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And a cloud settled on his brow, to the surprise of his peers, who seldom saw him evince the slightest token of regret for the necessary consequences of an adopted resolution. "Hold but an instant," said the Lord Crawford, "it may be better than your Grace conjectures. Hear but what this cavalier has to say. Speak out, man, and a murrain to thee," he added, apart to Le Balafre.
And that the disappearance of "Le Balafre" had been accepted by his unknown chief as evidence of his success in removing me, I did not doubt. Therefore I breathed more freely ... and more freely still when my body was recovered! Yes, my body was recovered from Hanover Hole; I read of it a very short paragraph, but it is the short paragraphs that matter in my morning paper.
What had aroused the suspicions "Le Balafre," I knew not; but I was inclined to think that he had been looking from some window or peep-hole in the narrow street with the wooden houses when I had, injudiciously, followed him there. On the other hand, the leakage might be in Paris or in my correspondence system. The man of the scar might have been looking for me as I was looking for him.
"Mille tonnerres du ciel! But he is a Huguenot, a Rochelais!" "Yes, but he is a son of Henri le Balafré. His mother was Rochelaise, I think. He was a spy for Navarre and captured at Ivry. They were going to hang him when Mayenne, worse luck, recognized him for a nephew. Since then he has been spying for them. Because Mayenne promised him Mlle. de Montluc in marriage."
Not precisely needing money himself at that moment, it had not occurred to Balafre that his nephew might be in exigencies; otherwise, he held a near kinsman so much a part of himself, that he would have provided for the weal of the living nephew, as he endeavoured to do for that of his deceased sister and her husband.
"It is well," he said; "such are the words a brave should use, that the warriors may see his heart. The day has been when the voice of Le Balafre was loudest among the lodges of the Konzas. But the root of a white hair is wisdom. My child will show the Tetons that he is brave, by striking their enemies. Men of the Dahcotahs, this is my son!"
The extreme democratic party, which had hitherto supported the House of Lorraine and had seemed to idolize that family in the person of the great Balafre, now believed themselves possessed of sufficient power to control the Duke of Mayenne and all his adherents.
"It is Ludovic Lesly, Sire, whom we call Le Balafré," replied the old soldier. "But is he noble?" said the Duke. "Is he of gentle blood? Otherwise our promise is void." "I will warrant him a branch of the tree of Rother, as noble as any house in France or Burgundy," said Crawford.
The head of the League was Henri, Duc de Guise the second, "Balafre," who had won that title in fighting against the German reiters the year before, when they entered France under Condo.
When Henri III. caused the death of the second Balafre, whose life was a menace to him, the house of Guise was necessarily ruined.
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