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Updated: June 7, 2025
"Do you dream of taking the girl to give her to her mother?" The hunchback laughed a dry, strident laugh. "Would Æsop be a welcome son-in-law to the Princess de Gonzague?" Gonzague seemed to feel the force of the hunchback's reasoning. To marry the girl to this malformed assassin was to destroy her more utterly, she still living, than to destroy her by taking her life.
The Princess de Gonzague never passed the threshold of the door that led to the prince's apartments.
If Louis de Gonzague did not himself forget any of the events connected with a certain night in the moat of Caylus; if he kept emissaries employed in researches in Spain, emissaries whose numbers dwindled dismally and mysteriously enough in the course of those researches, he spoke of his recollections to no one, save perhaps occasionally to that distinguished individual, Monsieur Peyrolles, who shared his master's confidences as he shared his master's rise in fortunes.
Gonzague tried to speak, and failed; tried to speak again, and succeeded: "Your highness, I again declare that I gave the true Gabrielle de Nevers to her mother. I have the page torn from the register of the chapel of Caylus in this sealed packet." As he spoke he held out a small sealed packet, which he had drawn from his breast. The king turned to Lagardere. "What do you say to this?"
If the lost-and-found young lady were to die soon after her recovery the good Louis de Gonzague would inherit without further question. I fear my little gypsy is not promised a long life." Peyrolles smiled sourly. "Let me see your little gypsy." Æsop hesitated for a moment.
Gonzague almost reeled under the amazing impudence of the suggestion. "Gabrielle de Nevers! Madman!" He laughed as he spoke, but the hunchback interrupted his laugh. "Wait. You have to walk over two dead women to touch the wealth of Nevers. I offer to take one woman out of your way. Do not kill Gabrielle; give her to me." Gonzague stared for a while at the hunchback in silence.
Flora, seated near to Gonzague, and conquered by his domination and by the horror of the scene, covered her face with her hands and shuddered. "It's too horrible," she moaned. The hunchback nodded to her ironically. "You are severe," he said, dryly. Then he turned to Gonzague. "There is a friend of mine at the door," he said. "May I introduce him?"
When the cardinal died, and many gentlemen that served the Red Robe found themselves no longer in esteem, Gonzague passed at once into the circle of the king's most intimate friends.
Æsop answered the question addressed to Peyrolles. "I can tell you. The man you can neither find nor bind." Gonzague started. "Lagardere?" Æsop nodded. "Lagardere, whom I will give into your hands if you wish." Gonzague caught at his promise eagerly. "When?" he asked. "To-night, at the king's ball," Æsop answered.
After an interval, which the hunchback silently respected, Gonzague resumed: "If she were to find you here the princess might be, would be, pained; but if, indeed, you think you have any arguments that would serve to influence her mind, you could explain your presence as owing to ignorance due to the newness of your service here." Æsop nodded sagaciously. "I understand," he said. "Leave it to me.
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