"Is it because you don't love me any more that you have given me up to my enemies ?" "Agostino ordered me, and I had to obey; besides, some other child could have played guide to the blind man as well as I, and then I could not have come into the chateau with you, do you see ?--here I may be able to do something to help you.

I am brave, active and strong, though I am so small, and quick as lightning too--and I shall not let anybody harm you." "Is this chateau very far from Paris ?" asked Isabelle, drawing Chiquita up on her lap.

"Did you hear any one mention the name of this place ?" "Yes, one of them called it--now what was it ?" said the child, looking up at the ceiling and absently scratching her head, as if to stimulate her memory.
"Try to remember it, my child!" said Isabelle, softly stroking Chiquita's brown cheeks, which flushed with delight at the unwonted caress--no one had ever petted the poor child in her life before.
"I think that it was Val-lom-breuse," said Chiquita at last, pronouncing the syllables separately and slowly, as if listening to an inward echo.
"Yes, Vallombreuse, I am sure of it now.

It is the name of the seignior that your Captain Fracasse wounded in a duel--he would have done much better if he had killed him outright--saved a great deal of trouble to himself and to you.

He is very wicked, that rich duke, though he does throw his gold about so freely by the handfuls--just like a man sowing grain.