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Updated: June 9, 2025
Frankness was my best friend in dealing with Castelroux frankness and his distaste for the business they had charged him with. As for Marsac and Lesperon, they were both eager enough to have the mystery explained, and when Castelroux having consented I invited them to my chamber, they came readily enough.
"Let that be for the present, Mironsac," I laughed. "You are here, and you can thwart all Chatellerault's designs by witnessing to my identity before the Keeper of the Seals." And then of a sudden a doubt closed like a cold hand upon my brain. I turned to Castelroux. "Mon Dieu!" I cried. "What if they were to deny me a fresh trial?" "Deny it you!" he laughed.
The habits of a lifetime are not so easy to abandon even when Necessity raises her compelling voice. I was in the act of settling my score with the landlord when of a sudden there were quick steps in the passage, the clank of a rapier against the wall, and a voice the voice of Castelroux calling excitedly "Bardelys! Monsieur de Bardelys!" "What brings you here?"
One group in a remote corner suddenly riveted my attention to such a degree that I remained deaf to the voice of Castelroux, who had just entered, and who stood now beside me. In the centre of this group was the Comte de Chatellerault himself, a thick-set, sombre figure, dressed with that funereal magnificence he affected. But it was not the sight of him that filled me with amazement.
Myself, having resumed my garments, I disposed myself to repair at once to the Hotel de l'Epee, there to seek Roxalanne, that I might set her fears and sorrows at rest, and that I might at last make my confession. As we stepped out into the street, where the dusk was now thickening, I turned to Castelroux to inquire how Saint-Eustache came into Chatellerault's company.
The populace passed on, then seemed to halt, and at last the shouts died down on the noontide air. I went back to my writing, and to wait until from my jailer, when next he should chance to appear, I might learn the meaning of that uproar. An hour perhaps went by, and I had made some progress with my memoir, when my door was opened and the cheery voice of Castelroux greeted me from the threshold.
I will go to the Keeper of the Seals again, monsieur, and I will beg him to be merciful, and at least to delay the sentence." I did not discourage her; I did not speak of the futility of such a step. But I begged her to remain in Toulouse until Monday, that she might visit me again before the end, if the end were to become inevitable. Then Castelroux came to reconduct her, and we parted.
Castelroux sought yet to persuade me to visit the Count, but I held firmly to my resolve. "I am leaving Toulouse to-day," I announced. "Whither do you go?" "To hell, or to Beaugency I scarce know which, nor does it matter." He looked at me in surprise, but, being a man of breeding, asked no questions upon matters that he accounted secret. "But the King?" he ventured presently.
My wager must be paid before I again repaired to her, for all that it should leave me poor indeed. In the mean while, I prayed God that she might not hear of it ere I returned to tell her. For that most amiable of Gascon cadets, Monsieur de Castelroux, I have naught but the highest praise.
I would have spoken to the Vicomte ere he departed, but I was too deeply chagrined and humiliated by my defeat. So much so that I had no room in my thoughts even for the very natural conjecture of what Lavedan must be thinking of me. I repented me then of my rashness in coming to Lavedan without having seen the King as Castelroux had counselled me.
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