Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 1, 2025
Aye be you never so noble and high-principled I make bold to say that you had done no less, for the voice that penetrated to my ears was that of Roxalanne de Lavedan. "I sought an audience with the King," she was saying, "but I could not gain his presence. They told me that he was holding no levees, and that he refused to see any one not introduced by one of those having the private entree."
When I was dead for I had little hope of Castelroux's efforts it would matter less, and perhaps because I was dead she would be merciful. "I cannot, Roxalanne. Not even now. It is too vile! If if they carry out the sentence on Monday, I shall leave a letter for you, telling you everything." She shuddered, and a sob escaped her.
"A lady?" I exclaimed, and the thought of Roxalanne flitted through my mind. "Mademoiselle de Lavedan?" I inquired. He nodded. "Yes," said he; then added, "She seems in sore affliction, monsieur." I besought him to admit her forthwith, and presently she came. Castelroux closed the door as he withdrew, and we were left alone together.
And with that I gave her the whole details of the affair, including the information that Chatellerault had been no party to my release, and that for his attempted judicial murder of me the King would have dealt very hardly with him had he not saved the King the trouble by throwing himself upon his sword: There was a silence when I had done. Roxalanne sat on, and seemed to ponder.
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.
A courier, arriving from an old friend of mine at Court, bore me a letter with the information that Monsieur de Chatellerault was come to Lavedan at the King's instigation to sue for my daughter's hand in marriage. The reasons were not far to seek. The King, who loves him, would enrich him; the easiest way is by a wealthy alliance, and Roxalanne is accounted an heiress.
She denied me, and in denying me she denied herself, for that she had loved me she had herself told me, and that she could love me again I was assured, if she would but see the thing in the light of reason and of justice. "Roxalanne, I did not come to Lavedan to say 'Good-bye' to you. I seek from you a welcome, not a dismissal." "Yet my dismissal is all that I can give. Will you not take my hand?
From the first moment that I had beheld Roxalanne I had realized the truth of Chatellerault's assertion that I had never known a woman. He was right. Those that I had met and by whom I had judged the sex had, by contrast with this child, little claim to the title.
He was standing erect, his head thrown back, his right arm outstretched from the shoulder, and his hand resting lightly upon the gold mount of his beribboned cane. He let his eyes wander from me to Roxalanne, then back again to me. At last: "Is it wonderful that I should drag in the name of your betrothed?" said he.
Rude, untutored minds may fall a prey to passion, but a gentleman, I hold, is never angry. Nor was I then, so far as the outward signs of anger count. I doffed my hat with a sweep to Roxalanne, who stood by with fear and wonder blending in her glance. "Mademoiselle, you will forgive that I find it necessary to birch this babbling schoolboy in your presence."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking