“She told me only that it had been done at her request and that she wished it. She bade me good-by at her carriage window, and said that you would explain it all to me.”
“And so I shall,” said the regent. “You would wish to do what my daughter desires you to do, would you not, mademoiselle, and what you knew would make her happier?”
“Oh, M. le Duc, can you ask?”
“No, I do not need to ask,” and the regent smiled into her anxious face. “Only, before beginning, I wish to assure you, mademoiselle, that that which follows is really what my daughter does wish, and what will, I am certain, truly make her happier. You will believe this, mademoiselle?”
“I will try to do so,” and Louise looked at him wonderingly. Evidently she, also, was not acquainted with this man of kindly face and tender voice.
“Sit down, then, mademoiselle,” he said, “and you also, M. de Brancas. What I have to say will take some time and I do not wish to weary you.”
We did as he bade, and I gazed at Louise with all my love in my eyes, but she did not vouchsafe me a glance.
“We must commence first with M. de Brancas,” and the regent picked up some papers which were lying on the table at his elbow. “I pray neither of you to interrupt me until I have finished. This paper which I hold in my hand is the report of the Marquis d’Ancenis, captain of the guards. It informs me that among the gentlemen who were found in the salon of Madame du Maine on the night of the discovery of the plot was a certain M. Jean de Brancas. It adds that there can be no possible doubt of his complicity in the plot, that he had been aware of all its details for several days, that he was present at a conference between Mlle. de Launay and Prince Cellamare, that on that occasion he resisted and dangerously wounded one of M. Hérault’s agents, that he subsequently caused to be delivered to M. Hérault a number of spurious papers for the purpose of misleading him, and that he has, in a word, been guilty of treason.”
“But, M. le Duc——” protested Mlle. Dacour. The regent stopped her with a gesture.
“M. de Brancas has, then, been guilty of the gravest crime which can be charged against a subject of France,” he continued. “All persons who conspire against the kingdom must be punished. To this there can be no exception. All of the other conspirators have been imprisoned. M. de Brancas must therefore be imprisoned. Some of the other conspirators must lose their heads. M. de Brancas’s further punishment has also to be considered.”