It may be easily conceived, that every word I had just heard had interested me deeply, and Suzette might certainly have continued her history without agitating me more than my own thoughts did while she was absent. I counted every moment till her return; and when at length she reappeared, I eagerly besought her to proceed with her explanation, which she did at once, in a brief--even abrupt style, that led me to imagine that she was under the constant apprehension of interruption.

"As I had anticipated," she continued, "the Count de Mesnil was not long in following us into Brittany; and, having seen how easily the mind of Monsieur de Villardin was to be worked upon, Gaspard and myself determined, as we could not render the Duchess guilty, to render her husband jealous. Nor did we now seek to do so incompletely, by raising vague suspicions, but we proposed to give him such evidence of the conduct of Madame de Villardin, and of your connivance in the views of the Count de Mesnil, that we should rid ourselves of you for ever, place the Duke entirely in our power, and gain the highest place in the confidence of our lord.

"Monsieur de Mesnil was not at all unaware of the influence of the maid in such pursuits as that in which he was then engaged, and, on his first visit to the PrÉs VallÉe, he found an opportunity of holding a long conference with me, the result of which was no small increase of hope on his part, and considerable profits on mine. Although he was, it is true, one of those men who call themselves men of pleasure, and who make intrigue not only a business, but a toilsome one, in the present instance I found that he had been drawn beyond all cold calculations, and that he was certainly in love as deeply and passionately as any boy. He besought me, eagerly and anxiously, to obtain for him but a lock of my mistress's hair; and of course this was no very difficult undertaking. The lock was easily cut away unperceived, while I was superintending her toilet; and, having enclosed it in the locket which the Count had given me for the purpose, I took the liberty of adding thereto part of a broad blue riband which my mistress had bought just before we quitted Paris, trusting that the ingenuity of Gaspard and myself would easily find some means of bringing these objects under the notice of Monsieur de Villardin. The next thing was, if possible, to make you the bearer of the packet to Monsieur de Mesnil; and Gaspard caused one of the younger pages to give the locket itself, carefully wrapped in numerous envelopes, into your hands, begging you, the first time you passed in hunting near the chÂteau of the Count, to deliver it to his intendant. The outer paper was addressed to the intendant, the inner bore the superscription of Monsieur de Mesnil, written in a hand as nearly similar to that of the Duchess as I could make it. The boy who gave it to you was told, in case of after-inquiry on the part of Monsieur de Villardin, to say boldly that Gaspard gave it him; Gaspard was to put it upon me, and I was at once to avow, that I had received the packet from Madame de Villardin, each declaring our ignorance of the contents, but Gaspard vowing that he had heard the Duchess direct me to place it carefully in your hands, as you would know what to do with it. In addition to this, I was to excuse my not having given it to you myself, on the score of my dislike to you; and Gaspard was to make the same apology, adding, that he had seen too much of your cogging with Monsieur de Mesnil to have anything to do with the business. The next part of our plan was to have you so well watched, that we should obtain information of when you were likely to deliver the packet, which we well knew you would do boldly and without concealment; and then to excite the suspicions of the Duke, who, we doubted not, would instantly stop the packet and examine its contents.

"Such was the scheme we formed, adding thereto a thousand minor touches, in order to make every part tell against you and the Duchess; but the impatience of the Count de Mesnil ruined all. He returned to the PrÉs VallÉe the very day after you had received the commission, and, taking me off my guard, led me foolishly to acknowledge that I had obtained the lock of hair he sought. Under those circumstances, there was nothing farther to be done than to get the packet out of your hands, which was effected by means of the boy who had given it to you; and the Count--who on that occasion stayed three days at the chÂteau,--received it with both delight and gratitude, of which last affection I received golden proofs. On the very day of his departure, Gaspard discovered that the Duke was called to Rennes on business which would detain him in that city many hours; and, of course, through my intervention, this piece of news was communicated to Monsieur de Mesnil before he took his leave. He did not inform me what use he intended to make of these tidings, but I took good care to see that all doors were open, and the two younger pages out of the way. About half-an-hour after the Duke's departure for Rennes, I saw the Count approaching on foot; and, turning from the window to my embroidery, I left the rest to take its course.

"In less than ten minutes, the Duchess entered her chamber, with her cheek flushed and her eye flashing, and I easily discovered, from her whole appearance, that Monsieur de Mesnil had received a rebuff, for which I determined to console him by calling to his mind all that perseverance can do with woman. In this purpose, however, I was disappointed, for I never saw the Count again. I suspect," she added, gazing on me steadily, "that you could tell more in regard to that affair!--but no matter; I am making a confession, not receiving one.--Shortly after the disappearance of the Count de Mesnil, Monsieur de Villardin sent for me one evening, and directed me to obtain for him, without appearing to do so, a lock of his lady's hair; but conscience making me think he suspected what I had done, I cried, 'Lord, sir! it is impossible without her discovering me!' Nothing I could have said would have tended more to aggravate his suspicions in regard to his wife, and he bade me, sharply, do as he directed, whether she discovered me or not. His orders were obeyed without difficulty, and the same night I gave him a small portion of the Duchess's hair, which I assured him was all that I could obtain without being found out. He took it eagerly, and forgetting, in his jealous vehemence, that I was in the room, he drew forth a locket and a riband, which showed me plainly enough that he at least must have seen Monsieur de Mesnil since I had set eyes upon him. He caught me gazing at the locket as he compared the hair within it with that he held in his hand, and angrily bade me quit the room; but the discovery did no harm to our plans, for once having suffered his feelings to appear before me, he was less scrupulous afterwards in questioning me upon the subject. Gaspard was the agent by whom I was generally called to his presence, and while we left his suspicions against our lady in the same state as we found them, we endeavoured, as far as we could, to inculpate you, and to make him believe that you had been a confidant and a favourite of the Count de Mesnil. In this, however, we were always frustrated; and seeing that there were facts within his own knowledge which rendered our most artful insinuations in regard to you ineffectual, we were, of course, obliged to proceed carefully.

"After our change of residence, however, and the fresh degree of favour you acquired at Dumont, we determined upon laying some new scheme for your destruction. Madame de Villardin, I thought, had been punished enough, and I began almost to be sorry that I had done as I had done; for I believe a woman is never altogether without compassion for the sorrows of a woman, unless she be jealous of her. I saw peace and a certain degree of happiness restored between the Duke and his wife after the arrival of Father Ferdinand, with more satisfaction than I had imagined I could have done a month before; but Gaspard felt differently, and was continually urging me to proceed with our former plans, and still endeavour to rouse the suspicions of the Duke against you in regard to the Count de Mesnil, asking whether I could not place some of the riband which had been attached to the locket in your apartments, and suggesting many another scheme of the kind. I resisted, however, till at length one unfortunate evening we were seen together, walking after dark in the park, with my arm clasped in his, and his arm round my waist. The next day, the Duchess again spoke to me in even more severe terms than before, and told me that I must prepare to leave her service at the expiration of a month. My resolution was now taken. I soothed, flattered, lamented, expressed my contrition, and promised a different conduct; but still she adhered to her determination, though, at the same time, she assured me that she would take care to place me well in Paris. Affecting to forget all her severity, I the next day engaged her in the examination of her wardrobe, and taking care to fix her attention particularly on that fatal blue riband, which had been curtailed by my hands in order to attach a part of it to the locket, I made a sudden pretext to leave her, ran to Monsieur de Villardin, and told him that I felt it my duty to acknowledge that I had just seen in the hands of my lady a part of the very same riband which I had once beheld in his own, fixed to a locket that seemed to give him great uneasiness. He scarcely heard half that I said, but, flying to his wife's dressing-room, gave way to a fit of passion which was fearful even to me. The result you well know, and probably are better acquainted with many of the particulars than I am. All I will say on that score," she added, somewhat sternly, "is, that it was a strange thing a bridge which had borne horses three or four days before, should give way under the weight of two people on foot.--Do you think, young gentleman, that the weight of Monsieur de Villardin's suspicions, and of the Duchess's sorrows, was sufficient to break it down?--However, if you had any hand in that deed too, my confession may make you feel some part of the remorse that I have felt since."

"In regard to the matter you speak of," I replied, "I know no more than you do. It was extraordinary that the bridge should break; but yet such circumstances have happened before, and will again, without any one being able to tell why the structure that was firm at one moment should give way the next."

She shook her head, doubtingly, and then went on:--"I have now told you all that matters much for you to hear, and you must promise me to repeat the whole to Monsieur de Villardin, word for word, as far as you can recollect it."

"I do not well see," I replied, "what object is to be gained by doing so. The Duchess is dead; his suspicions were unjust; and I see no reason why I should wring his heart by recalling events to his memory, of which time itself has scarcely been able to soften the remembrance."

"If you do not tell him," she cried, vehemently, "you shall not return to him for years. But stay," she added, perhaps recollecting that I was not easily moved by threats, "have you so little the feelings of honour, so small a portion of chivalrous spirit, as not to think it worth while to clear the reputation of an injured lady, even though she be dead?"

"I should certainly think it worth while," I replied, "did her reputation require any defence, even to her husband: but such is not the case; and at this moment, Monsieur de Villardin is as completely convinced of his wife's innocence as you have ever been."

"Indeed!" she replied--"indeed!" and gazing on my countenance for a moment or two, with a look in which surprise was mingled in some degree with disappointment, she repeated more than once the word, "indeed!" The instant after, she added, however, "Still you must tell him what I have said, for the mind of a suspicious man can never have too conclusive an evidence to remove his doubts; and if there be one point left uncleared, suspicion will hang round it still, and haunt him to his very last day."

I knew what she said to be true; but her eagerness in the business, joined with the traits of art and deceit which she had just before acknowledged, made me also suspicious of her motives; and as I did not wish, without cause, to be the instrument of inflicting deep pain on Monsieur de Villardin, I resolved not to undertake the commission, till she had explained the anxiety she manifested to induce me to do so. "If you will tell me," I replied, "what are your real motives, and why you cannot make this confession by letter as well as by my intervention, I will undertake what you desire, should I find your explanation satisfy mc; but I will undertake it on no other terms; and should you wish to communicate farther with Monsieur de Villardin, you must do so in writing."

"My heart is better than you think it, young gentleman," she answered, somewhat bitterly; "but I forgive your doubts, for my conduct was evil enough when you knew me, and I fear is not over good even now. However, my motives for desiring you to bear this confession to Monsieur de Villardin, and for not trusting it to a common letter, are easily explained. You can choose the moment and the manner of making the communication, and I do not seek to pain, any more than necessary, one I have already pained too much. In the next place, my letter might never reach him; for though I seem to command all here, in some things I am watched as closely as a prisoner. The letter, too, might, and probably would, fall into the hands of one, who would inflict upon me a bitter enough punishment for the crime of having written it--and therefore it is that I choose this means rather than another. As to why I make the confession at all, if you still need other motives, I can give you many; but you are too fatigued to hear them."

I assured her that such was not the case, and begged her, if she were really sincere, to assign the true causes for her conduct, in which case I promised to do exactly as she would have me.

"Well, then," she said, "you must hear out my story, and it shall not be a long one. When I was dismissed from Dumont in disgrace, I retired to the little neighbouring town of St. Etienne, whence I wrote immediately to Gaspard de Belleville, who came to see me that night, and desired me to remain tranquilly where I was, as, beyond doubt, Monsieur de Villardin would soon obtain for him a commission, which he had long been of an age to hold. From him I learned that the information which had first caused my disgrace with my mistress, and had afterwards ruined me with the Duke, had not been given by you, as we had suspected, but by Jerome, the old major-domo. I found, however, that Gaspard had luckily escaped his lord's indignation; and, as a consequence of all this, I remained at St. Etienne in some degree of concealment, it is true, but in great tranquillity regarding the result, as I saw that no separation was likely to take place between myself and Gaspard, which could diminish his passion, or thwart my schemes respecting him. Suddenly, however, about four days after my dismissal, Gaspard himself appeared on horseback, and in a hurried manner informed me that he was about to set off instantly for Bordeaux, bearing letters from Monsieur de Villardin to the Duc de Bouillon, in whose regiment he was immediately to have a commission. He offered, at the same time, to take me with him, if I would consent, and to endeavour to obtain his father's permission to marry me, after we had arrived at Guienne. Hitherto, I had always wisely avoided putting myself in any degree in his power, but now the fear of seeing all my plans overturned by his removal from my influence, joined to his entreaties and persuasions, induced me weakly to consent, and that very night we set out together for Bordeaux. Monsieur de Villardin had liberally supplied my lover with the money necessary both to perform the journey to Bordeaux, and to meet all the first expenses of two years' service in the regiment of Monsieur de Bouillon, without trusting at all to his pay. I myself also had accumulated no small sum during the five or six years I had remained with the Duchess; so that, on our arrival, we found ourselves enabled to live, not only in comfort, but in profusion. Splendour, dress, and admiration became my passion; but the arrival of Monsieur de Villardin and yourself, about a month afterwards, soon obliged me to seek retirement once more. Although I felt the necessity, for the sake of Gaspard's interests, of concealing my connexion with him from his former lord, yet my meeting with you in the streets of Bordeaux was not displeasing to me, as I felt a degree of amusement in fancying that I had dazzled you with the splendour of my appearance. As soon as the gates of the city were opened, after the conclusion of the siege, Gaspard, who was left behind by Monsieur de Bouillon, to make a great number of arrangements which the Duke himself had not time to complete, received intelligence of his father's death, and I instantly pressed him to perform his promise, and legitimate our union by marriage. Gaspard, however, by this time, had acquired new ideas from his commune with the world, and he evaded my request in such a manner as to leave very little doubt upon my mind in regard to his determination of breaking his promise. This opened my eyes to my weakness, and a fit of illness followed, which, though but of short duration, yet had the good effect of making me think very bitterly of many things that I had done. A good priest of the city took advantage of my state of mind to direct my repentance aright, and made me promise, ere he would grant me absolution, that on the very first opportunity I would clear the character of Madame de Villardin in the eyes of her husband. I forgot this promise, it is true, in after-events, but I remember it now, and seek to fulfil it. In the meantime, Gaspard became alarmed at my situation, and all his former tenderness returned; but still, I am sure that he would have evaded the fulfilment of his promise, had not a circumstance fortunately occurred to change my situation in regard to him.

"After your departure from Bordeaux it became no longer necessary for me to use any concealment, and my loup was very generally laid aside. Thus it happened that I was walking with Gaspard, without any covering to my face, one day shortly after my recovery, when to my surprise, upon the bank of the river I was suddenly met by my brother, whom I had not seen for several years, nor heard of at all since I returned to Brittany. I was recognised by him instantly, notwithstanding my fine apparel; though, to say the truth, the splendour of his own appearance had almost made me doubt his identity. He embraced me tenderly; and the questions he asked concerning myself and Madame de Villardin, as well as the brief account he gave of his late adventure at sea, and of his having been driven by stress of weather into the Gironde, where he had little expected to find me, soon disclosed our relationship to Gaspard, who had often heard me tell tales of my brother's fierceness and prowess, which did not render the rencontre very palatable to him. It was even, I confess, somewhat terrific to myself; and when my brother asked who that gentleman was on whose arm I was leaning, and boldly concluded that it was my husband, I thought I should have fainted. Our silence and our confusion soon made him aware of our relative situation; and, the moment that he became so, he touched the hilt of his sword slightly with the forefinger of his right hand, saying, in a tone that was not to be mistaken,' Be so good as to follow me, sir; that lady will be able to find her way home by herself; nor shall I have any difficulty in discovering her abode, after I have done with you.' Gaspard looked down and hesitated, although his honour as a soldier was concerned; and my brother was beginning to speak more loudly, and in a tone which might have called general attention upon us, when my lover replied, 'Have but a moment's patience, sir, and I think I can give you such an explanation of this business as will prove satisfactory to you.' He then bade me return home, whispering that no harm would happen, and left me, while he walked on with my brother towards the Chartreux.

"I returned immediately to our lodgings, where I remained in very great anxiety for nearly two hours; but, at the end of that time my lover and my brother returned, accompanied by a priest, who asked me a number of questions in regard to my own and Gaspard's freedom from all ties; and at length being satisfied, accompanied us to a neighbouring church, and pronounced the nuptial benediction.

"What might have been the consequences had we remained unmarried, I cannot tell; but, since the ceremony, a rapid, though gradual, decrease of all sorts of kindness has taken place on the part of my husband. Rude and brutal usage is now all that I receive from him; and, though Heaven knows he is in no degree jealous, yet I one day said a few words, which have made him, during the whole of the last campaign, drag me about with him from place to place; and never till the last affair at Virmont, has he suffered me to be out of his sight for a day together. The fact is, that, wearied with his ill usage, and seeing that patience and forbearance did nothing to remove it, I determined to try if I could not influence his fears, and took a solemn vow in his presence, that, if he did not change his conduct, I would reveal all I knew to Monsieur de Villardin, of whom he still stands in great dread. The threat had the effect for some time; but, not being able to conquer his morose and vindictive temper, he soon relapsed into greater unkindness than ever; and, to prevent me putting in execution what I menaced, he will not suffer any of the servants even to deliver to the couriers a letter, the contents of which he has not seen. Ever since he has kept me in his sight, treating me with cruelty and rudeness on all occasions; and even when, by order of the Prince de CondÉ, every sort of encumbrance was sent away from the army at Montargis and ChÂteau Renard, he gave me in charge to a party from his company, with strict orders not to suffer me to pause, or quit the direct road, till I reached this place, which is the dwelling he inherited from his father. He it was who prompted me first to retaliate upon others any pain that was inflicted upon myself; and, though I certainly should not accuse him, did not other motives combine to make me reveal all to Monsieur de Villardin, yet in doing so I but make him reap the fruits of that which he himself has taught.

"You have now three motives assigned you in explanation of my conduct:--in the first place, my promise to the priest at Bordeaux; in the next place, the sincere desire of clearing every shadow away from the character of a virtuous lady, whom I wronged and traduced; and, in the third place, my determination to punish a man who ill treats me, and whom," she added, with set teeth and a flashing eye, "and whom I hate from the bottom of my heart. I have another motive," she proceeded, after giving way to this burst of passion--"I have another motive, too, but it I will not tell to any one. This, however, I solemnly declare, as I hope for salvation, that very motive involves more than any other thing the desire of truly serving Monsieur de Villardin, and of doing that for which he himself hereafter may bless me. Now are you satisfied?"

"I am," I replied, "and will certainly undertake the task, if ever I recover; but, to put the matter beyond all doubt in the mind of Monsieur de Villardin, to-morrow you must give me a note to him, under your own hand, desiring him to believe fully all that I shall tell him in regard to your conduct towards Madame de Villardin."

"Not to-morrow!" she said, "not to-morrow! This very night, or it will be too late. I will write it in a moment:" and she left me abruptly to execute what she proposed.