"It is useless, Monsieur le Baron," replied one of the lawyers; "after this solemn protest in due and legal form, no act that you can do in this matter is lawful until the Parliament shall have considered the matter to render justice therein."
"But I shall take care to render justice to myself," exclaimed Monsieur de Blaye, advancing towards me furiously: "We all know that you lawyers love to see all things plunged into the quagmire of the courts, round the edges of which you toads sit and croak at leisure; but gentlemen have a shorter means of settling such transactions, and to such, Monsieur de Cerons, do I appeal. Nor, sir, must there be delay of any kind. Tomorrow I depart from Paris; the rest of this day is our own."
"Oh! no, no!" cried the voice of Louise, while, with her arms extended towards me as if for protection, she ran forward.
But, ere she reached me, she fell fainting on the ground, and the marchioness, with other ladies present, prevented my approach. All was now a scene of confusion; the gentlemen of the party came forward, each talking, each offering his opinion, towards the spot where De Blaye and myself stood face to face, and the baron seemed divided between us and his daughter, for whom I saw that he was not without feeling, though he struggled not to show it.
In the midst of this Babel, however, the clear, fine-toned voice of the prince dauphin suddenly made itself heard, saying,
"Your pardon, gentlemen, your pardon! I have one word to say; but that one word is an important one, which must settle all this matter between my excellent good acquaintance Monsieur de Blaye and my friend Monsieur de Cerons."
All were instantly silent except De Blaye himself, who repeated more than once, in a tone of authority, to keep silence, and let the prince speak. When he stopped and bowed, D'Auvergne went on: "What I have to say, De Cerons, is, that you will be good enough to remember you are my father's prisoner, and therefore can lie under a challenge from no man. Monsieur de Blaye, I must call upon you to retract your challenge, as no man of honour can offer one to a gentleman incapable of accepting it."
De Blaye, who was both really enraged and really brave, blustered a good deal at this notification, and said something rather offensive to the prince about his father the duke being afraid of losing my ransom. D'Auvergne answered coolly, however, saying, "That is not his fear or mine, Monsieur de Blaye; but our fear might well be that the Catholic army might lose a very tolerable soldier and brave young gentleman in yourself; because, as we all know, Monsieur de Cerons would kill you like a rat. Come, De Cerons, I must beg you to accompany me."
If the first part of the prince's speech had pleased Monsieur de Blaye, and made him simper and look modest, the unpleasant simile in the latter part caused him to swell and colour with anger. But D'Auvergne took no farther notice; the fact of my not being at liberty was without reply, and, after one look to my poor Louise, I quitted the room. Martin Vern was at the door, and to him the prince whispered a word as we passed. The merchant made a low inclination of the head, and, mounting our horses, we rode away.