Yet all would be for nothing--his father's tribulations, his own repudiation of the wealth his aunt had amassed for him--all would be worth nothing if now he stood here before this man and, hearing the cause reviled for which both father and son had sacrificed so much, held his peace like a coward.
The time had come.
"Your Excellency," he said quietly, "stigmatizes Protestants as accursed; also as the king's enemies. Well, as to being accursed I know not; it may be even as you say. But I do know that I am no enemy of King Louis. Yet--I am a Protestant."
"You!" Baville exclaimed, taking a step back in sheer astonishment. "You! Yet a kinsman by marriage of the de Rochebazons. It is impossible."
"Nevertheless it is true."
Baville shrugged his shoulders, then suddenly turning round on him, he said:
"Your sympathies, then, are with these rebels here. You approve, perhaps, of what you saw on the bridge at Montvert two nights ago. Are here, it may be, to foment further troubles."
"You mistake. I utterly disapprove of what I saw. Would indeed have saved the priest had it been in my power. It is not by cruelty that wrongs are righted."
"In Heaven's name, then, if these are your sentiments what makes you a Protestant?"
"Conviction. As conviction made that de Rochebazon a Protestant whom I am here to find some traces of, alive or dead."