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Once it occurred to me to take the jewels to the Cardinal and buy my pardon with them; again, to use them as a trap to capture Cocheforet; again, to and then, about five in the morning, as I sat up on my wretched pallet, while the first light stole slowly in through the cobwebbed, hay-stuffed lattice, there came to me the real plan, the plan of plans, on which I acted.
'Yes, I am Captain Larolle, he retorted. 'But who, in the fiend's name, are you? You are not the man we are after! 'I am not M. Cocheforet, I said coolly. 'I am merely a guest in the house, M. le Capitaine.
For if the man took them to the place, and they succeeded in seizing Cocheforet, there was an end of the matter as far as I was concerned. It was off my shoulders, and I might leave the village when I pleased; nor was it likely since he would have his man, though not through me that the Cardinal would refuse to grant me an amnesty.
M. de Cocheforet muttered a sneer at so many precautions and the mountain made of his request; but I had not done so much and come so far, I had not faced scorn and insults to be cheated of my prize at last; and aware that until we were beyond Auch there must be hourly and pressing danger of a rescue, I was determined that he who should wrest my prisoner from me should pay dearly for it.
But, speaking for myself, I would have spent half the blood in my body to purchase the feeling with which I turned back to speak to M. de Cocheforet and his sister. Mademoiselle had dismounted, and with her face averted and her mask pushed on one side, was openly weeping.
He still lay against the bank in a half-swooning condition, and seemed unconscious of my scrutiny. 'Should I know him if he unmasked? I said suddenly, a new idea in my head. 'You would, M. de Cocheforet answered. 'And? 'It would be bad for everyone. 'Ho! ho! I replied softly, looking hard first at my old prisoner, and then at my new one. 'Then what do you wish me to do?
Was it Madame who meant to come with us, or Mademoiselle? And how far? To Auch? I suppose that they had set some kind of a watch on me, for as I walked up M. de Cocheforet and his sister came out of the house; he with a pale face and bright eyes, and a twitching visible in his cheek though he still affected a jaunty bearing; she wearing a black mask.
I will give you one more chance though it is a desperate one. Woe to you if you fail me! Do you know Cocheforet in Bearn? It is not far from Auch. 'No, your Eminence. 'Nor M. de Cocheforet? 'No, your Eminence. 'So much the better, he replied. 'But you have heard of him.
Against these and their placid beauty in its peaceful frame I had no shield, no defence. I turned away, and feigned to be overcome by gratitude. 'I have no words to thank you! I muttered presently. 'I am a little shaken this morning. I pardon me. 'We will leave you for a while, Mademoiselle de Cocheforet said in gentle pitying tones. 'The air will revive you.
One, the man who captured me; the other, the man who let my friend go free to-day. 'It surprised you that I let him go? That was prudence, M. de Cocheforet, I replied. 'I am an old gambler. I know when the stakes are too high for me. The man who caught a lion in his wolf-pit had no great catch. 'No, that is true, he answered smiling, 'And yet I find two men in your skin.
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