He was standing over Mayenne with outstretched hand, but the chief delayed taking it.
"Not quite so fast, my friend. If I yield up the Duc de St. Quentin, the Comte de Mar, and Mlle. Lorance de Montluc, I demand certain little concessions for myself."
"By all means, monsieur. You stamp us churls else."
My duke sat again, his smile a shade uneasy. Which Mayenne perceived with quiet enjoyment, as he went on blandly: "Nothing that I could ask of you, M. de St. Quentin, could equal, could halve, what I give. Still, that the knightliness may not be, to your mortification, all on one side, I have thought of something for you to grant."
"Name it, monsieur."
"Another point in your favour I had forgot," Mayenne observed, with his usual reluctance to show his cards even when the time had come to spread them. "Last night I laid on this table a packet, just arrived, which I was told belonged to you. When I had time to think of it again, it had vanished. I accused my lackeys, but later it occurred to me that Mlle. de Montluc, arming for battle, had purloined it."
"Your shrewdness does you credit."
"You see you have scored a fourth point, though again by no prowess of your own. Therefore am I emboldened to demand what I want."
"Even to half my fortune—"
"No, not your gear. Save that for your Béarnais's itching palm."