlemen."
"Yes, those who were found on the road to Vincennes."
"Which is also the road to Soissons, where M. de Guise holds his garrison. Ah! M. Ernanton, you, who belong to the court, can tell me why they arrested these gentlemen."