Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 356: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

338 A PLEASANT JOURNEY. The movement of Monsieur de Charny did not escape Belle-Rose. ‘‘Monsieur,’’ he said to him, in a firm tone, ‘‘I swear to you thatI will kill you like a dog, not only at the first cry, but at the first gesture.’’ ‘‘And if Belle-Rose should happen to miss you, I will not miss you,’’ added Cornelius. Monsieur de Charny did not mistake the accent of the two cavaliers; he slunk back in a corner like a boar and did not budge any more. The relay was reached which had been prepared in advance at Franconville. The foam- ing horses were unharnessed; Déroute and Grippard leaped quickly into the saddle and replaced Belle-Rose and Cornelius at the doors of the carriage. They also ex- changed horses with them. They kept on as far as St. Denis, where they relayed again, and the carriage con- tinued its route to Paris. At the end of five hundred steps, Belle-Rose saluted Monsieur de Charny with his hand. ‘‘Your company has served us as an escort,’’ he said to him; ‘‘we owe our liberty to you, I leave you your life in exchange, and we are quits. Let us endeavor now to avoid meeting again.’’ During this little discourse Déroute and Grippard had cut the traces and forced the postilions to come down off their horses. Belle-Rose and his friends rode rapidly away. When Monsieur de Charny reached the Porte St. Denis no one had seen anything. The four cavaliers had fied like phantoms. Asa quarter of a league from Paris, Belle-Rose had brusquely turned to the right and regained St. Denis by cuts across the country. At daybreak the four fugitives reached Chantilly, where they asked for Monsieur de Pomereux. That young gentleman was break- - fasting gayly, all booted and spurred; he received Belle- Rose with open arms. ‘‘Parbleu!’’ he exclaimed, ‘‘I was expecting you. I didn’t know how you would do it, but I was almost sure that you would arrive.’’ When he was told how they had succeeded in leaving the abbey, Monsieur de Pomereux laughed with all his heart. ‘‘T¢ is unfortunate,’’ he added, ‘‘that he has not defended himself, for you would have had an excuse to kill him.’’ The death of Monsieur de Charny was decidedly the fixed idea of Monsieur de Pomereux. Chantilly was in- cumbered with gentlemen who were joining, in quality of volunteers, the household of the Prince de Condé, 5} (oy) Hi & (E(0)