"Where is Tetrik?"
"He awaits your orders in the next room, I presume, with Captain Marion. What are your orders?"
"I wish them both to come in, immediately."
"In this chamber of death?"
"Yes, in this chamber of death. Yes, here, Schanvoch, before the inanimate remains of your wife, my son and his child. If it was that man who wove this dark and horrible plot, then, even if he were a demon of hypocrisy and bloodthirstiness, he can not choose but betray himself at the sight of his victims—at the sight of a mother between the corpses of her son and grandson; at the sight of a husband beside the corpse of his wife. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them in! Then also, we must at all cost find that unknown soldier, your traveling companion!"
"I have thought of that—" and struck with a sudden thought, I added: "It was Captain Marion who chose the rider that was to escort me."
"We shall question the captain. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them in!"
I obeyed Victoria and called in Tetrik and Marion. Both hastened to answer to the summons.
Despite the grief that rent my heart I had the fortitude to watch attentively the face of the Governor of Gascony. The moment he stepped into the room, the first object he seemed to notice was the corpse of Victorin. Tetrik's features immediately assumed the appearance of unspeakable anguish; tears flowed copiously down his cheeks; clasping his hands he dropped on his knees near the body and cried in a voice that seemed rent with grief:
"Dead at the prime of his age—dead—he, so brave—so generous! The hope, the strong sword of Gaul. Ah! I forget the foibles of this unhappy youth before the frightful misfortune that has befallen my country!"