“Monsieur,” I said to the marquis, who had stood a silent spectator of the scene, and still speaking in the same level tones, “if you are ready to accompany us, we will set out.”
“I am at your service,” he answered, taking a cloak from a chair in one corner of the room and wrapping himself in its folds. Then he advanced to the ladies to make his adieux.
“Farewell, madam,” he said, bowing with courtly grace to my lady, and raising her hand to his lips.
“M. de Launay,” she replied, “I can find no words to apologise for the insult offered you in this house.”
“Madame,” the marquis answered gallantly, “I beg that you will banish the episode from your memory.”
“That is impossible,” she said quickly. “That guest of ours should be so served, and to be powerless to prevent it! But say, rather, au revoir, monsieur,” she continued, with kindling eyes, “for I, too, shall ride to Exeter to-morrow, and will myself interview Sir Richard Danvers on your behalf! We shall see whether the name of Ingram does not still possess weight sufficient to annul this outrage and to punish the perpetrators!” And she shot a scornful glance in my direction.
“Very good, madam,” I answered, “only in that case I shall ride with you. I have no desire,” I continued with a sneer, “that my Lord Danvers should hear anything but the truth.”
“Then I pray you keep behind me, sir!” she replied haughtily. “I would not have you taken for lackey of mine!”
I made no reply to this. What reply could I make? Instead, I gave a sharp order and the troopers fell into place, the marquis in their midst. They filed through the open doorway with the clank of steel, and the tramp of their footsteps died away down the hall. I waited until the last one had left the room and then prepared to follow.
Once as I crossed the threshold I looked back, and the light fell upon the tall figure of my lady, her sister at her side, then the door closed upon the room and its inmates, and passing quickly through the hall, in which a little crowd of scared servants had gathered, I went out into the night. Outside, at the foot of the steps leading to the main entrance, I found the troopers waiting, the light from the open doorway shining upon their horses, my own amongst the number.