Read "The Cardinal's Musketeer" by Mary Imlay Taylor online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
MORE than an hour had passed in this tedious watch; the stillness without was scarcely greater than the stillness within. Mademoiselle and her woman remained in their quarters, and the soldiers waited indifferently for the outcome. From his post by the front door, Péron again and again looked out at the grille and tried to search the darkness with his anxious eyes, but without result; he was becoming more and more convinced that Mademoiselle de Nancay had in some manner defeated the cardinal's plans. But his labor was not to be as fruitless as he supposed, and Renée was, in one point, to meet with less success than usual. Just when the situation seemed least promising, Péron heard Choin coming on tiptoe toward him. The hall was lighted dimly by a rushlight sitting on the floor, and he could not see the face of the maître d'armes well enough to discern his expression. The Italian came close to him before speaking.
"There is some one in the garden," he whispered; "I heard the sound of a horse's hoofs on the road, and now I hear the brush crackling by the wall on the east side."