"Which I beg most strenuously to urge," cried the cousin.
"Do not interrupt me, sir," said the King, sternly. "These two circumstances offer invincible obstacles to your immediate marriage, unless you can show some motive for my disregarding the objection of this gentleman, and for believing that you are influenced by no interested motive whatever, in the attachment you declare yourself to feel towards this young lady."
I paused, in order to be sure that the King had completely finished; but ere I could reply myself, Father Ferdinand advanced a little, and addressed the King.--"I believe, sire," he said, "that the first and strongest objection is, that a gentleman calling himself the nearest male relative of the late Duke de Villardin refuses his consent to the marriage of Monsieur de Juvigny with our ward Laura. That objection I can remove, by telling this gentleman that he is not the nearest male relative of the late Duke."
"Who, then, is?" demanded the other, fiercely.
"I am!" answered the priest, gazing sternly upon him. "I am Ferdinand de Villardin, the elder brother of the late Duke--he who, more than forty years ago, as you may have heard, young Sir, abjured the world--resigned his possessions and his rank--and, spreading abroad his own death, for twenty years buried himself in an Italian cloister. Of these facts, sire," he added, turning to the King, "I have already given you satisfactory proof; and I now declare, that the full consent of her father's nearest of kin is given to Laura de Villardin's union with him who was more than a son to her late parent."
"And in regard to my attachment to her being disinterested, sire," I added, "take from her all her possessions, and give me but herself--I ask no more."
"You think that it is impossible such a thing should happen, Monsieur de Juvigny," answered the monarch, gravely; "and, certainly, it is impossible that we should strip our subjects of their property; but it is not at all impossible that another claimant to this young lady's lands may appear, and we tell you fairly that such is the case. Not four days ago, it was clearly proved to us that Mademoiselle de Villardin has no claim whatever to one acre of her father's lands. What say you now?"
"They come not to me, my son," said Father Ferdinand, seeing my eyes turn toward* him. "My claim upon them has been null for years."
"What say you now?" repeated the King, gazing upon me with an expectant smile.
"That most thankfully--as the greatest boon that your Majesty can bestow," I answered, "as a reward for all my services, and as a tie of gratitude towards you for ever--I claim the hand of Laura de Villardin; and only thank Heaven, that no inequality of fortune can now make any one believe I seek her from aught but love."