“In the same state, monseigneur.”
“Quick, quick, Laramée, throw a mantle over my shoulders, and I will walk on your legs and the legs of this boy, for my own will not support me yet.” Luquin took the armchair on one side, and Laramée took the other, and they transported the baron into the large chamber where Erebus was lying. At the door of this chamber they found Peyrou, the watchman, who anxiously awaited news from his old captain.
The face of Erebus already gave signs of approaching death. His features, once so clear, so beautiful, so serene, were painfully contorted. He was pale with the pallor of the dying. His eyes shone with a brilliancy all the more intense because it was so soon to be eclipsed in death. His wound was mortal, and no place was left for hope.
Pierre des Anbiez, wearing the same clothes he wore on the day of the fatal encounter, was seated on the foot of his son’s bed, absolutely motionless, his head bowed on his breast, his hands on his knees, his gaze fixed upon the floor; since the day before he had kept this position.
Father Elzear, seated by the pillow of Erebus, leaned over him, lifted the poor young man’s heavy head, and pressed it tenderly to his breast.
Raimond V. made his bearers place him near the bed. Luquin and Laramée retired.
“God will forgive me, will he not, good priest?” said Erebus, in a feeble voice, to Father Elzear. “He will have pity on my ignorance, and look only at my zeal. Alas! I have known the true faith but two-days.”
“Hope, hope in his infinite compassion, my child, you are a Christian now. Two days of repentance and faith will atone for many sins. It is the fervour and not the length of the repentance which touches the Lord.”
“Oh, I would die with one hope more, if my father could forgive me also,” said Erebus, bitterly. Then he cried, in a frenzy, “Oh, a curse on Pog-Reis! Oh, why did he make me believe, as he showed me these portraits, that my father had been the murderer of my mother and of my family? Oh, how he excited all my bad passions! Alas! I believed him, because he who had always been so cruel wept, yes, he wept, as he pressed me to his heart and asked my forgiveness for all the evil he had done me. Then, seeing this implacable man weep as he embraced me, I believed him. I hoped the combat would be fatal to me. I knew Reine des Anbiez would be returned in safety to her father, hence I was able to die. And you—you—her father, will you forgive me, too?” added Erebus, addressing Raimond V.
“Poor child, did you not save my life in the rocks of Ollioules? Although my daughter was in your power, did you not respect her and defend her? And are you not the son of my brother, after all? the son of a guilty love, of course, but, Manjour! you are of the family.” “Raimond—Raimond!” said Father Elzear to his brother, softly, in a tone of reproach.