"I do not know, monsieur le marquis, whether you have also been told that I have been stripped clean by that miserable Giovanni, that Italian brigand, who terrorizes all Paris?"
"Yes, I have heard of that. But how did you allow yourself to be robbed by that man?"
"I venture to believe that my father has no doubt that if I was overcome it was not without a vigorous resistance on my part."
"Oh! I do justice to your courage; you would not be my son if you were a coward!"
"It was late at night, about a fortnight ago. I was returning home alone and was passing through Rue Couture-Sainte-Catherine. Suddenly this Giovanni appeared before me, and demanded my purse as courteously as if he were inquiring for my health. The robber seemed to me such an original character that I talked with him a few minutes. But when he repeated his demand, I drew my sword. He had some sort of a short, broad weapon. Practised as I am in fighting, that devil of a man dealt me a thrust,—I do not know how to describe it,—and I was beaten. I felt the point of his sword against my breast; but he was content to take my purse, and disappeared as he had come, without giving me time to see which way he went."
"If I were lieutenant of police of this realm, that adroit thief would have been hanged before this.—However, monsieur, this Giovanni did not rob you of five thousand pistoles, I imagine?"
"No; but I had a considerable sum upon me——"
"Which you had won in some hell, I doubt not.—But let us have done, for the subject of this interview is a painful one to both of us. Here, Léodgard, are papers containing a statement of the amount of your debts; here are your obligations to the Jews who are ruining you; here are your receipts for various sums lent you at exorbitant rates, with a view, doubtless, to my death, which does not come quickly enough to supply you with another fortune to squander."
"Ah! monsieur le marquis——"
"All these papers cost me fifty thousand livres; but I paid it, to save once more your honor, so seriously compromised."