There was an
unsettled look, however, in her eyes, a slowly-heightening color
in her cheeks, which showed her to be at least vaguely aware that
something unusual had been taking place in the corridor.
Lomaque beckoned to Trudaine to leave her, and whispered to him:
"The prescription has worked well. You are safe for to-day. Break
the news to your sister as gently as you can. Danville--" He
stopped and listened till he satisfied himself, by the sound of
the deputy-jailer's footsteps, that the man was lounging toward
the further end of the corridor. "Danville," he resumed, "after
having mixed with the people outside the grate yesterday, and
having heard your names read, was arrested in the evening by
secret order from Robespierre, and sent to the Temple. What
charge will be laid to him, or when he will be brought to trial,
it is impossible to say. I only know that he is arrested. Hush!
don't talk now; my friend outside is coming back. Keep
quiet--hope everything from the chances and changes of public
affairs; and comfort yourself with the thought that you are both
safe for to-day."
"And to-morrow?" whispered Trudaine.
"Don't think of to-morrow," returned Lomaque, turning away
hurriedly to the door "Let to-morrow take care of itself."
PART THIRD.
CHAPTER 1.
On a spring morning, in the year seventeen hundred and
ninety-eight, the public conveyance then running between
Chalons-sur-Marne and Paris sat down one of its outside
passengers at the first post-station beyond Meaux.
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