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Updated: June 14, 2025
A little crowd of idlers that had gathered was quickly augmenting now, and from some there came a cry of "Shame!" at Garnache's act of violence. This is no moment at which to pause to moralize. And yet, how often is it not so? How often does not public sympathy go out to the man who has been assaulted without thought of the extent to which that man may have provoked and goaded his assailant.
Garnache's face was gloomy and his eyes sad, for his thoughts were all of Valerie, and he was prey to a hundred anxieties regarding her. They gained the heights at last, and Rabecque got down to beat with his whip upon the convent gates. A lay-brother came to open, and in reply to Garnache's request that he might have a word with the Father Abbot, invited him to enter.
Garnache's purpose now was to reach Voiron, there to snatch a brief rest, and then, equipped anew to set out with his man for La Rochette and anticipate the fell plans of Marius and Fortunio.
Their sergeant sat a little apart, in conversation with the landlord's wife, eyes upturned adoringly, oblivious of the increasing scowl that gathered about her watchful husband's brow. At another table sat four gentlemen seemingly travellers, by their air and garb in a conversation that was hushed at Garnache's entrance.
He scented opposition, and the greatest stumbling-block in Garnache's career had been that he could never learn to brook opposition from any man. That characteristic, evinced early in life, had all but been the ruin of him. He was a man of high intellectual gifts, of military skill and great resource; out of consideration for which had he been chosen by Marie de Medicis to come upon this errand.
"I have asked you, monsieur," the stranger insisted, "to be a little more definite." Garnache's smile broadened and grew more friendly. "Frankly," said he, "I experience difficulty. My remark was vague. I meant it so to be." "But it offended me, monsieur," the other answered sharply. The Parisian raised his eyebrows, and pursed his lips. "Then I deplore it," said he.
"Does not mademoiselle herself agree with me?" She was about to speak; her glance had looked eager, her lips had parted. Then, of a sudden, the little colour faded from her cheeks again, and she seemed stricken with a silence. Garnache's eyes, directed in a sidelong glance to the Marquise's face, surprised there a frown that had prompted that sudden change.
Eager to do so, over-eager, Marius came forward, past his men-at-arms, until he was but some three paces from the girl and just out of reach of a sudden dart of Garnache's sword. Softly, very warily, Garnache slipped his right foot a little farther to the right. Suddenly he threw his weight upon it, so that he was clear of the girl.
"I am here, monsieur," answered him Garnache, throwing back his head, his nostrils quivering, "because you are not at Condillac." The tone was truculent to the point of defiance, for despite the firm resolve he had taken last night never again to let his temper overmaster him, already Garnache's self-control was slipping away. The Marquis noted the tone, and observed the man.
Then she issued her commands to the men, and fiercely she bade them pull down that barricade and take the dog alive. But before they could move to do her bidding, Garnache's voice rang imperatively through the chamber. "A word with you ere they begin, Monsieur de Tressan," he shouted, and such was the note of command he assumed that the men stood arrested, looking to the Dowager for fresh orders.
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