"Monseigneur!"
"I know that you found D'Argenson there, and that he read your sentence."
"Mon Dieu!"
"I know that you are condemned to death, and that you were bound not to speak of it to any one."
"Oh, monseigneur, silence! One word of this would kill Helene."
"Be easy, monsieur; but let us see; is there no way of avoiding this execution?"
"Days would be necessary to prepare and execute a plan of escape, and I scarcely have hours."
"I do not speak of escape; I ask if you have no excuse to give for your crime?"
"My crime!" cried Gaston, astonished to hear his accomplice use such a word.
"Yes," replied the duke: "you know that men stigmatize murder with this name under all circumstances; but posterity often judges differently, and sometimes calls it a grand deed."