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Updated: May 23, 2025
"Come with me, Peyrolles," and the prince and his henchman quitted the apartment. The hunchback muttered to himself: "The sword of Lagardere has yet a duty to perform before it be broken." Then he turned to Cocardasse and Passepoil where they stood apart: "Well, friends, do you remember me?" Cocardasse answered him, thoughtfully: "'Tis a long time since we met, Æsop."
"I'd do anything in the world to oblige you, but " He paused and looked helplessly at his former pupil, whom his faltering speech, his hesitating manner began to anger. "But what?" said Lagardere, sharply. Cocardasse made an apologetic gesture. "Every man to his trade. We also are waiting for some one." Lagardere raised his eyebrows. "Indeed, and that some one?"
"The moat of Caylus," Lagardere answered. He pointed to the window at which Æsop had been sitting so long. "You can see it from that window." There was a general look of astonishment on the faces of all the bravos. Passepoil, quick with his Norman caution, glanced at Staupitz and the group about him, and put his finger cautiously to his lips. Cocardasse was still inquisitive.
Lagardere looked at them mockingly. "Doesn't it strike you that Æsop will soon be alone?" Cocardasse shuddered. "It's no laughing matter." Lagardere still continued to smile. "Vengeance sometimes wears a sprightly face and smiles while she strikes." Passepoil was now a sickly green. "A very painful humor," he stammered.
Æsop was the first of the bravos to recover his troubled senses and to seek to retaliate upon his assailant. He whipped his long rapier from its sheath, and was making for the intruder when Cocardasse flung his strong arms around the hunchback and restrained him. "Be easy," he cried; "it is the little Parisian!"
As Cocardasse spoke these words, Peyrolles, now thoroughly alarmed and irritated, gave Cocardasse a glance that ought to have withered him, but Cocardasse was not withered, and smiled banteringly at his employer. "Fellow," Peyrolles said, "you are inquisitive."
So the young man mused swiftly, while Cocardasse told his tale; but ere Cocardasse had finished, Lagardere was back in the tavern again, and, when Cocardasse had finished, Lagardere caught him up: "Why not? Some actors are as honest as bandits. I was no bad mummer, sirs. I could counterfeit any one of you now so that your mother wouldn't know the cheat.
Then he turned and hurriedly left the gardens, his breast swelled with exultation. When he was out of sight, the hunchback whistled softly, and Cocardasse and Passepoil came out of the shadow of the trees. The lights were now rapidly dying out, and the gardens lay in darkness checkered by the moonlight. Lagardere turned to his friends. "She is in Gonzague's palace. We must rescue her at once."
"That is all right," he said, and placed the still wet writing on the table in front of Staupitz. Peyrolles made as if to move towards the door, but again Passepoil, who was watching intently the face of Cocardasse, read a meaning there, and, pouncing upon Peyrolles, persuaded him firmly back into the seat he had quitted. "That is not all," said Cocardasse to the astonished and angry valet.
Cocardasse and Passepoil looked horrified at the hunchback's impertinence, but Lagardere did not seem to be vexed, and answered, quite amiably: "So did I till lately." Then he said, addressing himself generally to the company: "Have any of you ever heard of the thrust of Nevers?" A tremor of excitement ran through his audience. Cocardasse took up the talk: "We spoke of it but now."
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