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But there is for your pains, and to be quit of your company." And he tossed a silver coin at the Parisian. There was an exclamation of horror in the background, and Monsieur de Gaubert thrust himself forward. "Sir, sir," he exclaimed in an agitated voice, "you cannot know whom you are addressing. This is Monsieur Martin Marie Rigobert de Garnache, Mestre-de-Champ in the army of the King."
Gaubert could not be found, and it was feared that he would attempt some desperate deed. No one dared mention it to the king, but the captain of the guards and the first gentleman in waiting took every possible precaution; and when Louis XV asked for the young female who was to be brought to him, they told him that she had died of a violent distemper.
"That is an office that my friend can do for me," interposed Sanguinetti, and thereupon Courthon departed, to return presently with a borrowed weapon of the proper length. At last it seemed that they might proceed with the business upon which they were come; but Garnache was wrong in so supposing. A discussion now arose between Gaubert and Courthon as to the choice of spot.
Rabecque gripped him by the shoulder, and steadied him with a hand that hurt. "What do you say?" he gasped, his face white to the lips. Tressan halted, too, and turned upon Gaubert, a look of incredulity in his fat countenance. "Who has been killed?" he asked. "Not Monsieur de Garnache?" "Helas! yes," groaned the other. "It was a snare, a guet-apens to which they led us.
We shall have every scullion in Grenoble presently saying that we are afraid of one another. Besides which, sirs, I think I am taking cold." "I am quite of monsieur's mind, myself," drawled Sanguinetti. "You hear, sir," exclaimed Courthon, turning to Gaubert. "You can scarce persist in finding objections now." "Why, since all are satisfied, so be it," said Gaubert, with a shrug.
Gaubert examined him and declared to me that he was not. "You will save him, in fact," he said to me, "if you give him air, exercise, and rest."
"But... But... Are you sure that he is dead, monsieur?" inquired Rabecque; and his tone was one that implored contradiction. Gaubert looked and paused, seeming to give the matter a second's thought. "I saw him fall," said he. "It may be that he was no more than wounded." "And you left him there?" roared the servant. "You left him there?" Gaubert shrugged his shoulders.
Accordingly they set out, Sanguinetti and Courthon going first, and Garnache following with Gaubert; the rear being brought up by a regiment of rabble, idlers and citizens, that must have represented a very considerable proportion of the population of Grenoble. This audience heartened Garnache, to whom some measure of reflection had again returned.
Then Gaubert returned with a tale that you had been killed and that there was a disturbance in the Champs aux Capuchins. Monsieur de Tressan was here, as ill-luck would have it, and Gaubert implored him to send soldiers thither to quell the riot. He dispatched the escort. I sought in vain to stay them. He would not listen to me.
It was Gaubert who came to beg Garnache that he should follow the example they had set him in that respect. But Garnache shook his head. "The turf is sodden." "But it is precisely on that account, sir," protested Gaubert very earnestly. "In your boots you will be unable to stand firm; you will run the risk of slipping every time that you break ground."
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