"If he came," said Cavalier, "he came under another guise, a mask; under another name. And it is long ago; you will never find him."
"I fear not."
"Moreover, even should you do so, of what avail to you, to him? Will Louis disgorge the de Rochebazon wealth, will the Church of Rome release one dernier of what she has clutched? Monsieur, you have flung your fortune away for a shadow, a chimera, since you yourself will never get it now. Better have taken it, have got back to your own land, have enjoyed it in peace."
"It would have been treachery to the dead--to her who believed in me and died deeming that I was a true child of her own faith. And," he added, "she was a good woman in spite of that faith."
Cavalier glanced at him, then shrugged his shoulders. Yet as he turned away he muttered:
"I begin to understand why your country is so great, so prosperous. Understand! if all Englishmen are like you."
That conversation was not to end thus, however, with a delicate compliment to Martin's honour, since, ere Cavalier had strode many paces from him, he came back and, taking a seat by his side in the great cavern where they then were, began to talk to him about the future hopes of the Protestant cause, in Languedoc especially. "We shall win," he said, "we shall win! What we want, which after all is not much for Louis to grant, we must have: Freedom to worship as we choose, freedom from paying taxes for a Church we have revolted from, freedom to come and go out of France as we desire. Let Louis grant that and I will place at his disposal so fine a regiment that none of his dragoons or chevaux-légers shall be our superiors. None! He shall say to me what he said to Jean Bart, the sailor."
"What did he say to him?"
"He sent for Jean Bart one day at Versailles, received him among all his grinning, shoulder-shrugging courtiers, and, looking on Jean and his rough, simple comrades, said, 'Bart, mon ami, you have done more for me than all my admirals.' And I love Bart for his reply when, casting his eyes round on all the admirals and captains who stood in the throng, he answered, 'Mon Dieu! je crois bien. Without doubt! That is, if these petits crevés are your admirals and captains.'"
Martin smiled at the little story, then he said: