But he found himself
surrounded and pressed upon by forty or fifty gentlemen whom it would
be dangerous to wound. Several among them, especially those of the
highest rank, answered him with jests as they dragged him along the
cloisters.
With the rapidity of lightning the abductor carried the countess into
an open chapel and seated her behind the confessional on a wooden
bench. By the light of the tapers burning before the saint to whom the
chapel was dedicated, they looked at each other for a moment in
silence, clasping hands, and amazed at their own audacity. The
countess had not the cruel courage to reproach the young man for the
boldness to which they owed this perilous and only instant of
happiness.
"Will you fly with me into the adjoining States?" said the young man,
eagerly. "Two English horses are awaiting us close by, able to do
thirty leagues at a stretch."
"Ah!" she cried, softly, "in what corner of the world could you hide a
daughter of King Louis XI.?"
"True," replied the young man, silenced by a difficulty he had not
foreseen.
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