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Then, among the roses at Lavedan, in your dear company, Roxalanne, it seemed that some of the good, some of the sweetness, some of the purity about you were infused anew into my heart. I became young again, and I seemed oddly cleansed. In that hour of my rejuvenation I loved you, Roxalanne." Her face had been raised to mine as I spoke.
"To desire you to withdraw your men and quit Lavedan at once, abandoning the execution of your warrant." He flashed me a look of impotent hate. "You know of the existence of my warrant, Monsieur de Bardelys, and you must therefore realize that a royal mandate alone can exempt me from delivering Monsieur de Lavedan to the Keeper of the Seals."
If it were indeed Lavedan, I had but to announce myself, and to one of my name surely its hospitalities would be spread. If it were some other household, even then the name of Marcel de Bardelys should suffice to ensure me a welcome. By spurring and coaxing, I lured my steed into the river. There is a proverb having it that though you may lead a horse to the water you cannot make him drink.
I lay back on my pillows, and I groaned. Here was a predicament! Mistaking me for that miserable rebel I had succoured at Mirepoix, and whose letters I bore upon me that I might restore them to some one whose name he had failed to give me at the last moment, the Vicomte de Lavedan had poured the damning story of his treason into my ears. What if I were now to enlighten him?
"And now, Chatellerault having failed in his purpose, the King chooses a more dangerous person for the gratifying of his desires. He sends the Marquis, Marcel de Bardelys to Lavedan on the same business.
Lavedan had married her and brought her into Languedoc, and here she spent her years lamenting the scenes of her youth, and prone, it would seem, to make them matter for conversation whenever a newcomer chanced to present himself at the chateau. Looking from her to her daughter, I thanked Heaven that Roxalanne was no reproduction of the mother.
He was a very constant visitor at Lavedan, and the reason of it was not far to seek. For my own part, I disliked him I had done so from the moment when first I had set eyes on him and since hatred, like affection, is often a matter of reciprocity, the Chevalier was not slow to return my dislike.
Who told the Keeper of the Seals where you were to be found?" "Oh, that?" I answered easily. "Why, I never doubted it. It was the coxcomb Saint-Eustache. I whipped him " I stopped short. There was something in Marsac's black face, something in his glance, that forced the unspoken truth upon my mind. "Mother in heaven!" I cried. "Do you mean that it was Mademoiselle de Lavedan?"
On the occasion of my first visit to Lavedan I had disregarded or, rather, Fate had contrived that I should disregard Chatellerault's suggestion that I should go with all the panoply of power with my followers, my liveries, and my equipages to compose the magnificence all France had come to associate with my name, and thus dazzle by my brilliant lustre the lady I was come to win.
As Rene de Lesperon, of Lesperon in Gascony, I was arrested last night at Lavedan, and, as you may observe, I am being taken to Toulouse to stand the charge of high treason. I have not demurred; I have not denied in the hour of trouble the identity that served me in my hour of need.
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