"Gentlemen," she said, "you bear honorable names, you wear honorable swords. Gentlemen, the daughter of Nevers appeals to you to protect her from insult."
Even Gonzague’s band, hardened by the influence of long association with their master, could not hear that appeal unmoved, though no man among them made any motion of responding to it.
Chavernay, however, rested his hand lightly upon his sword-hilt. "Rely on me," he said, boldly.
Gonzague looked at him contemptuously. "No heroics, sir. The lady is free to choose between the husband I offer and the law that chastises impostors." He turned to the hunchback, who stood near him. "I fear your love affair goes ill, Æsop."
The hunchback did not seem at all disheartened. "It will go better when I take it in hand myself. Let me speak to the lady alone."
Flora fiercely protested: "No, no, no!"
But Gonzague turned to her with a look so menacing that even her courage quailed before it. "For your friend’s sake, be quiet, Mademoiselle de Nevers," he said. Taking Flora by the hand, he drew her, partly by main force and partly by strength of his dominating influence, away from Gabrielle. Then he turned to his friends. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "our good Æsop desires to speak to the lady of his love in private. We are all, I am sure, too sympathetic with his amorous ambition to interfere with his wishes. Let him ply his wooing untroubled. Stand apart, please, and give Æsop a fair field."
Wondering, laughing, whispering, Gonzague’s guests drew back and ranged themselves against the golden doors, and Gabrielle was left standing alone in the middle of the room. The hunchback caught up a chair and carried it to where she stood, making a gesture which requested her to be seated.
Gabrielle looked at him scornfully. "I have nothing to say to you. I trust to the justice of France."
The hunchback spoke to her in a low voice, so evenly calculated that every syllable of what he said was clear to the girl’s ears, though no syllable reached the others: "Do not start; do not show surprise."