Part 38 (1/2)

On the very day after the Panet doc.u.ments were added to the Record a visitor called upon the Marquis.

”The 25th of January,” records the latter in his journal, ”there entered my apartments, about half-past ten in the morning, a young man, wearing a sword and a hat with a white plume, his suit entirely of black knitcloth with tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs to match, of middle height, firmly built and well-looking, skin fine with plenty of colour, eye nearly black, soft and somewhat large, surmounted by a black eyebrow.”

”My name is Monsieur de la Louviere, Gendarme of the Guard,” he said. ”I come on the part of the Chevalier de Bailleul respecting the matter of Monsieur LeCour.”

”Be seated, sir,” replied the Marquis with interest, indicating a chair near his writing-desk, at which he himself sat down. ”Is this Lecour known to yourself?”

”I am a friend of his,” replied M. de la Louviere.

”Where is he now?”

”A week ago he was in England.”

”Have you not heard that he is an impostor?”

”I only know, sir, that he is a very unfortunate man, and that you, who have so interested yourself against him, have only to show him leniency and kindness and you would be surprised at his grat.i.tude. I carry the appeal of the Chevalier to you, desirous of seeing whether the trouble cannot be amicably arranged.”

”Tell the Chevalier de Bailleul, sir, that all who bear the name of Canadian have a claim upon my good nature, particularly any son of a servant once in my employ. I shall oppose him no further, provided he but at once replace himself in his own rank. I only, secondly, exact that the honour of Monsieur de Lery, as the nephew of Madame my wife, be completely cleared and sustained with his comrades and officers.” The Marquis here noticed that the Record was lying upon the table under the eyes of the stranger, but the latter continued the conversation.

”That can be done. But it ought to be so arranged as not to interfere with the standing, for the present, of Monsieur Lecour, because, Monsieur le Marquis, one of his protectors, the Duc de Liancourt, has arranged to bestow on him the commandancy of his cadet inst.i.tute in the provinces.”

”An infinitely better position for him than remaining in the company of Noailles,” remarked de Lotbiniere, removing the Record from the table, ”seeing the Bodyguards have caught the rumour of his birth.”

”But it is a part of the arrangement that he should stay in the Bodyguard eighteen months longer.”

”Why should such a person be so much considered? Monsieur de Lery has done nothing more than tell the exact truth, which is the duty of a man of honour when pressed by his superiors. He has been most properly avenged; I see nothing left to arrange.”

”But he would be still exposed to a challenge to fight.”

”His officers have forbidden him to fight with an inferior.”

”There remains the certainty of a caning.”

”What do you wish to be done?”

”That Monsieur de Lery should merely say off hand before his friends that what he had told of Monsieur Lecour was said at hazard.”

”Then, sir, tell the Chevalier de Bailleul that when I said I was willing to arrange that affair amicably I did not know that he would dare to propose that I commence by consenting to the formal and complete dishonour of Monsieur de Lery. Judge, now, whether a proposal of the sort could be made to me about the cousin-germain of my children?”

”Excuse me, Marquis, this was not exactly my meaning, nor that of Monsieur de Bailleul.”

”Inform Monsieur de Bailleul,” cried de Lotbiniere, ”that he must feel it impossible, and that all is finished and over by the orders given to each of them by their respective adjutants.”

”No, sir,” the stranger sternly cried, in reply, ”all is _not_ finished, for so unpardonable have been the offences of Monsieur de Lery towards Monsieur Lecour that _only one of them must live_.”

”Then let him kill Lecour instead of some one of his comrades, who would make life intolerable to him were he to show himself such a coward as you have proposed. Has he not proved a brave man to have fought so often, and with that fellow so below his dignity? As for me, knowing what I owe to myself, I should refuse most scrupulously to compromise myself with any one who was not of my station. Were I attacked in a street by such a man, I should defend my life with the greatest spirit; but never under the arrangements of an affair _en regle_. Such has always been my way of conduct, according to the truest principles of honour.”

”Of honour!” the stranger exclaimed sarcastically; ”and who taught de Lery to apply these principles to a fellow Bodyguard?”