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As I rode out towards the chateau I fell to thinking, and my thoughts turning to Vilmorin, I marvelled at the part he was playing in this little comedy of a cabal against Andrea de Mancini. His tastes and instincts were of the boudoir, the ante-chamber, and the table. He wore a sword because it was so ordained by fashion, and because the hilt was convenient for the display of a jewel or two.
Henry de Vilmorin had the kindness to send me some of these plants, and they have flowered in my garden during several years. The anomaly is highly variable. Some flowers are quite normal, exhibiting no sign of connation; others are wholly gamopetalous, the four petals being united from their base to the very margin of the cup formed.
I come as the legal representative of the bereaved mother of M. de Vilmorin to demand of you the inquiry that is due." The door behind Andre-Louis opened softly. M. de Lesdiguieres, pale with anger, contained himself with difficulty. "You seek to compel us, do you, you impudent rascal?" he growled. "You think the King's justice is to be driven headlong by the voice of any impudent roturier?
As I set my arm about her waist to support her, my heart seemed to swell within me, and strange melodies shaped themselves within my soul. St. Auban bore down upon me with a raucous oath, but the glittering point of my rapier danced before his eyes and drove him back again. "To me, Vilmorin, you cowardly cur!" he shouted. "To me, you dogs!"
And so back to my room I went, my task accomplished, and so pleased was I with what had passed that as I drew on my boots preparing to set out to Canaples I laughed softly to myself. St. Auban I would dispose of in the morning. As for the other members of the cabal, I deemed neither Vilmorin nor Malpertuis sufficiently formidable to inspire uneasiness. St. Auban gone, they too would vanish.
M. de Vilmorin swept on, passionately: "Sometimes I think that you have no heart. With you it is always the law, never equity. It occurs to me, Andre, that I was mistaken in coming to you. You are not likely to be of assistance to me in my interview with M. de Kercadiou." He took up his hat, clearly with the intention of departing. Andre-Louis sprang up and caught him by the arm.
Again I felt the blade thrust in, lower down and driven deeper; then, as the knife was for the second time withdrawn, and my flesh sucked at the steel, the pain of it sending a shudder through me, the instinct of preservation overcame the sweet lust to strangle Vilmorin. I let him go and, staggering to my feet, I turned to face those murderers who struck a defenceless man behind.
When I tell you that for months past I have been annoyed by similar depredations, you will perhaps understand that it had become necessary to employ a deterrent sufficiently strong to put an end to them. Now that the risk is known, I do not think there will be any more prowling in my coverts. And there is more in it than that, M. de Vilmorin.
"I am here, Messieurs," I answered, throwing wide the door, and appearing, grim and arrogant, upon the threshold. Mort de ma vie! Had they beheld the Devil, St. Auban and Vilmorin could not have looked less pleased than they did when their eyes lighted upon me, standing there surveying them with a sardonic grin. St.
"In its results. But it might have been far other. Mirabeau is challenged and insulted now at every sitting. But he goes his way, cold-bloodedly wise. Others are not so circumspect; they meet insult with insult, blow with blow, and blood is being shed in private duels. The thing is reduced by these swordsmen of the nobility to a system." Andre-Louis nodded. He was thinking of Philippe de Vilmorin.
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