Part 22 (1/2)
”May I ask what could have been the urgent business which kept you from the sacred duty of the burial of the dead?”
”A s.h.i.+p is expected every day, and I waited to get the letters of my superiors, with reference to further movements on my mission.”
”You say that Motier informed you about my death. Did he tell you how it had happened?”
”He said that you and he had fought, and that you had been killed.”
”Why, then, did you not denounce him to the authorities on your arrival here?”
”On what charge?”
”On the charge of murder.”
”I did not know that when one gentleman is unfortunate enough to kill another, in fair fight, that it can be considered murder. The duel is as lawful in America as in France.”
”This was not a duel!” cried Cazeneau. ”It was an act of a.s.sa.s.sination. Motier is no better than a murderer.”
”I only knew his own account,” said the priest.
”Besides,” continued Cazeneau, ”a duel can only take place between two equals; and this Motier is one of the _canaille_, one not worthy of my sword.”
”Yet, monsieur,” said the priest, ”when you arrested him first, it was not as one of the _canaille_, but as the son of the outlawed Count de Montresor.”
”True,” said Cazeneau; ”but I have reason to believe that he is merely some impostor. He is now under a different accusation. But one more point. How did Motier manage to escape?”
”As to that, monsieur, I always supposed that his escape was easy enough, and that he could have effected it at once. The farm-houses of the Acadians are not adapted to be very secure prisons. There were no bolts and bars, and no adequate watch.”
”True; but the most significant part of his escape is, that he had external a.s.sistance. Who were those Indians who led him on my trail?
How did he, a stranger, win them over?”
”You forget, monsieur, that this young man has lived all his life in America. I know that he has been much in the woods in New England, and has had much intercourse with the Indians there. It was, no doubt, very easy for him to enter into communication with Indians here. They are all alike.”
”But how could he have found them? He must have had them at the house, or else friends outside must have sent them.”
”He might have bribed the people of the house.”
”Impossible!”
”Monsieur does not mean to say that anything is impossible to one who has gold. Men of this age do anything for gold.”
Cazeneau was silent. To him this was so profoundly true that he had nothing to say. He sat in silence for a little while, and then continued:--
”I understand that at the time of the arrest of Motier, he was in the garden of the residence, with the Countess de Laborde, and that you were with them. How is this? Did this interview take place with your sanction or connivance?”
”I knew nothing about it. It was by the merest accident, as far as I know.”
”You did not help them in this way?”
”I did not.”