Clementina

The door was left ajar behind them, and Wogan in the hall saw

Chateaudoux speak with the sentinel, saw the sentinel run hurriedly to

Clementina, saw Clementina disappear into the snow. Chateaudoux ran back

into the hall.

"And you!" he asked, as he barred and locked the door. "The magistrate

is coming. I saw the lights of the guard across the avenue."

Clementina was outside in the storm; Wogan was within the house, and the

lights of the guard were already near.

"I go by the way I came," said he; "I have time;" and he ran quickly up

the stairs. In the room he found the Princess-mother weeping silently,

and again, as he saw this weak elderly woman left alone to her fears and

forebodings, remorse took hold on him.

"Courage, madam," said he, as he crossed the room; "she goes to wed a

king."

"Sir, I am her mother," replied the Princess, gaining at this moment a

suitable dignity from her tears. "I was wondering not of the King, but

of the man the King conceals."

"You need not, madam," said Wogan, who had no time for eulogies upon his

master. "Take his servant's loyalty as the measure of his merits."

He looked out of the window and suddenly drew back. He stood for a

moment with a look of great fear upon his face. For the sentinel was

back at his post; Wogan dared not at this moment risk a struggle, and

perhaps an outcry. Clementina was waiting under the avenue of trees;

Wogan was within the house, and the lights of the guard were already

flaring in the roadway. Even as Wogan stood in the embrasure of the

window, he heard a heavy knocking on the door.