Navailles touched Nocé on the shoulder. "Let the dog have his day."
The hunchback was again at the side of Gabrielle, still indulging in extravagant antics of gesticulation, speaking softly the while. "Gabrielle, they think me dead, but I live and hope to save you. But we face danger, dear, but we face death, and must be wary. Will you do whatever I tell you to do?"
"Yes," Gabrielle answered.
The hunchback went on: "God knows how this night will end. I have told them that I can make you love me."
Almost Gabrielle smiled. "You have told them the truth."
The hunchback continued: "I have told them that I can persuade you to marry me."
Gabrielle said again: "You have told them the truth."
The hunchback sighed. He was still cutting his strange capers, waving his extended fingers over the girl’s head and making grotesque genuflections, but he spoke, and his voice was full of passion and his voice was full of pain as he whispered: "Gabrielle, Gabrielle, I have always loved you, shall always love you. But you must not love me, that would never do. Nevers’s daughter cannot, may not, love the soldier of fortune."
"Yet you ask me to marry you?" Gabrielle said.
The hunchback answered: "To save you from Gonzague. You would have died to-night but for this mad plan of mine. Once you are safe, you can easily be set free from me."