United States or Trinidad and Tobago ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Monsieur, he was arrested and driven to the Bastille to-night between seven and eight. Lucas Paul de Lorraine went to the governor and swore that M. Étienne killed the lackey Pontou in the house in the Rue Coupejarrets. It was Lucas killed him Lucas told Mayenne so. Mlle. de Montluc heard him, too. And here is mademoiselle." At the word she came out of the shadow and slowly over the threshold.
At first Monsieur did not tell even him, he desired to keep this visit to the king so secret. But this morning he took Vigo into his confidence, and nothing would serve the man but to go. He watches over Monsieur like a hen over a chick." "Then it will be three to three," I said. I thought of Gervais, Yeux-gris, and Pontou, for of course I would take no part in it.
It did not take you till three o'clock to be put out of the inn." "No," Lucas answered; "I spoke to you of the varlet Pontou with whom Grammont had quarrelled. He had shut him up in a closet of the house in the Rue Coupejarrets. After the fight in the court we all went our ways, forgetting him. So I paid the house a visit; I was afraid some one else might find him and he might tell tales."
Some one the gendarmes, I fancy, when they took away Pontou had put a heavy padlock on the door Lucas and Grammont left swinging. "We go in by your postern, Félix," my master said. "M. Lucas, I confess I prefer that you go first." Lucas put his back to the wall. "Why go farther, M. le Comte?" "Do you long for interruption'?" "We were not noticed coming in. The street was quiet."
I shall go to the duke! I can say who killed Pontou. I know much besides to tell the king. I was Mayenne's cousin, but if he would save his secrets he must give up M. de Mar. Mother of God! I have been his obedient child; I have let him do so with me as he would. I sent my lover away. I consented to the Spanish marriage. But to this I will not submit. He shall not torture and kill Étienne de Mar!"
But while my lord thundered at me, word came that M. de Mar was taken. My lord swore he should die. He swore no man ever set him at naught and lived to boast of it." "Will " She swept on unheeding: "He said he should be tried for the murder of Pontou he should be tortured to make him confess it."
He felt an instant's terror, I deem, lest Mayenne had betrayed him. Quick as he was, he did not see that he had been taken for another man. "You, monsieur. You are wanted for the murder of your man, Pontou." He grew white, looking instinctively at me, remembering where I had been at three o'clock this morning. "It is a lie! He left my service a month back and I have never seen him since."
I owe him no allegiance. Moreover, he nearly killed me this morning. Therefore I am quite at your disposal." "Now, I wonder if you are lying," said Gervais. "I do not think he is lying," Yeux-gris said. "I trow, Gervais, we have got our messenger." "You tell me to beware of Pontou because he hates me, and then would have me trust this fellow?" Gervais demanded with some acumen.
You will pay me for my hurt by yielding me Félix." Gervais looked at me. While we had worked side by side over Yeux-gris he seemed to have forgotten that he was my enemy. But now all the old suspicion and dislike came into his face again. However, he answered: "Aye, you would have been the victor had it not been for Pontou. You shall do what you like with your boy. I promise you that."
But there was so strange a twist in Lucas's nature that he must sometimes thwart his own interests, value his caprice above his prosperity. Also, in this case his story was no triumphant one. But at length he did begin it: "I went to Belin to inform him that day before yesterday Étienne de Mar murdered his lackey, Pontou, in Mar's house in the Rue Coupejarrets." "Was that your errand?"
Word Of The Day