"So he was a peddler?" said the marquis.
"Or a gentleman in disguise," Mercedes replied; "for his wife wore the clothing of a lady under her cloak, and when we undressed him to lay him out, we found a shirt of fine linen and silk short clothes under his coarser garments. His hands were white, and we also found upon him a seal on which there was a crest."
"Show me the seal!" cried Bois-Doré deeply moved.
The Moor shook her head, saying:
"I haven't it."
"This woman distrusts us," rejoined the marquis, addressing Lucilio, "and yet this story interests me more than she thinks! Who knows that—Come, my dear friend, try to make her tell us at least the precise date of this adventure she is describing."
Lucilio motioned to the marquis to question the child, who answered without hesitation:
"I was born an hour after my father's death and an hour before the death of good King Henri the Fourth of France. That is what Monsieur l'Abbé Anjorrant, who took care of me, told me, bidding me never forget it, and my mother Mercedes said I might tell you, on condition that the Spaniard shall not know it."
"Why?" said Adamas.
"I do not know," replied Mario.