"We will tell you the truth to be sure," replied one of the men. "What should we tell you a lie for? All that ought to be lied about you know already; so we can do no harm by telling you the truth, and may do our own throats harm by telling you a lie. Hundred thousand! Ask your questions, and you shall have truth."
It was in vain, however, that Charles of Montsoreau questioned the man sternly and strictly in regard to what had become of Marie de Clairvaut, and those who were with her. It was evident that he knew nothing. He admitted that they had driven the party of the Marquis beyond the carriage, and had passed it themselves in the eagerness of pursuit; but the sudden appearance of the armed burghers of La Ferté had caused them, he said, to retreat in great haste, and in separate parties. He and those who were with him had not taken the same road by which they came, and had seen nothing of the carriage.
This information, though so scanty, afforded Charles of Montsoreau a hope. "If the road," he exclaimed eagerly, "on which these men were captured, is not the same on which the carriage was left, it may still be there, and Mademoiselle de Clairvaut safe."
But his brother shook his head with an air of sullen grief and despair. "No!" he said, "No, the carriage is not there! I have been out myself to seek it, and have passed the spot. Not a trace of it was to be seen, and I only returned when I heard your trumpets, believing that you were bringing in your prize in triumph."
"You have learnt, Gaspar," said his brother, "I know not why or how, to do me sad injustice. However, it is the duty of both of us not to close an eye till we have discovered what has become of the young Lady whom you undertook to conduct in safety till she was under the protection of her relations."
"I see not how it is your duty, Charles," replied his brother, sharply. "I, as you say, undertook to conduct her, and therefore it is my duty; but you, it seems to me, have nothing to do with it."
"It is my duty, Gaspar," replied his brother, "as a gentleman, and as a man of honour; and it is also my duty as an attached friend of the Duke of Guise; so that I shall seek for her this very instant. Let us both to horse again; let us obtain guides who know the country well. You take one circuit, I will take another; and as there is now no farther fear of any attack from the reiters, we can suffer the greater part of our men to repose, and meeting here in the morning, report to each other what we have done, and concert together what steps are farther to be taken.--And oh, Gaspar," he continued, "let us, I beseech you, let us act together in a brotherly spirit; do justice to my motives and intentions, for they have been all what is kind and brotherly towards yourself."
"Doubtless," said the Marquis of Montsoreau, with one of those bitter sneers, which the determination of persisting in wrong too often supplies to the uncandid and ungenerous: "doubtless your motives and intentions were good and brotherly, when the first thing that you did after learning from the Abbé de Boisguerin my feelings, wishes, and hopes, was instantly to seek the Duke of Guise for the purpose of prepossessing him in your favour, and against my suit."
"In this, as in all else, you do me wrong, Gaspar," replied his brother; "and so you will find it when you see the Duke: but I cannot pause to explain all this. We lose time, precious and invaluable.--Gondrin, call out ten of our freshest and best mounted men. Let surgeons be obtained immediately to dress the wounds of the hurt, and tell Alain and Mortier to provide for the comfort and refreshment of the rest, according to the orders I gave them as we came along. Take this German with us, as a sure guide to show us the spot where the carriage was last seen. If I might advise you, Gaspar, you will go round under Jouarre, and stretch out till you reach Montreuil. The carriage cannot have passed the Marne except by this bridge, so that----"
"I shall follow my own plan, Charles of Montsoreau," said the Marquis sullenly; "I want not an instructor as well as a rival in my younger brother." And thus saying, he turned away to give his own orders to some of those who surrounded him.