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Updated: July 16, 2025
Now, as Saldagno was the name of one of the swordsmen who had met at the Inn in menace of Nevers, Lagardere came to the swift conclusion that the two shadows now haunting him had something to do with that conspiracy, and that, if it were possible, it would be as well to learn their purposes.
Cocardasse and Passepoil fell apart, each with the same cry in the same amazed voice. "Lagardere!" said Cocardasse, and his ruddy face paled. "Lagardere!" said Passepoil, and his pale face flushed. As for Lagardere, he laughed heartily at their confusion. "You are like scared children whose nurse hears bogey in the chimney." Cocardasse strove to seem amused.
There are but nine rascals." But the laugh died away upon his lips when the page hurriedly interrupted: "Twenty at least." Lagardere was staggered but emphatic. "Nine, duke, nine. I saw them, counted them, know them." The page was equally emphatic. "They have got help since you came. There are smugglers hereabouts, and they have recruited their ranks from them." Lagardere grunted.
How if this visit to Paris were to change our fortunes?" Gabrielle looked at him curiously. "Why have we come to Paris, Henri? I thought there was danger in Paris?" "There was danger in Paris," Lagardere said, slowly "grave danger. But I have seen a great man, and the danger has vanished, and you and I are coming to the end of our pilgrimage." "The end of our pilgrimage?" echoed Gabrielle.
He was about to enter the Inn, when he suddenly stopped and looked back sharply over the Neuilly road. To his surprise he saw that the light-heeled fop who had accompanied the king was retracing his steps in the direction of the bridge. Lagardere asked himself what this could mean. Did the king suspect him? Was he sending this delicate courtier to question him, to spy upon him?
Lagardere beat them back, cut them down, and swept through their reeling line to the spot where Nevers was lying. "I am here!" he shouted, and faced the masked shadow. "Murderer, you hide your face, but you shall bear my mark, that I may know you when we meet again." The slayer of Nevers had stood on guard by the side of his victim when Lagardere came towards him.
Lagardere followed his example in an instant, and the pair now carried the war into the enemies' country, charging the staggered assassins, who scattered before them. Lagardere drove some half a dozen of the rogues, including Staupitz and the discomfited Æsop, towards the bridge.
Lagardere looked at her thoughtfully. "Could you love such a man as he?" he asked, gravely. "He is young, he is brave, he is witty; he might well win a girl's heart." Gabrielle returned Lagardere's earnest look with a look of surprise. "He is a noble. I am a poor girl." Lagardere smiled wistfully. "How if you were no longer to be a poor girl, Gabrielle?
Now Staupitz, Cocardasse, and Passepoil went in their turn through the main door and drew it behind them. Lagardere seated himself at the table with a sigh of relief as he heard the heavy feet trampling down the passage, but his relief did not last long. His quick ears caught a sound that was undoubtedly the click of a key in a lock, followed by the shuffle of cautiously retiring feet.
The king spoke, decisively: "If the attack has been secret, the justification shall be public." Gonzague addressed Lagardere: "Where is the woman who calls herself the daughter of Louis de Nevers?" The king also questioned: "Why is she not with you?"
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