‘So,’ he exclaimed, slowly rereading the letter, and dwelling on parts of it with a bitter emphasis, ‘you are determined not to outlive the night, and would have some of the subtle poison of which you have heard me speak. No, fair lady; we must not part so soon. Now begins my triumph!’
And with these words he resumed his hat and mantle; and leaving orders that Lachaussée, should he return, was to await him in the house, he entered a fiacre, and drove to the Hôtel d’Aubray, the residence of the Marchioness, in the Rue Neuve St. Paul, not far from the Bastille.
His road lay across the Pont de la Tournelle, which connected the Ile St. Louis with the Quartier des Bernardins. The fiacre was lumbering along this route when Gaudin was startled from his moody reflections by its sudden stoppage. Looking out to ascertain its cause, he saw that they were in the Rue des Deux Ponts, and his horses entangled with those belonging to another carriage, escorted by two armed lackeys, whose altercation with the driver of the fiacre was not so loud but that, from the interior of the vehicle which they guarded, Sainte-Croix could hear a mingled sound of oaths, shrieks, and remonstrances, in a woman’s voice. Gaudin would have heeded this little, had it not been for the stoppage, which, excited as he was, chafed him beyond his usual coolness. Springing out of the fiacre, he found himself, almost before he knew it, crossing swords with the two lackeys, one of whom he slightly wounded; the other, hotly pressed, sheltered himself by running behind the carriage, calling loudly for help.
One of the carriage windows was now suddenly broken from within, and he could see that its occupants were struggling; the one for escape, the other to prevent it; whilst the shouts of au secours! grew louder and louder. Sainte-Croix abandoned his pursuit of the servant, and was proceeding to open the door of the carriage, when it was suddenly forced from within, and a woman, young, beautiful, and richly dressed, half-fell, half-sprang into his arms.
‘Marotte Dupré!’
‘Gaudin de Sainte-Croix!’
The exclamations were uttered at the same instant.
‘Save me, as you are a gentleman!’ cried the girl; at the moment she was seized by a person masked, who leapt after her into the street.
‘A moi! monsieur,’ cried Sainte-Croix, still holding the girl, and presenting his drawn sword to her companion.
The male occupant of the carriage burst into a loud laugh, and pulling off his mask, discovered the features of the Marquis of Brinvilliers!